Latex-Bibtex problem with @incollection

[Ekkehart]

Hi,
I am writing a book and find that, as the text gets longer, there is a
seriies of errors cropping up. The error message is always similar. (I
give only the first one):

LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
\bibitem[{\textsc{Hegel}(1964)}]{Hegel1821}

This error somehow relates to the bibtex entry

@incollection{ClarkFeenstra03,
author={Gregory Clark and Robert Feenstra},
title={Technology in the Great Divergence},
booktitle={Globalization in Historical Perspective},
publisher={Chicago University Press},
year={2003},
address={Chicago},
editor={Michael D. Bordo and Alan M. Taylor and Jeffrey G.
Williamson},
pages={277-314}
}

If I replace "@incollection" by "@book", the series of errors
disappears.

Note the following:

1. The bibliography compiles just fine if I take the body text away and
use "\nocite{*}" instead, or if I cut down the size of the body text
considerably.

2. I have 9 other "@incollection" entries in the bibliography. If I
change one or the other of them into "@book", the error sometimes
remains, and sometimes goes away.

What is wrong? Help would be appreciated!

Ekkehart

[Robin Fairbairns]

"Ekkehart" <schl...@lmu.de> writes:
>I am writing a book and find that, as the text gets longer, there is a
>seriies of errors cropping up. The error message is always similar. (I
>give only the first one):
>
>LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
> \bibitem[{\textsc{Hegel}(1964)}]{Hegel1821}
>
>This error somehow relates to the bibtex entry
>
>@incollection{ClarkFeenstra03,
> author={Gregory Clark and Robert Feenstra},
> title={Technology in the Great Divergence},
> booktitle={Globalization in Historical Perspective},
> publisher={Chicago University Press},
> year={2003},
> address={Chicago},
> editor={Michael D. Bordo and Alan M. Taylor and Jeffrey G.
>Williamson},
> pages={277-314}
>}
>
>If I replace "@incollection" by "@book", the series of errors
>disappears.

[...]

>What is wrong? Help would be appreciated!

since you don't say what bibliography style, what class or what
bibliography package (if any) that you're using, it's hard to form an
opinion. all of these things are capable of having independent bugs,
and there are masses of them, so expecting us to guess seems a little
harsh on your part.
--
Robin (http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq) Fairbairns, Cambridge

[Ekkehart]

Thanks -and sorry for my incomplete statement.
I use
\documentclass[11pt,german]{book}
\usepackage[authoryear]{natbib}
and my own bibtex bst (derived from a journal style).
The problem is independent of the bst file chosen
(I have tested aer.bst and amsalpha, for instance).

I use Lyx. The program points out errors
and gives error messages of the

"LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item"

type. Nevertheless a useful pdf is produced.
If I compile straight Latex, I obtain the same error messages.
Is there a way simply to suppress these messages? Would be the
easiest way to do.

Thank you for attention.
the same error messages, but
, ,

[Nicolas Markey]

Le 24.05.05, Ekkehart a ecrit :

>>> LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
>>> \bibitem[{\textsc{Hegel}(1964)}]{Hegel1821}
>

> I use
> \documentclass[11pt,german]{book}
> \usepackage[authoryear]{natbib}
> and my own bibtex bst (derived from a journal style).
> The problem is independent of the bst file chosen
> (I have tested aer.bst and amsalpha, for instance).

Perhaps natbib does not manage to parse the optional argument of \bibitem.
According to natbib.sty:

% If author-year citations are selected, \bibitem must have one of the
% following forms:
% \bibitem[Jones et al.(1990)]{key}...
% \bibitem[Jones et al.(1990)Jones, Baker, and Williams]{key}...
% \bibitem[Jones et al., 1990]{key}...
% \bibitem[\protect\citeauthoryear{Jones, Baker, and Williams}{Jones
% et al.}{1990}]{key}...
% \bibitem[\protect\citeauthoryear{Jones et al.}{1990}]{key}...
% \bibitem[\protect\astroncite{Jones et al.}{1990}]{key}...
% \bibitem[\protect\citename{Jones et al., }1990]{key}...
% \harvarditem[Jones et al.]{Jones, Baker, and Williams}{1990}{key}...

Does the problem still occur with a "nat" bst file (e.g. plainnat.bst)?

--
Nico

[Ekkehart]

Thanks a lot, Nico,

I shall try in the light of your hints and
tell the outcome

Ekkehart

[Ekkehart]

Nico
Nico:

Just some preliminary results:
Yes, the problem reappears with plainnat.bst, too.
It occurs (sometimes) even if I drop all inessential things from the
praeamble. At at the moment it appears in my normal
setting (with hyperref), but strangely it disappears if I omit
the pagebackref=true option. I remember to have observed this
also the other way round.

It is not really a big thing, and I can cope with it, as pdflatex
produces good pdf output in spite of the error messages. The
drawback is only that Lyx stops, because of the error
messages. So don't put effort into it unless you have an idea
about a bug that may be of somewhat more general relevance
and a tip may be useful for others.

I shall work on my manuscript and watch how the mistake appears
and disappears and look for a clue.

Thanks again

Ekkehart

[Ekkehart]

Michael Shell has identified the problem and has suggested a
workaround,
see his thread
babel + fancyhdr + natbib = ! Extra \else
in this newsgroup.
Ekkehart