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. https://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.

Answer 2

Here is a concise fix that does reverse numbering for "thebibliography" environment in my CV, using only plain latex without any external package.

EDITS:

1. write the value of the counter to the aux-file, so you don't need to input the number of publications manually. It was surprisingly concise and straightforward actually.
2. added commands to get the standard "[1]" (I realized my first answer was not actually doing it)

Original post:

I just input the total number of publications and defined a wrapper around \bibitem (redefining it is a bit more tricky). Because it just modifies the counter value of \bibitem, it has the standard "[1]" bracket style and it works with hyperref.

\begin{thebibliography}{99}
\makeatletter
\newcounter{num}
\newcommand{\MyNbOfPub}{24}%input your number of publications here
\newcommand{\mybibitem}[1]{\stepcounter{num}\setcounter{\@listctr}{\MyNbOfPub-\value{num}}\bibitem{#1}}
\makeatother

\mybibitem{Myfirstref}
...
\mybibitem{Mysecondref}
...
etc...

NB: counters start at 0 thus bibitem automatically labels ref as [N+1] so that a value of "0" in the counter gives ref [1] (and not [0]). Stepping the num counter first takes care of that +1

EDITS (continued):

here is a working example

\documentclass[11pt,letterpaper,sans]{moderncv}
\moderncvstyle{classic}
\moderncvcolor{orange}
\usepackage[colorlinks=true,urlcolor=blue,citecolor=blue,unicode]{hyperref}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[scale=0.9]{geometry}

% Macros
% if \NbOfPub is defined in aux file 
%     the value is automatically read from the aux file
% else (first run)
%     create counter which will be wrote to the aux file at the end of the document
%     (note that we just use this counter as a fixed variable)
\ifdefined\NbOfPub
\else
    \newcount\NbOfPub
    \NbOfPub 0\relax
\fi

\makeatletter
% make square brackets numerical labels 
\renewcommand*{\bibliographyitemlabel}{\@biblabel{\arabic{enumiv}}}
% bibitems margins formatting
\setlength\bibindent{2em}
\renewcommand\@openbib@code{%
    \leftmargin 2em %push bib to the right by that amount
    \itemindent 0em %push item  1st line to the right by that amount
    \listparindent \parindent
    \parsep \z@
    \labelsep 1em %push label to the left from 1st line by that amount
}
% bibliography counter
\newcounter{num}
% define "\metibib", a \bibitem wrapper that counts in reverse
\newcommand{\metibib}[1]{%
    \stepcounter{num}
    \setcounter{\@listctr}{\NbOfPub-\value{num}}
    \bibitem{#1}
}
\makeatother

% document
\setlength{\hintscolumnwidth}{2cm}
\firstname{John}
\familyname{Doe}
\namespacing{1cm}{1cm}
\begin{document}
\makecvtitle
\section{Career Summary}
Here are my publications on A\cite{refA} and B\cite{refB}.

% change bibliography standard name
\renewcommand{\refname}{List of Publications}
% the bibliography
\begin{thebibliography}{9}
\item[] You have \the\NbOfPub\ publications in the .aux file

\item[\textbf{2018}]

\metibib{refA}
\underline{\textbf{J.~Doe}} \textit{et al.}\\
\textit{On topic A}\\
\textbf{Great Journal A}, xx, yyy\\
\url{https://doi.org/xxyyy}

\item[\textbf{2017}]

\metibib{refB}
\underline{\textbf{J.~Doe}} \textit{et al.}\\
\textit{On topic B}\\
\textbf{Great Journal B}, xx, yyy\\
\url{https://doi.org/xxyyy}

\end{thebibliography}

%write number of publications to aux-file
\makeatletter
\write\@auxout{\noexpand\newcount\NbOfPub}
\write\@auxout{\global\NbOfPub \arabic{num}\relax}
\makeatother

\end{document}

and here is the result I get

Answer 3

Based on egreg's answer, but instead of the etaremune package, here a variant using the revnum package.

\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{revnum}


\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{revnumerate}\@openbib@code
}
\def\endthebibliography{\end{revnumerate}}
\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}