Properly Formatting Titles And Capitalization In Latex Bibliographies
Using Title Case for Journal and Book Titles
The proper capitalization of titles in a LaTeX bibliography is crucial for conveying reference information in a clear and consistent manner. Use of title case, with capitalization of key words, helps differentiate titles and highlight their core semantic content. This section will demonstrate correct title case formatting and provide BibTeX code examples.
Titles function as critical signifiers in bibliographies, compactly communicating key details about a referenced source. Inconsistent or incorrect capitalization introduces ambiguity or confusion around intended titles. By properly capitalizing significant words within journal article and book titles, LaTeX users ensure these titles clearly stand out as discrete entities referring to specific intellectual works.
Journal Article Title Capitalization
Journal article titles in a LaTeX bibliography should follow a title case format. This means the key identifying words within the title should be capitalized. Generally, capital letters should be used for all words except short prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. For example, "Investigating Neural Epigenetic Modifications" appropriately capitalizes the initial verb and adjective as key title terms.
Book Title Capitalization
Book titles in a BibTeX bibliography also require title case formatting. As with article titles, principal words including verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs should use capital letters while definite articles, prepositions, and conjunctions should not. For example: "Dynamic Regression Analysis of Economic Models." This capitalizes the critical adjective "Dynamic" along with both nouns "Regression" and "Analysis" as well as the descriptive noun "Models."
@article{baker2018investigating,
title={Investigating neural epigenetic modifications},
author={Baker, Mark and Li, Tingyu},
journal={Brain Research},
year={2018}
}
@book{jones2017dynamic,
title={Dynamic regression analysis of economic models},
author={Jones, Erica J.},
publisher={Springer},
year={2017}
}
Capitalizing Important Words in Journal Titles
Determining which words to capitalize within journal titles requires an understanding of their semantic importance. In general, words that categorize, quantify, qualify or otherwise describe the focus of the journal should be capitalized. This allows rapid comprehension of a journal's subject matter.
Principal Words to Capitalize
Words like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that indicate a journal's core topical domains should utilize title case. For example, in "Biochemical Genetics" both the noun "Biochemical" and adjective "Genetics" constitute key words meriting capitalization. These terms classify the journal's content and should be capitalized for clarity.
Problematic Journal Title Formatting
Certain conjunctions and prepositions should not be capitalized per title case convention. However, some complex journal titles make consistently determining case inappropriate. In these situations, capitalization should prioritize clear semantic indication of journal scope and domain over stylistic consistency. For example: "Pediatrics: Blood Research and Clinical Practice" capitalizes both prepositions because they substantively qualify journal focus.
@article{li2018novel,
title={Novel mechanisms in blood cell formation},
author={Li, Long and Chen, Haoyu},
journal={Blood Research and Clinical Practice},
year={2018},
}
Formatting Book Titles Properly
Book titles have several unique capitalization conventions compared to other bibliography entries. Due to their length and complexity, rules exist for handling subtitles, editions statements and named series.
Book Subtitle Treatment
Book subtitles require title case matching that of the main title. Leading prepositions and articles remain lower case but all nouns, verbs, adjectives should remain capitalized. For example: "Dynamic Models of Financial Markets: Principles and Applications" leaves lower case formatting for the subtitle preposition "of" while capitalizing "Principles" and "Applications."
Capitalized Edition Statements
Book edition statements should capitalize the term designating the edition itself, while articles or other descriptors remain lower case. For instance: "Linear Estimation, 3rd Edition" capitalizes the ordinal number "3rd" to clearly indicate edition. BibTeX entries should adopt this convention for accurate documentation and retrieval.
@book{graham2019dynamic,
title={Dynamic models of financial markets: Principles and applications},
author={Graham, Benjamin and Kumar, Priya},
publisher={Wiley},
edition={3rd Edition},
year={2019}
}
Fixing Common Capitalization Errors
Certain capitalization errors frequently occur in LaTeX bibliographies. Primarily these consist of improper handling of acronyms or failure to designate proper nouns. By reviewing common mistakes and correcting them, consistency and clarity can be restored.
Acronym Capitalization
Acronyms should remain capitalized even when incorporated into a title. For example, "Using MRI Imaging" should format "MRI" in caps even though the word "Imaging" remains lower case per title case conventions. Identifying and properly handling acronyms ensures clarity.
Proper Noun Capitalization
Bibliographic entries should also capitalize proper nouns within titles. Names of research instruments, chemical compounds, and other named entities require consistent capitalization. For instances: "Applying Wilson-Jungner Criteria" leaves capitalization intact for the eponymous proper noun.
@article{wang2018using,
title={Using {MRI} imaging for brain lesion analysis},
author={Wang, Lei and Liu, Bo},
journal={Neurocomputing},
year={2018}
}
@article{brown2019applying,
title={Applying {Wilson}-{Jungner} criteria for biomarkers},
author={Brown, Joshua and Patel, Priya},
journal={Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics},
year={2019}
}
Automating Capitalization
Manually applying capitalization guidelines across potentially thousands of references creates risk for errors. BibLaTeX provides built-in title casing functionality to automatically handle capitalization upon rendering.
Leveraging Title Case Filters
By wrapping bibliography entry titles in BibLaTeX commands like \MakeTitleCase, capitalization per style guidelines gets applied automatically during compile. This replaces manual effort while still allowing custom override.
Using Automated Formatting Judiciously
Automated title casing through BibLaTeX should be used strategically. The algorithmic approach may mishandle certain edge cases with improper nouns or fail to anticipate contextual nuance. Authors should review auto-formatted results for any glaring issues.
@article{li2018novel,
title={\MakeTitleCase{Novel mechanisms in blood cell formation}},
author={Li, Long and Chen, Haoyu},
journal={Blood Research and Clinical Practice},
year={2018},
}
