Abbreviations

Instead of an ordinary text string, the text of a field can be replaced by an abbreviation for it. An abbreviation is a string of characters that starts with a letter and does not contain a space or any of the following ten characters:

" # % ' ( ) , = { }

The abbreviation is typed in place of the text field, with no braces or quotation marks. If 'jgg1' is an abbreviation for

Journal of Gnats and Gnus, Series~1

then the following are equivalent:

JOURNAL = jgg1 JOURNAL = "Journal of Gnats and Gnus, Series~1"

Some abbreviations are predefined by the bibliography style. These always include the usual 3 letter abbreviations for the month: jan, feb, mar etc.

Bibliography styles usually contain abbreviations for the names of commonly referenced journals. Consult the Local Guide for a list of the predefined abbreviations for the bibliography styles available.

You can define your own abbreviations by using BibTeX's @STRING command.