Use cite and bibitem even with citeproc

[jgm]

Here is a way of using the standard \cite and \bibitem machinery for citations, while providing arbitrary text generated by citeproc. (Quoting an earlier comment by @u-fischer):

Note: the empty lines between the bibitems are needed for backref.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backref]{hyperref}

\NewDocumentCommand\citeproctext{}{}
\NewDocumentCommand\citeproc{mm}{%
  \begingroup\def\citeproctext{#2}\cite{#1}\endgroup}
\makeatletter
%no brackets:
 \def\@biblabel#1{}
 \def\@cite#1#2{{#1\if@tempswa , #2\fi}}
\makeatother 
\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}

\citeproc{ref-casey2018}{first arbitrary text}


\section{test}

\citeproc{ref-casey2018}{ibid}

\citeproc{ref-doody2018}{another arbitrary text}

\begin{thebibliography}{99}
\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-casey2018} Casey, G. (2018). Text

\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-doody2018} Doody, G. (2018). Text

\bibitem[\citeproctext]{other} other
\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}

Originally posted by @u-fischer in #9022 (comment)

[jgm]

For the motivation for this see #9022 (comment)

[jgm]

citeproc styles specify parameters for the bibliography formatting, too (e.g. hanging indent width, entry spacing). Is there a way to customize these if we use bibitem?

[u-fischer]

sure, \bibitem[...]{} is only a special \item[...], you can put any list you want around it. E.g. with the enumitem package.

\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1cm,itemindent=-1cm]
\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-casey2018}Casey, G. (2018). Text TextText Text 
    \lipsum[1] 
 \end{itemize}

(you naturally need also a heading \section{Bibliography} but I assume that your code is adding it already).

[jgm]

Some working code in the issue9031 branch.
Still some issues having to do with the formatting of the bibliography.

[jgm]

What is the {99} for in thebibliography environment?
And is there a way to prevent it from including a References section heading?
(We are including our own and this doubles it.)

[jgm]

OK, I learned that {99} is text as wide as the widest label.

[jgm]

In order to avoid the doubled References section heading, we need to replace

\section*{References}\label{references}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{References}

with

\phantomsection\label{references}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{References}
\renewcommand{\refname}{References}

[u-fischer]

why don't you use your own list? You don't have to use thebibliography.

[jgm]

Ah, so \bibitem is important for structure and accessibility, but thebibliography is not?

[u-fischer]

No thebibliography is not handled in a special way, it is simply tagged as a list. I doubt that this will change.

[jgm]

Improved code in issue9031 branch. This fixes the doubled title issue and supports CSL's settings for hanging indent and item spacing.
Here's what we now have in the preamble:

\NewDocumentCommand\citeproctext{}{}
\NewDocumentCommand\citeproc{mm}{%
  \begingroup\def\citeproctext{#2}\cite{#1}\endgroup}
\makeatletter
% avoid brackets around text for \cite:
 \def\@biblabel#1{}
 \def\@cite#1#2{{#1\if@tempswa , #2\fi}}
\makeatother
\newlength{\cslhangindent}
\setlength{\cslhangindent}{1.5em}
\newlength{\csllabelwidth}
\setlength{\csllabelwidth}{3em}
\newlength{\cslentryspacing}
\setlength{\cslentryspacing}{0em}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newlist{biblist}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[biblist]{label={},leftmargin=\cslhangindent,itemindent=-1\cslhangindent,itemsep=\cslentryspacing}
\usepackage{calc}
\newcommand{\CSLBlock}[1]{#1\hfill\break}
\newcommand{\CSLLeftMargin}[1]{\parbox[t]{\csllabelwidth}{#1}}
\newcommand{\CSLRightInline}[1]{\parbox[t]{\linewidth - \csllabelwidth}{#1}\break}
\newcommand{\CSLIndent}[1]{\hspace{\cslhangindent}#1}

Citations look like

(\citeproc{ref-baghramian:relativism}{Baghramian 2004})

and the bibliography:

\section*{References}\label{references}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{References}

\phantomsection\label{refs}
\setlength{\cslentryspacing}{0em}
\begin{biblist}
\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-baghramian:relativism}
Baghramian, Maria. 2004. \emph{Relativism}. Oxford: Routledge.

