\citeauthor from natbib doesn't add a dot behind et al. when citing a source with multiple authors

Question

My problem is that \citeauthor from natbib doesn't add a dot behind et al. when citing a source with multiple authors but that is just what is common in papers.

Is there a way to fix \citeauthor that it will add the dot if and only if it adds et al? So that the result includes the dot:

John Doe et al.

Answer 1

The et al phrase is hard coded into the spbasic.bst file as:

FUNCTION {bbl.etal}
{ "et~al" }

So to add the dot, you should make a copy of the .bst file, give it a new name, and change this to be:

FUNCTION {bbl.etal}
{ "et~al.\@" }

Note that if you are submitting to a journal that requires this style, they may not take kindly to your having changed things.