Fine-tuning bibliography

This question concerns fine-tuning a bibliography. I collected bib files (that are available for download from the source of a journal article) and put them all in a single biblio.bib file. Here are the files with a snippet of the biblio.bib file.

Preamble.tex

\usepackage[natbib=true,style=authoryear,backend=bibtex8]{biblatex}
\usepackage[margin=2.54cm,top=2.54cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{amscd, amsfonts, amsmath, amssymb, amstext}
\usepackage{accents}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{epstopdf}

\addbibresource{biblio.bib}

% Used by included files to know they
% are NOT standalone
\usepackage{ifthen}
\newboolean{standaloneFlag}
\setboolean{standaloneFlag}{true}

%% Command to conditionally typeset a bibliography.
\newcommand{\standaloneBib}{%%
\ifthenelse{\boolean{standaloneFlag}}%%
{\printbibliography}{}}


Master.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{standalone}
\input{preamble}
\begin{document}

\setboolean{standaloneFlag}{false}

\input{indiv1}
\input{indiv2}

\printbibliography
\end{document}


Indiv1.tex

    \documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{standalone}
\input{preamble}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Solving \citeauthor{GreenwoodAER1988}\citeyearpar{GreenwoodAER1988} using Linear Quadratic Approximation}

\end{document}


Indiv2.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{standalone}
\input{preamble}
\begin{document}
\chapter{Solving \citeauthor{KKR2008}\citeyearpar{KKR2008}}

\standaloneBib
\end{document}


biblio.bib

@article{Azzimonti20091662,
title = "Distortionary taxes and public investment when government promises are not enforceable",
journal = "Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control",
volume = "33",
number = "9",
pages = "1662 - 1681",
year = "2009",
note = "",
issn = "0165-1889",
doi = "10.1016/j.jedc.2009.03.003",
url = "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188909000633",
author = "Marina Azzimonti and Pierre-Daniel Sarte and Jorge Soares",
keywords = "Public investment",
keywords = "Commitment",
keywords = "Time consistency",
keywords = "Discretion",
keywords = "Ramsey",
keywords = "Markov-perfect"
}

@book{Bellman1957,

author = "Bellman, Richard E.",
title = "Dynamic Programming",
url = "http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9234.html",
publisher = "Princeton University Press",
address = "Princeton, N.J.",
year = "1957",
ISBN = "9780691146683",
keyword = "Dynamic programming"
}

@book{Diaz-GimenezOUP99,
author = "Javier Díaz-Giménez",
title = "Linear Quadratic Approximations: An Introduction",
chapter = "2",
pages = "13 - 29",
year = "1999",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
address = "Oxford",
url = "http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/10.1093/0199248273.001.0001/acprof-9780199248278-chapter-2"
keyword=""
}

@article{GreenwoodAER1988,
jstor_articletype = {research-article},
title = {Investment, Capacity Utilization, and the Real Business Cycle},
author = {Greenwood, Jeremy and Hercowitz, Zvi and Huffman, Gregory W.},
journal = {The American Economic Review},
jstor_issuetitle = {},
volume = {78},
number = {3},
jstor_formatteddate = {Jun., 1988},
pages = {pp. 402-417},
url = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/1809141},
ISSN = {00028282},
year = {1988},
publisher = {American Economic Association},
copyright = {Copyright © 1988 American Economic Association},
}

@article{HansenPrescott92,
title = "Recursive Methods for Computing Equilibria of Business Cycle Models",
journal = "FRB Minneapolis Discussion Paper",
volume = "",
number = "36",
pages = "",
year = "1992",
note = "",
issn = "",
doi = "",
url = "http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=35",
author = "Gary D. Hansen and Edward C. Prescott",
keywords = "",
keywords = ""
}

@ARTICLE{KKR2008,
author = {Klein, Paul and Krusell, Per and Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor},
title = {Time-Consistent Public Policy},
journal = {Review of Economic Studies},
year = {2008},
volume = {75},
pages = {789--808},
number = {3},
doi = {10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00491.x},
issn = {1467-937X},
publisher = {Blackwell Publishing Ltd},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-937X.2008.00491.x}
}

@article{Prescott98,
title = "Business Cycle Research: Methods and Problems",
journal = "FRB Minneapolis Discussion Paper",
volume = "",
number = "590",
pages = "",
year = "1998",
note = "",
issn = "",
doi = "",
url = "http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=761",
author = "Edward C. Prescott"
}


However, as you can see, the information provided in bib file by various journals are different from each other. The style also varies - {} and "" are used. I want to know whether "I can specify what information to be included in the appendix (after typesetting). I don't want to edit the bib files that I get from sources, if possible."

