How do I cite range of references using latex and bibtex

Question

Hello Suppose I have 3 references that goes one after another i.e [1][2][3].

But I want to see [1]-[3].

What should I do.

Thank you.

Answer 1

If you put more than one tag in your \cite command, such as:

\cite{pugh1, pugh2, barneymcgrew}

these will be listed together within the same square brackets, and look something like [1,4,9] in the final document. If some or all of the references which you cite turn out to have sequential numbers, this will be indicated in the document something like [1,3-6,8-9] and so on.

Note that the way in which you sort your bibliography will make a difference to this: if you choose to list items in the order in which they are first cited in the text, this will largely happen naturally. However, if you sort your bibliography by, say, author's name, your references are much less likely to be consecutive.

Answer 2

There are ways to change how bibtex formats your citations. One way is to use the cite package. Another is the natbib package perhaps with the sort&compress option (i.e., \usepackage[sort&compress]{natbib}). Many publications also have their own styles that will accomplish this, I often use the revtex styles even when not writing for APS journals since they work quite well. Try some of these to see if they help.