Recently while working in LaTeX, I came across this problem: Package natbib Error: Bibliography not compatible with author-year citations.
So I thought, it would be better to share how I resolved this issue.
Solution: Optimizing Bibliography Style Modifications
Hey there! So, when you switch up the bibliography style, natbib can get a bit finicky because it struggles to make sense of the data.
But no worries! Just tweak the argument in \bibliographystyle, and then give LaTeX and BibTeX a little nudge by running them. It’s like a team effort to get everything back in harmony. Oh, and a friendly tip: before you hit run, clear out those .bbl and .aux files. It’ll save you from seeing any confusing error messages that could mess up the .aux file in the making. Happy formatting!
Solution 2: Troubleshooting Missing Year Entries in BibTeX: Identifying and Rectifying Issues
Another scenario leading to this error is the absence of a publication year in one of your BibTeX entries. To pinpoint the problematic entry, examine the output for a message such as “Warning–empty year in ABC2019.” Scrutinize the entry labeled ABC2019 to address this issue promptly.
I faced the issue long time ago and the below method helped me at that time:
I encountered a similar error when attempting to use the ‘spmpsci.bst’ bibliography style alongside ‘natbib.’ It was perplexing because natbib typically defaults to an author-year citation style, while ‘spmpsci.bst’ follows a numeric format. To resolve this unexpected error, I made a simple adjustment. I modified:
\usepackage[square,sort,comma]{natbib}
Replace it to:
\usepackage[square,sort,comma,numbers]{natbib}
In my case, This change successfully resolved the issue.