General ⇒ bibliography doesn't work

[nishantdass]

Hi,

Could someone please help me with bibliography?

I have the following document:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\section{Cash Holdings}
\begin{itemize}
\item Let's see if \cite{DittmarMahrt-Smith_JFE07} works well.
\item Why doesn't it work?
\end{itemize}
\bibliographystyle{decsci}
\bibliography{MyOwnBib}
\end{document}

And the related MyOwnBib.bib file only contains the following:

@article{DittmarMahrt-Smith_JFE07,
Author = "Dittmar, Amy, and Jan Mahrt-Smith",
Title = "Corporate {G}overnance and the {V}alue of {C}ash {H}oldings",
Journal = "Journal of Financial Economics",
Volume = "83",
Number = "3",
Pages = "599--634",
Year = "2007",
}

But the PDF thus generated (attached below) doesn't show the reference!

Could someone please explain what am I doing wrong? FYI - I do keep both the document and the bib file in the same folder.

Thanks,

N

[gmedina]

Supress the last comma (it instructs BiBTeX to expect another field):
@article{DittmarMahrt-Smith_JFE07,
Author = "Dittmar, Amy, and Jan Mahrt-Smith",
Title = "Corporate {G}overnance and the {V}alue of {C}ash {H}oldings",
Journal = "Journal of Financial Economics",
Volume = "83",
Number = "3",
Pages = "599--634",
Year = "2007",
}
Use

Code: Select all

@article{DittmarMahrt-Smith_JFE07,
Author = "Dittmar, Amy, and Jan Mahrt-Smith",
Title = "Corporate {G}overnance and the {V}alue of {C}ash {H}oldings",
Journal = "Journal of Financial Economics",
Volume = "83",
Number = "3",
Pages = "599--634",
Year = "2007"
}

[nishantdass]

Hi gmedina,

Thanks for your response, but that didn't help. (I would have felt odd if it were just that comma!)

Er ... silly question, but do I have to type anything like "\begin{document}" in the .bib file, or just list the articles?

Thanks,

N

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

did you call bibtex to generate the bbl file from the bib file?

Stefan

[gmedina]

...Thanks for your response, but that didn't help. (I would have felt odd if it were just that comma!)...

Then maybe you are missing the decsci.bst file. Try replacing

Code: Select all

\bibliographystyle{decsci}

with

Code: Select all

\bibliographystyle{plain}

Er ... silly question, but do I have to type anything like "\begin{document}" in the .bib file, or just list the articles?

Just the bibliographical items.

[nishantdass]

Thanks Stefan/gmedina,

gmedina - changing the style didn't help, but thanks for the clarification (on whether to use \begin{document} in the .bib file)

Stefan - I suppose that's where the problem is because I didn't "call bibtex to generate the bbl file". In fact, I don't even know how I would do that!

Sorry for the elementary questions,

N

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Have a look at this tutorial: Getting to Grips with Latex - Bibliography Management, especially the section Why won't Latex generate any output?.
Call bibtex MyOwnBib at the command line.

Stefan

[nishantdass]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the tip, but given that I am a real beginner with LaTeX, it's all quite puzzling!

I checked the page by Andy Roberts that you mentioned, but in both your reply and Roberts' page, I don't see where exactly do you use those lines -
latex MyLatex
bibtex MyOwnBib
latex MyLatex

Do you write these in the editor within the document before \end{document} or just compile the document as it is? I am sorry but how do you "Call bibtex MyOwnBib"?

N

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Write these lines at the command line, not inside the document.
Some editors provide support for bibtex. Which editor are you using?

Stefan

[nishantdass]

Hi Stefan,

I was working on TexnicCenter earlier, and couldn't find the command prompt there. I know the command prompt on WinEdt and tried "calling bibtex". It does create the .bbl file now, but it gives the following 3 errors when I run "bibtex MyOwnBib":

"I found no \citation command while reading file MyOwnBib.aux"
"I found no \bibdata command while reading file MyOwnBib.aux"
"I found no \bibstyle command while reading file MyOwnBib.aux"

As a result, I still don't see my bibliography in the PDF!

Sorry for all the hassle but I am trying to get over with MSWord!

Thanks,

N