\citep vs. \parencite

Question

I work for long time in a document where I use biblatex with following parameters

\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,backend=biber,maxcitenames=\preamblemaxcitenames,giveninits=true,uniquename=init,%
maxbibnames=10,sorting=nyt,natbib=true,sortcites=no]{biblatex}

Now, it comes to pass that I have two commands, \citep and \parencite—I forgot why I have this mix. The point is that I cannot see the difference at first sight.

\citep{knuth2001things} \parencite{knuth2001things}

Produces exactly the same:

Used like that, is there any fundamental difference between both, or advantage in using one over the other? (I do not know, if it would be wise to change all \citep to \parencite or \parencite to \citep)

Answer 1

When you are using biblatex with the natbib compatibility option (natbib=true,) to ease transition between biblatex and natbib (or vice versa),

• \citep is a compatibility alias for \parencite and
• \citet is an alias for \textcite.
• Furthermore, \citealp and \citealt are both aliases for \cite.
• Additionally, there is some rudimentary support for natbib's \defcitealias.
• Finally, there are \citeauthor* and \citeyearpar.

So in your example there is no (and there should not be any) difference between \citep{knuth2001things} and \parencite{knuth2001things}.

There is, however, a difference between the starred versions:

• The natbib names \citep*/\citet* produce citations with a local setting of maxnames=999, which means that all authors will be shown.
• The biblatex name \parencite* produces citations without author names.

The natbib compatibility option will do slightly more, though. As explained in Is there a disadvantage to using natbib=true with biblatex? it will also set

\DeclareDelimFormat{nameyeardelim}{\addcomma\space}

---

I usually prefer not to load the natbib compatibility mode in biblatex and prefer to use the biblatex names, but muscle memory and old habits can certainly mean that the natbib compatibility mode is useful for you. Even more so if you expect to have to go back to natbib commands at some point (not many journals accept biblatex submissions).

Just keep in mind that the two quirks of natbib compatibility mode mentioned above. The behaviour of the starred version differs from standard biblatex and it sets nameyeardelim.