workspace-course-topics

Workflow: Set up bibliography files for MyST

Purpose: Add BibTeX files to your ballpark directory and configure MyST to use them.

External resources:

⚠️ Working directory

You must be in: ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark

The .bib file goes in: models/We_Would_Like_In_Econ-ARK/[your-paper-folder]/

Run this now:

cd ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark && pwd

Expected output: Path ending in /ballpark

Verify first

1. Verify you have a .bib file ready

You should have a .bib file from PaperPile (see google-drive-paperpile-sync).

Find your .bib file location:

2. Verify your ballpark item directory exists

Run (replace YourPaperFolder with your actual folder name):

ls models/We_Would_Like_In_Econ-ARK/YourPaperFolder/

Expected: You see files like README.md or *.ipynb

Steps

A. Copy the PaperPile BibTeX file

Mac

# Navigate to your ballpark item
cd ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark/models/We_Would_Like_In_Econ-ARK/YourPaperFolder/

# Copy the .bib file (adjust the source path to your actual location)
cp ~/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-*/My\ Drive/*.bib ./references.bib

Windows/WSL

Google Drive files are on the Windows filesystem. You need to access them through /mnt/c/:

# Navigate to your ballpark item
cd ~/GitHub/econ-ark/ballpark/models/We_Would_Like_In_Econ-ARK/YourPaperFolder/

# Find your Google Drive path (usually something like this)
# Replace 'YourUsername' with your Windows username
cp "/mnt/c/Users/YourUsername/Google Drive/My Library.bib" ./references.bib

If you can’t find the file: See WSL Google Drive access for detailed instructions.

If your path has spaces: See paths with spaces — you must use quotes around the path.

B. Verify the copy worked

ls *.bib

Expected: Shows references.bib (or whatever you named it)

head -5 references.bib

Expected: Shows BibTeX entries (lines starting with @article{ or similar)

C. Create a BibTeX file for the paper itself (optional)

If you want a separate .bib file for just the paper you’re working on:

  1. Create a new file called paper.bib
  2. Add a single BibTeX entry for your paper
  3. You can generate this with ChatGPT:

    “Generate a BibTeX entry for [paper title] by [authors]”

D. Configure MyST to use the bib files

If your project uses MyST, modify myst.yml or the document frontmatter to include your bibliography:

bibliography:
  - references.bib
  - paper.bib  # if you created this

Ask Cursor if you’re unsure:

“How do I add a bibliography to this MyST document?”