-
By appendix, do you mean bibliography or your list of references? And what do you mean by 'behind the text' and 'separate text'? – Ayman Elmasry Jan 27 '12 at 22:27
@AymanElmasry: Thanks. I mean the Bibliography (<- that's what I get after PDF typesetting) that appears in the appendix of any journal article or book. Re. 'behind the text' & 'separate': if you compile the Master.tex file, you'll see that a clickable url appears as a seperate entry in each article (, when available). Instead, I want the clickable thingy either behind the title of the article/book. – bakul Jan 27 '12 at 23:19
Welcome to TeX.sx! This is a lot of code. In order to help people who'll help you, could you please remove everything from the code that's not related to your problem and add a little document, a so-called minimal working example (MWE), that people can copy and compile to reproduce your problem? Otherwise, your question might be in danger of being closed as too localized. – doncherry Jan 27 '12 at 23:56
Also, as your two questions cover two separate matters, please remove one of them from this question and post it as a new question. This way, other users looking for help can find solutions more easily. – doncherry Jan 27 '12 at 23:56
I recommend selecting some reference management software or a reference management service. Handling raw BibTeX is a pain. I don't know about anything else, but CiteULike will scrape a journal page for reference information, and can even use crossref to get additional information if the scrape acquired a DOI. See also tex.stackexchange.com/questions/33619/… – qubyte Feb 1 '12 at 9:49

1 Answer

First, I wouldn't really bother my self with the styles of entries in the .bib file, bibtex allows different forms like "" or {}, with or without indentation...etc, it would be time consuming and pointless to modify each and every entry.

As far as I know, you can't comment a field within a bib entry, which would have been convenient in your case, so I suppose you could save your downloaded original bib files separately somewhere, and modify them within your to be compiled bib file.

Regarding the URL issue, you could simply use the following in your field:

@article{GoodArtcl,
title={\href{www.articlegood.com}{The Good Article}},
author={John Do}
}


Obviously, the first value in the \href command is the URL, the second is hypertext, shown as 'The Good Article', and linked to your chosen URL.

Regarding the bibliography style, I suggest you generate your own with makebst.tex, you'll have to compile it with LaTeX, which will ask you a series of questions regarding your preferences for the bibliography style.

Edit: Refer to Joseph's answer to the following question regarding suppressing particular fields: http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/23118/9241

P.S: This answer is partially a reply to an inquiry which has been removed from the original question; the URL issue.

-
Thanks for your kind help. :) I was wondering if it's possible to automatically supress some of the bib fields being in the final pdf, for e.g. DOI or url (no point of putting both of them for a single journal entry) without fine-tuning the bib files. One more thing: I also like the volume and number to appear like 30(3) - not as 30.3, which is what I'm getting at the moment. – bakul Jan 28 '12 at 0:02
See my answer edit. I highly recommend that you follow @doncherry advice for maximum benefit. – Ayman Elmasry Jan 28 '12 at 0:26
@bakul The bibliography style in the document doesn't seem quite wild or unusual. Maybe you should check common styles and choose a similar (if not identical one), see this style guide: amath.colorado.edu/documentation/LaTeX/reference/faq/… – Ayman Elmasry Jan 31 '12 at 11:31
@bakul ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/CTAN/biblio/bibtex/contrib should provide the bst files. – Ayman Elmasry Jan 31 '12 at 11:34
@bakul Refer to: andy-roberts.net/res/writing/latex/merlin.pdf for help with the makebst method. – Ayman Elmasry Jan 31 '12 at 11:41