How to resolve \multirow{2}{*}{\cite{Smith1882}} inserting an unwanted space when using the cite package?

Question

Using \multirow{2}{*}{\cite{Smith1882}} in conjunction with the cite package \usepackage{cite} results in an unwanted space. A minimal working example gives:

LaTeX file:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{cite}
\usepackage{multirow}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|l|}
\hline
a & b & c & \multirow{2}{*}{\cite{Smith1882}} \\
d & e & f & \\
\hline
g & h & i & \cite{Smith1882} \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\bibliographystyle{siam}
\bibliography{temp}

\end{document}

BibTeX file:

@ARTICLE{Smith1882,
  author = {John Smith},
  title = {I'm {J}ohn {S}mith},
  year = {1882}
}

Removing the cite package gets rid of the problem, but obviously means I can't use the cite package.

Question: How do I resolve this problem?

I tried changing it to &\multirow{2}{*}{\cite{Smith1882}}, and I tried adding in unnecessary brackets \multirow{2}{*}{{}\cite{Smith1882}}, but these didn't work.

Answer 1

The cite package automatically inserts a space before the \cite command. This can be seen in X\cite{Smith1882}X. Apparently, the package fails to detect that the space should not be inserted in the \multirow context.

You could load cite with the noadjust option, but that will disable the feature everywhere. Alternatively, you can temporarily turn it off with

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{cite}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@ARTICLE{Smith1882,
  author = {John Smith},
  title = {I'm {J}ohn {S}mith},
  year = {1882}
}
\end{filecontents}

\makeatletter
\def\citenoadjust{\let\cite@adjust\@empty}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|l|}
\hline
a & b & c & \multirow{2}{*}{\citenoadjust\cite{Smith1882}} \\
d & e & f & \\
\hline
g & h & i & \cite{Smith1882} \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
a\cite{Smith1882}b
\bibliographystyle{siam}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\end{document}