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<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label citeURL</title>
</head><body>
<h3>URLs in BibTeX bibliographies</h3>
<p/>There is no citation type for URLs, <em>per se</em>, in the
standard BibTeX styles, though Oren Patashnik (the author of
BibTeX) is believed to be considering developing one such for use
with the long-awaited BibTeX version 1.0.
<p/>The actual information that need be available in a citation of an
URL is discussed at some length in the publicly available
on-line 

<a href="http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/iso/tc46sc9/standard/690-2e.htm">extracts of ISO 690&ndash;2</a>;
the techniques below do <em>not</em> satisfy all the requirements of
ISO 690&ndash;2, but they offer a solution that is at least
available to users of today&rsquo;s tools.
<p/>Until the new version of BibTeX arrives, the simplest technique is
to use the <code>howpublished</code> field of the standard styles&rsquo; <code>@misc</code>
function.  Of course, the strictures
about <a href="FAQ-setURL.html">typesetting URLs</a> still apply, so the
entry will look like:
<blockquote>
<pre>
@misc{...,
  ...,
  howpublished = "\url{http://...}"
}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
A possible alternative approach is to use BibTeX styles other than
the standard ones, that already have URL entry types.
Candidates are:
<ul>
<li> The <i>natbib</i> styles (<i>plainnat</i>,
  <i>unsrtnat</i> and <i>abbrevnat</i>), which are extensions of
  the standard styles, principally for use with <i>natbib</i>
  itself.  However, they&rsquo;ve acquired URLs and other &ldquo;modern&rdquo;
  entries along the way.  The same author&rsquo;s <i>custom-bib</i> is
  also capable of generating styles that honour URL entries.
<li> The <i>babelbib</i> bundle, which offers 
  <a href="FAQ-i18nbib.html">multilingual bibliographies</a>, similarly provides a
  set of standard-style equivalents that have URL entries.
<li> More modern styles such as the <i>harvard</i> package (if the
  citation styles are otherwise satisfactory for you).
  <i>Harvard</i> bibliography styles all include a &ldquo;<code>url</code>&rdquo;
  field in their specification; however, the typesetting offered is
  somewhat feeble (though it does recognise and use
  <i>LaTeX2HTML</i> macros if they are available, to create
  hyperlinks).
</ul>
You can also acquire new BibTeX styles by use of Norman Gray&rsquo;s
<i>urlbst</i> system, which is based on a <i>Perl</i> script
that edits an existing BibTeX style file to produce a new
style. The new style thus generated has a <code>webpage</code> entry type, and
also offers support for <code>url</code> and <code>lastchecked</code> fields
in the other entry types.  The <i>Perl</i> script comes with a set
of converted versions of the standard bibliography styles.
<p/>Another possibility is that some conventionally-published paper,
technical report (or even book) is also available on the Web.  In such
cases, a useful technique is something like:
<blockquote>
<pre>
@techreport{...,
  ...,
  note = "Also available as \url{http://...}"
}
</pre>

</blockquote><p>
There is good reason to use the <i>url</i> or <i>hyperref</i>
packages in this context: BibTeX has a habit of splitting
lines it considers excessively long, and if there are no space
characters for it to use as &lsquo;natural&rsquo; breakpoints, BibTeX will
insert a comment (&lsquo;<code>%</code>&rsquo;) character ... which
is an acceptable character in an URL.  Any current version of the
<i>url</i> or <i>hyperref</i> package detects this
&ldquo;<code>%</code>&ndash;end-of-line&rdquo; structure in its argument, and
removes it.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>babelbib bundle</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/babelbib.zip">biblio/bibtex/contrib/babelbib</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/babelbib/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>custom-bib bundle</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/custom-bib.zip">macros/latex/contrib/custom-bib</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/custom-bib/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>harvard.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/harvard.zip">macros/latex/contrib/harvard</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/harvard/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>hyperref.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/hyperref.zip">macros/latex/contrib/hyperref</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/hyperref/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>natbib styles</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/natbib.zip">macros/latex/contrib/natbib</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/natbib/">browse the directory</a>)
<dt><tt><i>url.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archivemacros/latex/contrib/misc/url.sty">macros/latex/contrib/misc/url.sty</a>
<dt><tt><i>urlbst</i></tt><dd><a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/urlbst.zip">biblio/bibtex/contrib/urlbst</a> (or <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/www.tex.ac.uk  tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/urlbst/">browse the directory</a>)
</dl>
<p/><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=citeURL">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=citeURL</a>
</body>