Bibtex generates runaway argument

Question

When I try to run pdflatex I get the following error:

Runaway argument?
Latex Error: ./texfile.tex:22 File ended while scanning use of \emph .
Latex Error: ./texfile.tex:24 LaTeX Error: \begin{thebibliography} on input line 1 ended by \end{document}.

Here is my tex-file:

\documentclass[a4paper, abstracton]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[final]{pdfpages}
\usepackage{longtable}
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage[top=2cm,bottom=3cm,right=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{fixltx2e}
\usepackage[square]{natbib}
\usepackage{hyperref}


\begin{document}

\citep{Nawroth:2002zr,Hou:2011vn,Rudini:2008kx,Lampugnani:2006uq,Ishiyama:2010fk,Hudry-Clergeon:2005ys,Angelini:2006vn,Andriopoulou:1999kx,Esser:1998uq,Sun:2012fk,Katsamba:2009kx,Vendome:2011uq,Bennett:1995fk,Ahrens:2003bh,Legrand:2001qf,Harrison:2010ve,Haussinger:2004ly,Parisini:2007zr,Shapiro:1995ys,Patel:2006vn,Boggon:2002kx,Pertz:1999uq,Tamura:1998fk,Cain:2010fk,Taddei:2008ys,Gory-Faure:1999vn,Gulino:1998kx,Gentil-dit-Maurin:2010uq,Corada:2001fk,Breviario:1995vn,Huber:1996uq,Lampugnani:1992fk,Suzuki:1991vn,Larson:2004kx,Breier:1996uq,Potter:2005fk,Tonks:2006fk,Allingham:2007uq,Turowski:2008fk,Vestweber:2012uq,Dejana:2012fk,Harris:2010vn,Huveneers:2012kx,Haidari:2011uq,Nelson:2008fk,Brasch:2011fk,huber:eplin,Abe:2008bh,Kobielak:2004qf,Kametani:2007ve,Drees:2005ly,Pokutta:2000zr,Koslov:1997ys,Rimm:1995vn,Kemler:1989kx,Vestweber:1984uq,Vestweber:1984fk,Lewis:1997fv,Cowin:1986bs,Lampugnani:1995ij,Nelson:2004hc,Orford:1997tg,Aberle:1997kl,Huber:2001oq,Fujita:2002nx,Xiao:2005cr,Huber:2001dq,Huber:1997bh,McCrea:1991ve,McCrea:1991ly,Thoreson:2000zr,Ferber:2002ys,Reynolds:1992vn,Reynolds:1989kx,Reynolds:2004uq,Yonemura:2011fk,Perez-Moreno:2006uq,Pokutta:2007fk,Owen:2008kx,Al-Amoudi:2007uq,He:2003fk,Tsukasaki:2007bh,Leckband:2006qf,Franke:2009ve,Pokutta:2002ly,Tachibana:2000zr,Takai:2008ys,Miyaguchi:2000vn,Hirokawa:1981kx,FARQUHAR:1963uq,Harris:2010fk,Nelson:2008dq,Ogita:2006bh,Ivanov:2001qf,Dejana:2008ve,Yonemura:2010ly,Oda:2011zr,Birukova:2011ys,Giampietro:2012kx,Telo:1998bs,Rampon:2005ij,Bardin:1996hc}


\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}
\bibliographystyle{cell}
\bibliography{bib.bib}

\end{document}

And my bib-file is here:

https://gist.github.com/raw/2368d3797ead69cfc6cf/8f75797f1389c1b42c6bfbad71c8ebd01513a40d/bib-file.bib

As far as I understand it a closing bracket is missing in the bib-file, but I cannot find it. The bib-file was generated by BibDesk. Deleting the citation that causes the problem, also doesn't help. The error resurfaces at another citation.

Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

By running bibtex, we can find some clues of what is happening:

$ bibtex mydoc
This is BibTeX, Version 0.99d (Web2C 2011)
The top-level auxiliary file: mydoc.aux
The style file: cell.bst
Database file #1: mybib.bib
`volume' is a missing field, not a string, for entry Birukova:2011ys
while executing---line 1461 of file cell.bst
`volume' is a missing field, not a string, for entry Dejana:2012fk
while executing---line 1461 of file cell.bst
`volume' is a missing field, not a string, for entry Giampietro:2012kx
while executing---line 1461 of file cell.bst
`volume' is a missing field, not a string, for entry Sun:2012fk
while executing---line 1461 of file cell.bst
`volume' is a missing field, not a string, for entry Vestweber:2012uq
while executing---line 1461 of file cell.bst
(There were 5 error messages)

The cell style complains about the missing volume field in 5 entries, which causes an unclosed \emph{ entry in the generated myfile.bbl, e.g:

\bibitem[Dejana and Giampietro, 2012]{Dejana:2012fk}
Dejana, E. and Giampietro, C. (2012{\rm{}}).
\newblock Vascular endothelial-cadherin and vascular stability.
\newblock {\rm Curr Opin Hematol } \emph{.

This is the error you pointed out. :)

The standard article data entry has volume as one of the required fields, so we need to declare it, even if we don't have the proper information (it happens sometimes). :)

As Mico pointed out, there are some occurences of words with an Umlaut in your .bib file which require the correct representation, with \"a instead of \a and \"u instead of \u - use J{\"{u}}rgen instead of J{\u}rgen for correct alphabetizing (thanks egreg). And there seems to be an unescaped # symbol in the doi field of the Chretien:1998fk key which will raise an error if not fixed (thanks Mico).

And at last but not least, don't use the β character directly in your .bib file (thankfully, it only appears in the title of two or three entries). Since we are using pdflatex, it will raise an error when you compile your file. Mico also reminds that β appears a lot of times in the abstract fields, but since the cell style does not use this particular field, you are safe for now. :)

Answer 2

I had exactly the same error message. For me the cause of this error was that several bibtex IDs contained an "_". For example:

@Article{balahur2013_sentiment,
  Title                    = {Sentiment analysis in the news},
  ...
}

I fixed this by replacing the _ in the ID with something else (I used the - character), e.g.:

@Article{balahur2013-sentiment,
  Title                    = {Sentiment analysis in the news},
  ...
}