Contact Information 312 Hamilton Hall, CB #3265
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
919.600.9247
E-mail: jjharden[at]unc.edu

Notes on LaTeX Almost everything here came to me from Jamie Monogan's website.

Useful references for new and continuing users:

• An earlier version of Jamie's short course notes was written by Evan Parker-Stephen. You can compile his code, which requires this figure.
• Here is a LaTeX cheat sheet.
• Jim Stimson wrote these notes on the advantages of LaTeX.
• A more comprehensive, yet easy-to-follow, guide is "The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2ε".
• For continuing questions, you might consult the TeX users' group website.

Setting-up an automatic bibliography in LaTeX:

• Master.bib is Jim Stimson's bibliography file, which I place under the path: C:\Program Files\texmf\bibtex\bib\my_bibs\Master.bib
• APSR style bibliographies will require the following two files: apsr.bst and bib.sty, which I place under the path: C:\Program Files\texmf\tex\latex\my_styles\
• Another option is natbib. More information about natbib is available at this link. An example of a bibliography format that works well with natbib is the Chicago style sheet, chicago.bst, which also goes into C:\Program Files\texmf\tex\latex\my_styles\.
• Please note that natbib will work with apsr.bst and many other bibliography styles.
• To see how the file syntax works for bib.sty and natbib.sty, consult this document for two simple examples, first of using the Chicago format with natbib.sty, then of using the APSR format with bib.sty.
• For most cases, the key to placing bibliography and style files in the correct directory is to find the equivalent of the "texmf" folder on your computer. It may be called "MiKTeX," "TeXLive," or something else depending on your build. Within this main folder, though, the structure is usually similar.
• I also recommend the use of JabRef to make managing your references easier.

Creating scientific slideshows:

• The beamer class is a great way to make scientific slideshows in LaTeX. The beamer webpage is located at this link.
• Here is some some example beamer code I wrote to create these slides for a presentation given to Triangle Political Methodology Group. E-mail me if you want the other files required to compile the document.

To create a poster in LaTeX:

• Consult Jamie's article with Mark D. Ramirez in The Political Methodologist.
• To follow the instructions for creating a poster in the scrartcl document class, you will need the style file scrpos.sty. I place this under the path: C:\Program Files\texmf\tex\latex\my_styles\
• Jamie made this poster with this code by including the aforementioned style file in the directory and the UNC seal in the same folder as the TeX file.
• For another example, I made this poster with this code (and an image from this folder).

To get BibTeX references from Google Scholar:

• Go to scholar.google.com
• Click the link to "Scholar Preferences"
• Next to Bibliography Manager, select "Show links to import citations into (BibTeX)"
• Save preferences

Now, when you locate cites via Google Scholar, you will notice that there is an "Import to BibTeX" link underneath the paper link. Let's say you search for The Macro Polity, by Erikson, MacKuen, and Stimson (2002). Clicking on the import link takes you to a page with the following citation for you to copy and paste. Just be careful to proofread the information. For example, this entry omits M.B. MacKuen as a co-author.

@book{erikson2002mp,
title={{The Macro Polity}},
author={Erikson, R.S. and Stimson, J.A.},
year={2002},
publisher={Cambridge University Press}
}