BibTeX field: journal

How to use the journal field in BibTeX?

The journal field is used to store the name of the journal or magazine the article was published in. Many bst file shave built-in macros that allow to write a shorthand notation of the journal. Additionally, @string can be used to define a shorthand notation in the BibTeX file itself.

it's best practice to use abbreviated journal names with full stops. if full stops need to be removed for a particular bibliography style, it will be done automatically by the style.

journal = "Acta Mathematica"
journal = "Acta Math."

% using @string to defined an abbreviation
@String{am = "Acta Math"}
journal = am

How the journal field is used in BibTeX entry types