Untitled

Why, oh my, does Molecular Systems Biology not provide a Latex template? Read on if you’d rather cut your hand off than write your MSB paper draft in Microsoft Word.

“NO, I don’t want to read on. Just give me the !@#$ .bst file”. Well, you can download it from http://gist.github.com/329210 or clone it with git (git://gist.github.com/329210.git). Remember, the file comes without warranty. In fact the .bst style was not even tested in reality.

The biggest problem is the bibliography style demanded by MSB. I had to go through the pain of creating my own msb.bst bibliography style file using makebst. makebst is a commandline interface already provided by TexLive 2009. The path under Mac OS X 10.4 is latex /usr/local/texlive/2009/texmf-dist/tex/latex/custom-bib/makebst.tex. It asks you quadrillions of questions regarding your desired bib. style and builds a .bst file in the end (that you can use then in your latex file).

If not mentioned in the following log, the provided default options were chosen. Have fun.

STYLE OF CITATIONS:

(*) Numerical as in standard LaTeX

(a) Author-year with some non-standard interface

(b) Alpha style, Jon90 or JWB90 for single or multiple authors

(o) Alpha style, Jon90 even for multiple authors

(f) Alpha style, Jones90 (full name of first author)

(c) Cite key (special for listing contents of bib file)

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: Author-year

AUTHOR NAMES:

(*) Full, surname last (John Frederick Smith)

(f) Full, surname first (Smith, John Frederick)

(i) Initials + surname (J. F. Smith)

(r) Surname + initials (Smith, J. F.)

(s) Surname + dotless initials (Smith J F)

(x) Surname + pure initials (Smith JF)

(y) Surname + comma + pure initials (Smith, JF)

(z) Surname + spaceless initials (Smith J.F.)

(a) Only first name reversed, initials (AGU style: Smith, J. F., H. K. Jones)

(b) First name reversed, with full names (Smith, John Fred, Harry Kab Jones)

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: Surname + pure initials

EDITOR NAMES IN COLLECTIONS (if author names reversed)

(*) Editor names NOT reversed as edited by JJ Smith

(r) Editor names reversed just like authors’

Select:

\ans=r

You have selected: Editor names reversed

NUMBER OF AUTHORS:

(*) All authors included in listing

(l) Limited authors (et al replaces missing names)

Select:

\ans=l

You have selected: Limited authors

Maximum number of authors (1-99)

\num=20

You have selected maximum 20 authors

Minimum number (before et al given) (1-20)

\num=20

You have selected minimum 20 authors

DATE POSITION:

(*) Date at end

(b) Date after authors

(j) Date part of journal spec. (as 1994;45:34-40) else at end

(e) Date at very end after any notes

Select:

\ans=b

You have selected: Date after authors

DATE FORMAT (if author-year citations)

(*) Year plain without any brackets

(p) Year in parentheses as (1993)

(b) Year in brackets as [1993]

(c) Year preceded by colon as `: 1993’

(d) Year preceded by period as `. 1993’

(m) Date preceded by comma as `, 1993’

(s) Year preceded by space only, as ` 1993’

Select:

\ans=p

You have selected: Year in parentheses

DATE PUNCTUATION (if date not at end)

(*) Date with standard block punctuation (comma or period)

(c) Colon after date as 1994:

(s) Semi-colon after date as 1994;

(p) Period after date even when blocks use commas

(x) No punct. after date

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No punct. after date

CAPITALIZATION OF ARTICLE TITLE:

(*) Sentence style (capitalize first word and those in braces)

(t) Title style (just as in bib entry)

Select:

\ans=t

You have selected: Title style

JOURNAL NAMES:

(*) Periods in journal names are retained, as `Phys. Rev.’

