Annotated bibliography template in LaTeX for specific writing projects

Purpose

Generate lists of cited papers with annotations following each citation. This document is useful when writing review articles.

How it works

These files support the automated generation of an annotated bibliography in LaTeX using bibliographic information in a BibTeX file (NOT BibLaTeX). The AnnoBib.tex file is the master file. It uses the annote field in the BibTeX entry in cited.bib. Its style is set by apacannx.bst, which must be present unless this file is stored in your library of files for LaTeX on your local computer.

Generate a bib file with only cited references

To write out the cited bib entries in a manuscript from global.bib, use the command line program bibtool with the main.tex file's corresponding main.aux file:

Run the following code to generate a bib file of the papers cited in a manuscript. Note that main.tex is the manuscript file. The main.aux file is hidden on Overleaf. Find it under the "Logs and outputs" pulldown menu.

The following command will preserve the letter case in the cite key. The default behavior is to lower the case.

bibtool --preserve.key.case=on -x main.aux > cited.bib

Bibtool is distributed with LaTeX.

Writing the annotations

If you are using BibTeX, manually add annote fields to the AnnoBibMyBDA.bib file and enter your annotations. Or, if you are more disciplined, you can add the annote fields in a global.bib file and repeat the extraction of the cited entries when you are finished. All entries in cited.bib will be used to create the annotated bibliography regardless of whether the annote field is present.

The annote field does not have to be limited to a single paragraph summary like in the one you made in the sixth grade. The annotation field can contain figures, tables, coding listings, and equations.

I store these files in an annotatedBibliography subfolder in my writing project's folder. These files work on Overleaf, too.

If you are using BibLaTeX, manually add annotation fields to the AnnoBibMyBDA.bib.

For journal article entries, the difference from BibTeX is that BibLaTeX uses a journaltitle field insead of a journal field.

Note that you can use JabRef to export a BibTeX library to a BibLaTeX library. Use can also use the R statistical package for this purpose. See below.

Protocol for BibTeX to BibLaTeX library conversion with R

Note that you must supply the full file paths. Also, note the order of the arguments to bibConvert. The third argument is the file type of the first. The fourth argument is the file type of the second argument.

1. Start R-Studio
2. Run the following code after editing the file paths:

library(devtools)
install_github("GeoBosh/rbibutils")
library(rbibutils)
bibConvert("/Users/blaine/Documents/global.bib", "/Users/blaine/Documents/globalBiblatex.bib", "bibtex", "biblatex")

Of course, flip the order of the arguments to convert from BibLaTeX to BibTeX.

Alternative bibliographic styles

Alternatively, you can use the IEEEannot.bst bibliography style file that returns numbered entries in alphabetic order.

Annote fields with multiple paragraphs in BibTeX

I have found no support for blank lines between paragraphs in the annotation stored in the annote field of BibTeX entries. I wrap each paragraph in \par{\noindent .... } to have the paragraphs printed in block format. I insert \vspace{10pt} between paragraphs to generate a blank line between paragraphs. The result is visually pleasing to me. Space will flank display math, figures, code listings, and tables.

Annotation fields with multiple paragraphs in BibLaTeX

You may be using BibLaTeX if you use typst because typst does not support BibTeX. BibLaTeX uses different tools then BibTeX to generate the bibliography. Its tool biber converts blank lines into whitespace early in the processing of the bib file. You can start new paragraphs separated by blank lines in an imported tex file that stores a single annotation. However, the blank line will be lost in the exported PDF.

You can use the biblatex-chicago package, which has added support for annotated bibliographies. You can add \par after each paragraph to break the text into paragraphs, but there will be no spacing between paragraphs. The result is visually displeasing to me.

A work around is to replace the \par with display $$ $$. This will give a wider than desired paragraph spacing, but it is better than no blank lines.

Colored annotations

You can color the annotation blue.

• Load the color or xcolor package with the \usepackage{xcolor} macro in the preamble of the main.tex file.
• Add the macro \color{blue} to the line in the *.bst file that describes the format of the annote field.

You could also print the annotation in bold or italics.

Support beyond text

Your annotated bibliography can be spiced up: You can include lists, display math, computer code blocks, figures, and tables in the annote fields.

Related projects of possible interest

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• latex-emacs profile
• snippets for latex-mode in Emacs
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• Slides from talk about LaTeX in Emacs at the Berlin Emacs Meetup Aug 31, 2022
• Slides from talk about GhostText, Data Science Workshop, July 2022
• Video link to talk about GhostText, Data Science Workshop, July 2022
• The writer's law

Version History

Version	Changes	Date
Version 0.2	Added Update table to README.md	2024 April 7
Version 0.3	Edit the README.md heavily.	2024 April 17
Version 0.4	Edit the README.md heavily.	2024 October 8
Version 0.5	Edit the README.md heavily.	2024 October 16
Version 0.6	Added running title to header of AnnoBib.tex.	2024 October 24

Sources of Funding

• NIH: R01 CA242845
• NIH: R01 AI088011
• NIH: P30 CA225520 (PI: R. Mannel)
• NIH P20GM103640 and P30GM145423 (PI: A. West)