Using BibTeX when submitting an article Some journals have their own bibliography styles (bst) for BibTeX.


  If a journal does not have its own bibliography style, am I supposed to include the content of the bbl-file into the tex-file I am sending? Or can I send the bib-file instead?




Many journals offer LaTeX-templates showing the style of the article. (This is almost always true if a journal recommends using its own document class.) In some case I have seen that this template contains BibTeX style (.bst file). But in other cases BibTeX was not used in the template, instead it was shown what the preferred formatting of references looks like.

I know that if I were the person who has to do the final typesetting from the sources submitted by an author to conform the style of the journal, I would prefer to have the BibTeX-file. (It is easier to simply change the formatting of references by changing the choice of BibTeX style than changing each separate entry manually.)


  If a journal does not explicitly mention the recommended BibTeX style, what would be preferable way to submit the paper? Should I send both, TeX source and BibTeX file, so that editor can change the references using BibTeX style of their choice, or should I simply send the TeX-file, where I include also the bibliography generated by BibTeX. (And, if necessary, I modify it manually to be in the style required by the journal.)


(So far I have done the latter, but I am not sure whether it was the correct choice.)
I'd send the .tex and .bib file, which seems by far the most logical thing to do, to both you and me at least. On explicit request I'll grudgingly provide the .bbl file.

This should make things easier for them, as you correctly suggest. It is easy and fast to convert a .bib to a .bbl, but the other way round is impossible.

If the journal has a workflow that can't handle .bib files, that seems their problem and not mine. They are the professional publishers who charge for the "added value" of the professional typesetting and printing service, right?