[texhax] citing authors without natbib

[Philip G. Ratcliffe]

> Is there a way to cite in the text the authors of a reference without
using
> natbib?. The problem is that sometimes there is a specific  bst file which
must
> be used, but natbib uses its own bst files (plainnat etc.). I don't need
author-
> year style citations, but just the authors' name, so something like:
> blah \citeauthor{Smith1} showed that ...
> 
> which would yield
> 
> blah Smith et al. showed that ...

Natbib is an optional package to be used when and if you need author-year
style citations.  Since you apparently don't, don't use it.

Indeed, if there is a specific bst file that must be used, end of story:
use and form the citations as instructed by the relevant package.

This is perhaps not really the case, but maybe  it's worth suggesting to
start with "bare-bones" LaTeX files and then only add the really necessary
style files - i.e. don't blindly use a base source file passed on by someone
else, who will no doubt have his/her own quirks and preferences as a result
of personal needs and prejudices.

Cheers,  Phil Ratcliffe