Remove space between book title and publisher in IEEEtranSN bibliography

Question

I am using natbib and bibtex and the bibliography style IEEEtranSN. When using the book bibliography entry, there seems to be some extra space inserted between the title of the book and the publisher. Is there a way to remove this extra space?

In my document, I'm using the font \usepackage{newtxtext} and this is what is looks like:

MWE

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{report}
\usepackage[round]{natbib} 
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{newtxtext}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{examplebook,
  author = {Author, A.},
  year = {2017},
  title = {Title},
  publisher = {Publisher},
}
@article{examplearticle,
  author = {Author, B.},
  year = {2018},
  title = {Title},
  journal = {Journal of X},
}
\end{filecontents}

\begin{document}

\citet{examplebook} \citet{examplearticle}

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtranSN}
\bibliography{\jobname}

\end{document}

UPDATED

Some digging has revealed that this is the intended behaviour of this bibliography style. From How to Use the IEEEtran BIBTEX Style:

However, my question still remains. How can I remove this extra space? I don't have to use this exact bibliography style, so if there is an identical alternative style that doesn't include the extra space I would welcome that as well.

Answer 1

This seems to be intentional. Indeed in lines 232-234 of IEEETranSN.bst we find

% This is the LaTeX spacer that is used when a larger than normal space
% is called for (such as just before the address:publisher).
FUNCTION {large.space} { "\hskip 1em plus 0.5em minus 0.4em\relax " }

If you must use IEEETranSN.bst and get rid of the space follow the steps below.

1. Locate IEEEtranSN.bst on your machine. You can do this by typing kpsewhich IEEEtranSN.bst into the command line/terminal. Alternatively, obtain a copy of the file from CTAN http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/IEEEtran/bibtex/IEEEtranSN.bst
2. Copy the file to a location where TeX can find it. The document directory will do fine. See also https://texfaq.org/FAQ-inst-wlcf
3. Rename the file to IEEEtranSN-normspace.bst (the license of IEEEtranSN.bst strongly encourages you to change the name if you modify the file)

4. Open the file and find

   FUNCTION {large.space} { "\hskip 1em plus 0.5em minus 0.4em\relax " }
   

   in line 234.

   Change that line to

   FUNCTION {large.space} { " " }
   

5. Add your name and date and explain the modification in the comments at the top of the file.

6. Use \bibliographystyle{IEEEtranSN-normspace} instead of \bibliographystyle{IEEEtranSN} in your document.