1

I have the following bib entry

@Online{AUSNET:2019,
    title = "{Schedule of Network Use of System Tariffs}",
    author = {AusNet Services},
    year    = {2019},
    url= {https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/AER%20approved%20-%20AusNet%20Services%20-%20Schedule%20of%20Tariffs%202019%20-%20last%20updated%205%20December%202018.pdf},
    lastaccessed = {2020-01-08}
}

The url contains spaces which are encoded to %20. One would normally construct a url as https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/AER approved - AusNet Services - Schedule of Tariffs 2019 - last updated 5 December 2018.pdf

What is the usual convention for bibliography entries? If I use the encoded url in my bib file entry it is displayed in the bibliography with the encoding which isn't really intended for human consumption, i.e. https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/AER%20approved%20-%20AusNet%20Services%20-%20Schedule%20of%20Tariffs%202019%20-%20last%20updated%205%20December%202018.pdf

If I use spaces in place of %20 in the bib entry my bibliography shows the link as https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/AERapproved-AusNetServices-ScheduleofTariffs2019-lastupdated5December2018.pdf

In both cases clicking takes me to the correct resource but neither are being displayed in the conventional manner.

I'm using the ACM latex template if that makes any difference.

Edit: I discovered that by passing obeyspaces to the \documentclass command (i.e. \documentclass[sigconf,obeyspaces]{acmart}) and by updating my bib entry as below produces a valid link. I'm still interested as to what the normal convention is - I keep reading that the %20 should be displayed to allow people to copy the link into a browser - however I don't accept this as it should be the responsibility of the browser to encode the url so any modern browser should accept a url with spaces - most of these posts are circa 2013 - 2015 so perhaps they weren't complient back then though?

@Online{AUSNET:2019,
    title = "{Schedule of Network Use of System Tariffs}",
    author = {AusNet Services},
    year    = {2019},
    url= {https://www.aer.gov.au/system/files/AER approved - AusNet Services - Schedule of Tariffs 2019 - last updated 5 December 2018.pdf},
    lastaccessed = {2020-01-08}
}
Improve this question
4
  • 1
    I don't think that there is a widespread convention. You can get the output you prefer by passing obeyspaces to url. But imho you can't really win here: urls and file names with spaces are confusing for a reader. How should one know where it ends if it is e.g. printed in black and white?
    – Ulrike Fischer
    Jan 8, 2020 at 7:57
  • the handling of the url field depends on the bibliography style used (the standard bibtex styles don't handle it at all as they predate the web) and whatever packages you are using for typesetting urls, so without an example it's hard to say.
    – David Carlisle
    Jan 8, 2020 at 8:02
  • @UlrikeFischer that's a good point, I hadn't considered trailing spaces
    – David Waterworth
    Jan 8, 2020 at 8:26
  • @DavidCarlisle I'm using the ACM template so I'm not specifically using any package, I beleive because it accepts the obeyspaces package it may internally use the url package but I'm not really sure
    – David Waterworth
    Jan 8, 2020 at 8:27

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.