Using the Vancouver style with BibDesk

Note: This how-to is simply a summary of a mailing list thread.

Background

BibDesk is an extremely nice Mac GUI for managing BibTeX libraries. It doesn’t, however, come with the Vancouver style for citation previews, which is the standard style for most biomedical science journals. This post describes how to get the Vancouver style working with the BibDesk TeX previews.

Instructions

  1. Make sure that you have a TeX system installed, such as MacTeX.
  2. Create the folder ~/Library/texfm/bibtex/bst/ if it does not exist.
  3. Download vancouver.bst and save it to the above folder.
  4. In BibDesk, open the preferences, then the Tex Preview pane and type “vancouver” into the BibTeX style text box.
  5. Click the button to edit the TeX template.
  6. Add \usepackage{hyperref} to it just above the \begin{document} line. This allows webpage citations to render properly.
  7. Save and you’re done.

Please note that the Vancouver style requires a “Type” field for webpages, which you may have to manually add.

Citations with Scrivener, MultiMarkDown, BibDesk, and TeXShop

I’ve set up a nice writing environment for my Master’s thesis that uses the following tools:

  • Scrivener, an application for writers that support MultiMarkDown (MMD) syntax, which can compile to LaTeX.
  • BibDesk, a delicious-looking reference manager based on BibTeX. I use it to create the BibTeX library.
  • TeXShop, an OS X bundle that easily and quickly sets up a LaTeX environment (including GUI) on your Mac.

The instructions on the MMD developer’s website are clear, but gloss over the bibliography/reference process. Here are my notes:

  1. In Scrivener, with your document open, go into the File menu and open “MultiMarkDown Settings…”.
  2. Add an entry called “BibTeX” that contains the relative or absolute path to the BibTex library, excluding the file extension. This is the file that you’ve created and saved in BibTeX. No spaces are allowed in the path.
  3. Add an entry called “Bibliography Style” that contains the name of the citation style to use, or a relative or absolute path to the bibliographic style, excluding the file extension. You can find some epidemiological styles on the medepi website. No spaces are allowed in the path.

When you export your manuscript to LaTeX (by selecting “MultiMarkDown -> LaTeX” in the “Compile Draft” window), you’ll get a nice .tex file.

  1. Open the file in TeXShop.
  2. In the document’s toolbar, make sure that the drop-down is set to LaTeX and click “Typeset”.
  3. Set the drop-down to BibTex and click Typeset again
  4. Set it back to LaTeX and click it twice more.

Ridiculous, I know, but that’s apparently how you get LaTeX to include the citation information. Alternately, you can select Macros > Applescript > Bibliography, which automates the above steps (HT Alex Ruiz).