BibTeX overview

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BibTeX style files
BibTeX provides formatted reference lists for LaTeX documents. The format of the reference list is determined by a bibliography style file with the extension bst, which typically is specified by the intended publisher of the document.
A hugh advantage of BibTeX is that the same database of references can be formatted by various style files.

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BibTeX database files
The information in the reference list is obtained from one or more BibTeX database files, which have the extension bib. BibTeX produces a reference list corresponding to citations made in the LaTeX source file with the cite{cite_key} command. Thecite_key identifies which entry in the bib file to use.
Each entry in a bib file looks similar to the following:

@book{Lamport94,

title = “LaTeX: A Document Preparation System”,

author = “Leslie Lamport”,

publisher = “Addison-Wesley”,

address = “Reading, Mass.”,

edition = “second”,

year = “1994” }

Here the BibTeX entry type is book and Lamport94 is the cite_key identified in the LaTeX source file with the command cite{Lamport94}. The words title, author, etc. correspond to fields containing the bibliographic information for the reference.The standard types of entries and their fields are listed below. If an entry does not include a “required field,” BibTex will issue a warning and possibly mis-format the reference. The user should correct the entries to try to eliminate all warnings.
More detailed guidance on using BibTeX, including the rules for formatting text fields in bib files, can be found in books on LaTeX, such as Leslie Lamport’s LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

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Entry types
The following entry types are recognized by essentially all BibTeX styles:

article – article from a journal or magazine

Required fields: author, title, journal, year

Optional fields: volume, number, pages, month, note, key

book – book with an explicit publisher

Required fields: author/editor, title, publisher, year

Optional fields: volume/number, series, address, edition, month, note, key

booklet – work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution

Required fields: title

Optional fields: author, howpublished, address, month, year, note, key

conference – same as inproceedings; included for compatibility with earlier versions

inbook – part of a book, which may be a chapter (or section or whatever) and/or a range of pages

Required fields: author/editor, title, chapter/pages, publisher, year

Optional fields: volume/number, series, address, edition, month, note, key

incollection – part of a book having its own title

Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year

Optional fields: editor, volume/number, series, chapter, organization, pages, publisher, address, edition, month, note, key

inproceedings – article in a conference proceedings

Required fields: author, title, booktitle, publisher, year

Optional fields: editor, volume/number, series, pages, organization, address, month, note, key

manual – technical documentation

Required fields: title

Optional fields: author, organization, address, edition, month, year, note, key

mastersthesis – master’s thesis

Required fields: author, title, school, year

Optional fields: type, address, month, note, key

misc – for use when nothing else fits

Required fields: none

Optional fields: author, title, howpublished, month, year, note, key

phdthesis – Ph.D. thesis

Required fields: author, title, school, year

Optional fields: type, address, month, note, key

proceedings – proceedings of a conference

Required fields: title, year

Optional fields: editor, volume/number, series, publisher, organization, address, month, note, key

techreport – report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series

Required fields: author, title, institution, year

Optional fields: type, number, address, month, note, key

unpublished – document having an author and title, but not formally published

Required fields: author, title, note

Optional fields: month, year, key

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Entry fields
Within each database entry, the following fields provide the bibliographic information:

• address – publisher’s address (usually just the city, but the full address may be provided for lesser-known publishers)
• author – name(s) of the author(s). Separate multiple authors’ names with and
• booktitle – title of the book, if only part of it is being cited
• chapter – chapter number
• crossref – cite_key of the cross-referenced entry
• edition – edition of a book, long form (such as “first” or “second”)
• editor – name(s) of the editor(s)
• howpublished – how it was published, if the publishing method is nonstandard
• institution – institution that was involved in the publishing, but not necessarily the publisher
• journal – name of the journal or magazine in which the work was published
• key – hidden field used for specifying or overriding the alphabetical order of entries, when the author and editor fields are missing. Note that this is different from the cite_key used to cite or cross-reference the entry.
• month – month of publication (or, if unpublished, the month of creation)
• note – miscellaneous additional information
• number – issue number of a journal, magazine, or technical report, if applicable. (Many publications have a volume, but no number field.)
• organization – conference sponsor
• pages – page numbers, separated by commas or double-hyphens, if consecutive
• publisher – publisher’s name
• school – name of the school where the thesis was written
• series – name of the series of books in which the book was published
• title – title of the work
• type – type of technical report, for example, “Research Note” or the type of thesis, if different than normal
• volume – volume of a journal or multi-volume book
• year – year of publication (or, if unpublished, the year of creation)

The following fields are recognized in some style files or special-purpose utilities, but are not standard. If these fields are not recognized, the information may be provided in the note field.

• abstract – abstract; used by special-purpose utilities that create full listings of references
• annote – annotation; used by annotated bibliography styles
• doi – Digital Object Identifier, which uniquely specifies an online volume
• eprint – specification of an online electronic publication, often a preprint or a technical report
• url – Uniform Resource Locator for the document, which specifies where it can be found on the internet

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This page provided by Ken Hanson, kmh@lanl.gov
Go to my home page – public.lanl.gov/kmh/