Bibtex reverse numbering

Question

For my CV, I would like to reverse number publications (i.e., starting from the total number of publications all the way down to 1). Is this possible with plain LaTeX and BibTeX?

This question is similar to that one here, except that in the other thread people used biblatex, which I would like to avoid because I am looking for a simple solution that requires only minor changes. http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/22770/15319

Answer 1

You can use the etaremune package; this requires redefining thebibliography to use it. I assume you are using the unsrt bibliography style.

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@article{a,
 author={x y},
 title={a},
 journal={j},
 year=2000,
}
@article{b,
 author={x y},
 title={b},
 journal={j},
 year=2000,
}
@article{c,
 author={x y},
 title={c},
 journal={j},
 year=2000,
}
@article{d,
 author={x y},
 title={d},
 journal={j},
 year=2000,
}
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{etaremune}
\makeatletter
\long\def\thebibliography#1{%
  \section*{\refname}%
  \@mkboth{\MakeUppercase\refname}{\MakeUppercase\refname}
  \settowidth{\dimen0}{\@biblabel{#1}}%
  \setlength{\dimen2}{\dimen0}%
  \addtolength{\dimen2}{\labelsep}
  \sloppy
  \clubpenalty 4000 
  \@clubpenalty 
  \clubpenalty 
  \widowpenalty 4000
  \sfcode `\.\@m
  \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\@biblabel{\theenumi}} % labels like [3], [2], [1]
  \begin{etaremune}[labelwidth=\dimen0,leftmargin=\dimen2]\@openbib@code
}
\def\endthebibliography{\end{etaremune}}
\def\@bibitem#1{%
  \item \if@filesw\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\bibcite{#1}{\the\value{enumi}}}\fi\ignorespaces
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\cite{a,b,c,d}

\bibliographystyle{unsrt}
\bibliography{\jobname}

\end{document}

The filecontents* environment is just to provide a mock bib file.