Re: [MiKTeX] Wrong BibTeX keys generated in \bibliography

[Philip G. R. <phi...@fa...>]

> I have a rather strange problem with BibTeX keys and would 
> appreciate any pointers on how to solve this.
> 
> I am using an external .bib file, which was created using 
> JabRef and my BibTeX keys follow the "[first 3 names of the 
> lastname (of first author)][year]" convention. I then 
> reference them in my document using a simple \cite{REFNAME} 
> statement and it does work, but instead of using the BiBTeX 
> keys I have assigned to entries, it creates completely random 
> (from what I can tell) keys which make no sense at all.
> 
> It's a bit difficult to explain so I've taken a screenshot of 
> what happens. Please have a look at 
> http://bayimg.com/image/fapicaabh.jpg
> for the output.
> 
> I thought it was an encoding issue at first but everything is 
> plain old ASCII. I am using MikTeX 2.7, TexMaker 1.8 and JabRef 2.4.2

What you don't say is what BibTeX sty file you use to creat the bbl file (as
I understand i,t JabRef is merely a frontend for BibTeX) nor do you mention
the LaTeX packages you're using to actually output citations and
bibliography.

First of all, the key (e.g. And2004) is simply a dummy label for internaly
referencing in your LaTeX file; it has absolutely nothing to do with what
actually gets printed.

Secondly, what gets printed depends on the bibliography package invoked
(e.g. natbib), the options chosen and the bibsty file invoked by BibTeX.

Thirdly, it's obvious here that whatever you have is creating a label from
the first three authors' initials, a plus if there are more than three and
the last two digits of the year.

Cheers,  Phil