\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-baghramian.coliva:relativism}
Baghramian, Maria, and Annalisa Coliva. 2020. \emph{Relativism}. Oxford:
Routledge.

\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-perry:thought}
Perry, John. 1986. {``Thought Without Representation.''}
\emph{Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society} 60: 137--66.

\end{biblist}

[jgm]

Right now we \usepackage{enumitem} twice in the template so we should fix that, though it's harmless.

[jgm]

@u-fischer I haven't been able to get pagebackref to work with this setup. What am I missing?
Here's a stripped down test file. I'm adding the option pagebackref in the second line.

% Options for packages loaded elsewhere
\PassOptionsToPackage{unicode}{hyperref}
\PassOptionsToPackage{pagebackref}{hyperref}
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
%
\documentclass[
]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{iftex}
\ifPDFTeX
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage{textcomp} % provide euro and other symbols
\else % if luatex or xetex
  \usepackage{unicode-math} % this also loads fontspec
  \defaultfontfeatures{Scale=MatchLowercase}
  \defaultfontfeatures[\rmfamily]{Ligatures=TeX,Scale=1}
\fi
\usepackage{lmodern}
\ifPDFTeX\else
  % xetex/luatex font selection
\fi
\IfFileExists{microtype.sty}{% use microtype if available
  \usepackage[]{microtype}
  \UseMicrotypeSet[protrusion]{basicmath} % disable protrusion for tt fonts
}{}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\setlength{\emergencystretch}{3em} % prevent overfull lines
\NewDocumentCommand\citeproctext{}{}
\NewDocumentCommand\citeproc{mm}{%
  \begingroup\def\citeproctext{#2}\cite{#1}\endgroup}
\makeatletter
% avoid brackets around text for \cite:
 \def\@biblabel#1{}
 \def\@cite#1#2{{#1\if@tempswa , #2\fi}}
\makeatother
\newlength{\cslhangindent}
\setlength{\cslhangindent}{1.5em}
\newlength{\csllabelwidth}
\setlength{\csllabelwidth}{3em}
\newlength{\cslentryspacing}
\setlength{\cslentryspacing}{0em}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newlist{biblist}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[biblist]{label={},
  leftmargin=\cslhangindent,
  itemindent=-1\cslhangindent,
  parsep=\parskip,
  itemsep=\cslentryspacing}
\usepackage{calc}
\newcommand{\CSLBlock}[1]{#1\hfill\break}
\newcommand{\CSLLeftMargin}[1]{\parbox[t]{\csllabelwidth}{#1}}
\newcommand{\CSLRightInline}[1]{\parbox[t]{\linewidth - \csllabelwidth}{#1}\break}
\newcommand{\CSLIndent}[1]{\hspace{\cslhangindent}#1}
\IfFileExists{bookmark.sty}{\usepackage{bookmark}}{\usepackage{hyperref}}
\IfFileExists{xurl.sty}{\usepackage{xurl}}{} % add URL line breaks if available
\urlstyle{same}
\hypersetup{
  pdftitle={Equal Validity and Disagreement},
  hidelinks,
  pdfcreator={LaTeX via pandoc}}

\title{Equal Validity and Disagreement}
\author{John MacFarlane}
\date{January 15, 2022}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\ldots
Like Baghramian's earlier book of the same title
(\citeproc{ref-baghramian:relativism}{Baghramian 2004}), it aims to be a
comprehensive critical survey, but unlike the earlier book it engages
extensively with the large literature on relativism that emerged in the
first two decades of this century. \ldots

\section*{References}\label{references}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{References}

\phantomsection\label{refs}
\setlength{\cslentryspacing}{0em}

\begin{biblist}
\bibitem[\citeproctext]{ref-baghramian:relativism}
Baghramian, Maria. 2004. \emph{Relativism}. Oxford: Routledge.

\end{biblist}
\end{document}