(x) Dotless journal names as `Phys Rev’

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: Dotless journal names

JOURNAL VOLUME:

(*) Volume plain as vol(num)

(i) Volume italic as {\em vol}(num)

(b) Volume bold as {\bf vol}(num)

(d) Volume and number bold as {\bf vol(num)}

Select:

\ans=b

You have selected: Volume bold

JOURNAL VOL AND NUMBER:

(*) Journal vol(num) as 34(2)

(s) Journal vol (num) as 34 (2)

(c) Journal vol, num as 34, 2

(n) Journal vol, no. num as 34, no. 2

(h) Journal vol, \# number as 34, \#2

(b) Journal vol number as 34 2

(x) Journal vol, without number as 34

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: Journal vol, without number

VOLUME PUNCTUATION:

(*) Volume with colon as vol(num):ppp

(s) Volume with colon and space as vol(num): ppp

(h) Volume with semi-colon as vol(num); ppp

(c) Volume with comma as vol(num), ppp

(b) Volume with blank as vol(num) ppp

Select:

\ans=s

You have selected: Volume with colon and space

POSITION OF PAGES:

(*) Pages given mid text as is normal

(e) Pages at end but before any notes

Select:

\ans=e

You have selected: Pages at end

JOURNAL NAME PUNCTUATION:

(*) Comma after journal name

(x) Space after journal name

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: Space after journal

PUBLISHER ADDRESS:

(*) Publisher, address as Harcourt, New York

(a) Address: Publisher as New York: Harcourt

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: Address: Publisher

ISBN NUMBER:

(*) Include ISBN for books, booklets, etc.

(x) No ISBN

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No ISBN

ISSN NUMBER:

(*) Include ISSN for periodicals

(x) No ISSN

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No ISSN

DOI NUMBER:

(*) Include DOI as “doi: number”

(a) Insert DOI AGU style as part of page number

(x) No DOI

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No DOI

`EDITOR’ AFTER NAMES (EDITED BOOKS WITHOUT AUTHORS):

(*) Word `editor’ after name

(a) `Name (editor),’ in parentheses, after name, comma after

(b) `Name (Editor),’ as above, editor upper case

(c) `Name, (editor)’ in parentheses, after name, comma between

(d) `Name, (Editor)’ as above, editor upper case

(e) `Name (editor)’ in parentheses, after name, no commas

(f) `Name (Editor)’ as above, editor upper case

Select:

\ans=e

You have selected: `Name (editor)’

FINAL PUNCTUATION:

(*) Period at very end of the listed reference

(x) No period at end

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No period at end

ABBREVIATE WORD `PAGES’ (if not using external language file)

(*) `Page(s)’ (no abbreviation)

(a) `Page’ abbreviated as p. or pp.

(x) `Page’ omitted

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: `Page’ abbreviated

ABBREVIATE WORD `EDITORS’:

(*) `Editor(s)’ (no abbreviation)

(a) `Editor’ abbreviated as ed. or eds.

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: `Editor’ abbreviated

OTHER ABBREVIATIONS:

(*) No abbreviations of volume, edition, chapter, etc

(a) Abbreviations of such words

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: Abbreviations

STORED JOURNAL NAMES:

(*) Full journal names for prestored journals

(a) Abbreviated journal names

(s) Abbreviated with astronomy shorthands like ApJ and AJ

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: Abbreviated journal names

AMPERSAND:

(*) Use word `and’ in author lists

(a) Use ampersand in place of `and’

(v) Use \BIBand in place of `and’

Select:

\ans=a

You have selected: Use ampersand

COMMA BEFORE `AND’:

(*) Comma before `and’ as `Tom, Dick, and Harry’

(n) No comma before `and’ as `Tom, Dick and Harry’

(c) Comma even with 2 authors as `Tom, and Harry’

Select:

\ans=n

You have selected: No comma before `and’

NO `AND’ IN REFERENCE LIST:

(*) With `and’ before last author in reference list

(x) No `and’ as `Tom, Dick, Harry’

Select:

\ans=x

You have selected: No `and’

FONT OF `ET AL’:

(*) Plain et al

(i) Italic et al

(r) Roman et al even when authors something else

Select:

\ans=i

You have selected: Italic et al