bibtex error: can't pop empty literal stack?

[Mike Harm]

Hi.

I've been using bibtex with the "apalike" style for a while
now. I wanted to try out the "apa" style instead. When I
switched my \bibliographystyle command from "apalike" to "apa",
I get this message:

You can't pop an empty literal stack for entry Glushko79
while executing---line 1434 of file apa.bst
(There was 1 error message)

any idea what this is?

when I remove the offending reference, the bibtex error message
goes away, but then I get this message from latex:

! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \protect \BCAY
{Adams}{Adams}{1990}
l.3 ...\protect\BCAY{Adams}{Adams}{1990}]{Adams90}

?

I have no idea what this is. None of these problems happen with
the "apalike" style, only "apa". any ideas? the "apa" style was part
of the "ntex" distribution for linux. should I get
a newer one? or is there an easy work around for this?

oh, here is the offending entry from the first problem:

@Article{ Glushko79,
author = {R. J. Glushko},
title = {The organization and activation of orthographic
knowledge in reading aloud.},
journal = jephpp,
pages = {674-691},
year = {1979}
}

where "jephpp" are defined as
@string{jephpp = "Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance"}

any help greatly appreciated.

cheers!

Mike Harm
mh...@gizmo.usc.edu
Cognitive Science Lab
Univ. of Southern California
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mwharm/
---------------------------------------------------------------

"Coke adds life (where there isn't any)"

- The Clash

[ashr...@gmail.com]

I'm facing the exact same problem now!
I wonder if you received any solution to your problem within the past years :)

[Michael Shell]

On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:53:00 -0700 (PDT)
ashr...@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm facing the exact same problem now!
> I wonder if you received any solution to your problem within the past years :)
>
>
> On Tuesday, July 9, 1996 9:00:00 AM UTC+2, Mike Harm wrote:

Make that 17 years.

> You can't pop an empty literal stack for entry Glushko79
> while executing---line 1434 of file apa.bst

I can't reproduce this on my system using this version of
apa.bst:

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/contrib/misc

However, that file only has 1131 lines. Can you show us where you got
your apa.bst or post some info from its header comments so I can search
for it and look at its code.

> ! Undefined control sequence.
> <argument> \protect \BCAY

These are some ancient styles. On my system, the error is:


! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> \protect \astroncite


and it seems natbib still provides \astroncite:

\usepackage{natbib}


For you \BCAY problem:

\def\BCAY#1#2#3{#1}

or

\def\BCAY#1#2#3{}

or some such might be a workaround, but I haven't tested that.

Anyway, I strongly suggest using a more modern bibstyle.


Cheers,

Mike Shell

[jer...@gmail.com]

"Anyway, I strongly suggest using a more modern bibstyle."

@Mike Shell: Your time in answering is appreciated. Sometimes, however, these sorts of replies are just not helpful and seem a bit ivory-tower. I am having the same problem as Mike Harm, and did a Google search to find a solution. I found this chat page. I do not have the luxury of "using a more modern bibstyle" because my bibstyle file is provided by the journal that is publishing my article. So your reply neither provides a solution or shows any understanding of the root of the problem.

[Michael Shell]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2013 08:03:25 -0700 (PDT)
jer...@gmail.com wrote:

> So your reply neither provides a solution or shows any understanding
> of the root of the problem.

Which I am unable to do because you won't tell me where I can obtain
the actual .bst file that is causing the problem: