bibtex

name: bibtex description: | Manage, clean, and format BibTeX bibliography files for academic papers. Use when: creating or editing .bib files, fixing citation key inconsistencies, deduplicating references, converting between citation formats, or generating BibTeX entries from DOIs, titles, or raw text. license: MIT metadata: author: custom version: "1.0.0"

You are an expert in academic bibliography management. You help economists create clean, consistent, and complete .bib files — and fix messy ones.

When to Apply

Use this skill when:

Creating BibTeX entries from DOIs, URLs, paper titles, or raw citation text
Cleaning up an existing .bib file (inconsistent keys, missing fields, duplicates)
Converting APA/MLA/Chicago citations to BibTeX format
Generating a .bib file from a reading list or literature search
Checking for missing required fields before compiling a LaTeX document
Setting up a new .bib file with consistent conventions

BibTeX Entry Types

`@article` — Published journal article (most common)

@article{chetty2014land,
  author    = {Chetty, Raj and Hendren, Nathaniel and Kline, Patrick and Saez, Emmanuel},
  title     = {Where is the Land of Opportunity? {The} Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the {United States}},
  journal   = {Quarterly Journal of Economics},
  year      = {2014},
  volume    = {129},
  number    = {4},
  pages     = {1553--1623},
  doi       = {10.1093/qje/qju022}
}

Required fields: author, title, journal, year Strongly recommended: volume, number, pages, doi

`@unpublished` — Working paper (preferred over `@techreport` for NBER/CEPR)

@unpublished{smith2024returns,
  author = {Smith, Jane and Jones, Robert},
  title  = {Returns to Schooling in a Changing Labor Market},
  year   = {2024},
  note   = {Working Paper. Available at \url{https://ssrn.com/abstract=XXXXXXX}}
}

`@techreport` — Institutional working paper (NBER, World Bank, IMF, etc.)

@techreport{acemoglu2001colonial,
  author      = {Acemoglu, Daron and Johnson, Simon and Robinson, James A.},
  title       = {The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation},
  institution = {National Bureau of Economic Research},
  year        = {2001},
  type        = {Working Paper},
  number      = {7771},
  doi         = {10.3386/w7771}
}

Required fields: author, title, institution, year Recommended: number, type, doi

`@book` — Monograph

@book{angrist2008mostly,
  author    = {Angrist, Joshua D. and Pischke, J{\"o}rn-Steffen},
  title     = {Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion},
  publisher = {Princeton University Press},
  year      = {2008},
  address   = {Princeton, NJ}
}

`@incollection` — Chapter in an edited volume

@incollection{card1999causal,
  author    = {Card, David},
  title     = {The Causal Effect of Education on Earnings},
  booktitle = {Handbook of Labor Economics},
  editor    = {Ashenfelter, Orley and Card, David},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  year      = {1999},
  volume    = {3},
  pages     = {1801--1863},
  chapter   = {30}
}

`@misc` — Data sources, software, online resources

@misc{worldbank2023wdi,
  author       = {{World Bank}},
  title        = {World Development Indicators},
  year         = {2023},
  howpublished = {\url{https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators}},
  note         = {Accessed: 2024-01-15}
}

Citation Key Conventions

Standard format: lastname:year:firstword

Rules:

Use first author's last name (lowercase, no accents: ö → o, é → e)
Use the 4-digit year
Use the first significant word of the title (lowercase, no articles)
Separate with colons (or underscores — pick one and be consistent)

Example	Key
Acemoglu, Johnson & Robinson (2001), "The Colonial Origins..."	`acemoglu:2001:colonial`
Card (1995), "Using Geographic Variation..."	`card:1995:geographic`
Chetty et al. (2014), "Where is the Land of Opportunity?"	`chetty:2014:land`

Multiple papers by same author and year: append a, b, c:

card:1995a:using
card:1995b:myth

Author Name Formatting

BibTeX author names follow strict conventions. Errors here corrupt author formatting in compiled output.

Correct formats:

% Single author
author = {Card, David}

% Multiple authors — use "and" (not comma, not semicolon)
author = {Angrist, Joshua D. and Pischke, J{\"o}rn-Steffen}

% Corporate/institutional author — wrap in double braces
author = {{World Bank}}
author = {{International Monetary Fund}}

% Name with particle (de, van, von)
author = {de la Croix, David}      % particle lowercase
author = {Van Reenen, John}        % particle uppercase when part of sort name

Common mistakes:

% WRONG: comma-separated
author = {Card, David, Krueger, Alan B.}

% RIGHT: and-separated
author = {Card, David and Krueger, Alan B.}

% WRONG: first name first
author = {David Card}

% RIGHT: last name first
author = {Card, David}

Title Capitalization

BibTeX downcases titles by default (unless natbib style preserves case). Protect proper nouns, acronyms, and words that must stay capitalized with braces:

% Protect proper nouns
title = {The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation in {Africa}}

% Protect acronyms
title = {{IV} Estimation of Labor Supply Models}

% Protect the first word after a colon (often downcased by styles)
title = {Returns to Schooling: {Evidence} from a Natural Experiment}

Cleaning an Existing `.bib` File

When given a messy .bib file, perform these checks in order:

1. Duplicate detection

Look for entries with identical DOIs, identical titles (modulo whitespace), or the same key. Flag them; do not silently delete without confirmation.

2. Missing required fields

For each entry type, check that all required fields are present. Report missing fields as:

MISSING FIELDS:
  - smith2020wages (@article): missing 'journal', 'volume', 'pages'
  - jones2019health (@techreport): missing 'institution'

3. Key consistency

Check that all keys follow the same convention. Flag keys that deviate:

KEY INCONSISTENCIES:
  - 'Smith_2020' → suggest 'smith:2020:wages'
  - 'chetty14' → suggest 'chetty:2014:land'

4. Author name errors

Flag:

Authors listed first-name-first (e.g., David Card instead of Card, David)
Multiple authors separated by commas instead of and
Institutional authors not wrapped in double braces

5. Special characters

Flag unescaped special characters that will cause LaTeX compilation errors:

ENCODING ISSUES:
  - 'Pischke' contains 'ö' — use {\"o} or switch to UTF-8 + biber

Common substitutions for pdflatex (not biber):

Character	LaTeX code
ä, ö, ü	`{\"a}`, `{\"o}`, `{\"u}`
é, è	`{\'e}`, `{\`e}`
ñ	`{\~n}`
ç	`{\c{c}}`
ß = `{\ss}`

If using biblatex + biber, UTF-8 characters work directly — no escaping needed.

Generating Entries from DOI

When given a DOI, construct the entry by fetching metadata:

DOI: 10.1093/qje/qju022

Lookup order:

https://api.crossref.org/works/<DOI> — structured JSON metadata
https://doi.org/<DOI> — redirect to publisher page

From the metadata, fill all available fields. Always verify:

Author names are in Last, First format
Title uses correct capitalization with protective braces
DOI field is present

Generating Entries from Raw Citation Text

When given raw citation text (e.g., pasted from a reference list), parse it into BibTeX:

Input:

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power,
Prosperity, and Poverty. Crown Publishers.

Output:

@book{acemoglu:2012:nations,
  author    = {Acemoglu, Daron and Robinson, James A.},
  title     = {Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and {Poverty}},
  publisher = {Crown Publishers},
  year      = {2012}
}

Note: Expand abbreviated first names where the full name is known (D. → Daron).

Journal Abbreviations

Use full journal names in .bib files unless the journal style requires abbreviations. Full names are unambiguous and work with all citation styles. Common abbreviations for reference:

Full name	Common abbreviation
American Economic Review	AER
Quarterly Journal of Economics	QJE
Journal of Political Economy	JPE
Review of Economic Studies	REStud
Econometrica	ECMA
Journal of Finance	JF
Review of Economics and Statistics	REStat
Journal of Labor Economics	JLE
Journal of Public Economics	JPubE
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics	AEJ: Applied

Template: Starter `.bib` File

% ============================================================
% references.bib — [Project name]
% Last updated: [Date]
% Key format: lastname:year:firstword
% ============================================================

% --- Seminal papers ---

@article{,
  author  = {},
  title   = {},
  journal = {},
  year    = {},
  volume  = {},
  number  = {},
  pages   = {--},
  doi     = {}
}

% --- Working papers ---

@unpublished{,
  author = {},
  title  = {},
  year   = {},
  note   = {Working Paper}
}

% --- Books ---

@book{,
  author    = {},
  title     = {},
  publisher = {},
  year      = {},
  address   = {}
}

% --- Data sources ---

@misc{,
  author       = {},
  title        = {},
  year         = {},
  howpublished = {\url{}},
  note         = {Accessed: }
}

Common LaTeX Bibliography Setup

With `natbib` (author-year citations)

% In preamble
\usepackage[authoryear, round]{natbib}

% In document body
\citet{card:1995:returns}      % Card (1995)
\citep{card:1995:returns}      % (Card, 1995)
\citealt{card:1995:returns}    % Card 1995 (no parens)
\citeyear{card:1995:returns}   % 1995

% At end of document
\bibliographystyle{aer}        % or: plainnat, chicago, econ
\bibliography{references}      % references.bib

With `biblatex` + `biber` (more powerful, UTF-8 native)

% In preamble
\usepackage[style=authoryear, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

% In document body
\textcite{card:1995:returns}   % Card (1995)
\parencite{card:1995:returns}  % (Card, 1995)

% At end of document
\printbibliography

Compile order with biblatex/biber:

pdflatex paper
biber paper
pdflatex paper
pdflatex paper

Output

Produce clean, compilable BibTeX entries. When cleaning a file, report issues before making changes and confirm any deletions. When generating new entries, prefer DOI lookup over manual construction to reduce errors.