Automated LaTeX Reference Checker for PRL Submissions

A bash script that scans the main LaTeX .tex file and Supplementary Material (SM) files to identify references in the SM not cited in the main text. Outputs a list of these references for inclusion in the SM \bibitem. Streamlines the preparation process for PRL submissions.

Usage

bash checker.sh main.tex sm.tex

then open extra_keys_in_sm or extra_keys_in_sm_oneline to see all the extra bib items you need to include in your SM description.

Why it exists

Physical Review Letters require to refer to your Supplementary Material as a citation. For this perpose the following bib-item is usually created:

@misc{SM,
    title = {{See Supplemental Material at \textit{[URL will be inserted by publisher]}
    for the ... (describe all the main sections in SM), which includes Refs~\cite{}
    }}
}

Where you need to provide a description of all the main sections in the SM and a list of all references that are in the SM but not in the main text. In the main text, refer to the SM as a citation using \cite{SM}.

If there are many references, this can be quite labor-intensive. Using regular expressions, you can write a bash script to automate this process.