my bibtex file is generated from the medline format - a large
bibliographic collection of life science publications - and there they
truncate the names to initials and surname.
now, the medline2bibtex convertions is done by pybliographer which gives
bibtex files with: author = {Smith, J.F.}
it is possible that publiographer is wrong here - but i have not been
able to locate a precise description of the bibtex file format.
so what are the correct format:
1) author = {Smith, J.F.}
2) author = {Smith, J. F.}
3) author = {Smith, J.\F.}
4) author = {Smith, J.~F.}
(what does \ and ~ mean, btw?)
call for votes ...
:o)
martin
On Thu, Jun 02, 2005 at 04:36:18PM +0200, Juergen Spitzmueller wrote:
> Martin A. Hansen wrote:
> > author = {Smith, J.F.}, and ends up as Smith, J.
> >
> > now, it has not been possible for me to verify that the author format in
> > the bibtex file is ok. (the problem is solved if i introduce a blank
> > between the initials -> J. F., but i think that is wrong and a freak
> > fluke makes the latex output correct).
>
> I think it should be Smith, J.~F. or rather Smith, J.\,F.
> Probably, bibtex interprets J.F. as one word as long as there is no space.
>
> Of course you can also write J. F. or John Frederic and let bibtex output
> J.F.
> (or J.\,F. or whatever). I think this is the ideal solution, since all
> formatting should be done by the bst file, not by you.
>
> J�rgen
