The references are not number

[RezaMehrabian]

Hello,

My references are a long name rather than a number. How can I fix that?

[neonjelly64]

Hi Martin20, can you please provide a little more information? For example, a minimum working example might include the TeX for the reference in question, the output, and some kind of indication of your expected output.

[shumway]

Hi Martin. There are different packages for citations. I put in one with author and year because space doesn't matter in a dissertation, and author-year gives more info than an arbitrary number. You can switch to numbers using normal LaTeX commands, though I don't remember the details offhand. If someone has the answer and can post it here, that might help other users with the same question.

[neonjelly64]

Hi Martin. There are different packages for citations. I put in one with author and year because space doesn't matter in a dissertation, and author-year gives more info than an arbitrary number. You can switch to numbers using normal LaTeX commands, though I don't remember the details offhand. If someone has the answer and can post it here, that might help other users with the same question.

Thanks for piping up John! Somehow this clarified what I was missing. I think it might be as easy as the following.

Replace

\usepackage{natbib}

with

\usepackage[numbers]{natbib}

This changes the references from

to

Although this might not quite be what you're after, since it still orders the references alphabetically, so the first reference of my dissertation is [94]. But see https://gking.harvard.edu/files/natnotes2.pdf for more information on natbib. I'm guessing there's some options with "sort" you need to exploit.

[neonjelly64]

Okay: Last comment here for now. I did a little googling, and TedPavlic's answer in this thread https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/61877/natbib-sorting-and-citation-order-by-appearance worked for me. Specifically, I used his hack of not regenerating the .bst file, but instead, looking at the .bst file and replacing the FUNCTION {presort} ... with his suggestion below

INTEGERS { seq.num }

FUNCTION {init.seq}
{ #0 'seq.num :=}

EXECUTE {init.seq}
FUNCTION {int.to.fix}
{ "000000000" swap$ int.to.str$ *
  #-1 #10 substring$
}

FUNCTION {presort}
{ calc.label
  label sortify
  "    "
  *
  seq.num #1 + 'seq.num :=
  seq.num int.to.fix
  'sort.label :=
  sort.label *
  #1 entry.max$ substring$
  'sort.key$ :=
}

Along with the option "numbers" passed in to natbib in the declaration, this created numerical references that are numbered according to their appearance in the document, which is essentially the "standard" LaTeX behavior.

[RezaMehrabian]

Thank you @joelelynn,

The example is here. As you can see, it puts a long name. I prefer to have a shorter name.

The bigger problem is the reference page. Is the attached image shows, finding the related reference is not easy.

I need to have symbols for each citation and corresponding clear symbols on the reference page.

Thanks.

[RezaMehrabian]

@joelelynn about your solutions, I tried both it did not any change.

[neonjelly64]

Hi @martin20 : Can you please share your "build" process? When dealing with bibliographies, it can be important to make sure that certain files are forced to be regenerated. So, between changes such as the suggestion to pass the option [numbers] to natbib, you might try ensuring that any .aux, .pdf, .bbl, .blg, .toc, or other (regenerable) auxiliary files are removed before you reissue pdflatex {your_dissertation_title}.tex. You also might try repeating the call to pdflatex a few times to ensure updated references.

However, having said that, adding the option [numbers] did not require me to remove any auxiliary files, and only required a single call to pdflatex. How are you generating the .pdf?

[RezaMehrabian]

@joelelynn
I did not get what exactly I should do. How can I share my build process?

[neonjelly64]

Hi @martin20: By "build" process, I mean, how are you generating the .pdf? Do you use pdflatex, latex/dvips/ps2pdf, xelatex, or any number of other commands to generate the .pdf?

[RezaMehrabian]

Thank you @joelelynn for your prompt reply. Actually, I do not use a command. I opened it in Overleaf and it compiled automatically. If there is a way to know the commend, please let me know.