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• Bibliography management with bibtex
• 1 Advisory note
• 2 Introduction
• 3.1 A note on compilation times
• 4.1 Some notes on using \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) and .bib files
• 5.1 Multiple authors in \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)
• 5.2 Multiple-word last names
• 5.3 I tried to use % to comment out some lines or entries in my .bib file, but I got lots of error messages instead?
• 6.1 Edit the .bib file as plain text
• 6.2 Help from GUI-based .bib editors
• 6.3 Export from reference library services
• 6.4 I’ve already got a reference list in a Microsoft Word/HTML/PDF file; can I somehow reuse the data without re-typing everything?
• 7.1 Further reading

Advisory note

If you are starting from scratch we recommend using biblatex because that package provides localization in several languages, it’s actively developed and makes bibliography management easier and more flexible.

Introduction

Many tutorials have been written about what \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) is and how to use it . However, based on our experience of providing support to Overleaf’s users, it’s still one of the topics that many newcomers to \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) find complicated—especially when things don’t go quite right; for example: citations aren’t appearing; problems with authors’ names; not sorted to a required order; URLs not displayed in the references list, and so forth.

In this article we’ll pull together all the threads relating to citations, references and bibliographies, as well as how Overleaf and related tools can help users manage these.

We’ll start with a quick recap of how \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) and bibliography database ( .bib ) files work and look at some ways to prepare .bib files. This is, of course, running the risk of repeating some of the material contained in many online tutorials, but future articles will expand our coverage to include bibliography styles and biblatex —the alternative package and bibliography processor.

Bibliography: just a list of \bibitems

Let’s first take a quick look “under the hood” to see what a \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) reference list is comprised of—please don’t start coding your reference list like this because later in this article we’ll look at other, more convenient, ways to do this.

A reference list really just a thebibliography list of \bibitems :

By default, this thebibliography environment is a numbered list with labels [1] , [2] and so forth. If the document class used is article , \begin{thebibliography} automatically inserts a numberless section heading with \refname (default value: References ). If the document class is book or report, then a numberless chapter heading with \bibname (default value: Bibliography ) is inserted instead. Each \bibitem takes a cite key as its parameter, which you can use with \cite commands, followed by information about the reference entry itself. So if you now write

together with the thebibliography block from before, this is what gets rendered into your PDF when you run a \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) processor (i.e. any of latex , pdflatex , xelatex or lualatex ) on your source file:

Figure 1: Citing entries from a thebibliography list.

Notice how each \bibitem is automatically numbered, and how \cite then inserts the corresponding numerical label.

\begin{thebibliography} takes a numerical argument: the widest label expected in the list. In this example we only have two entries, so 9 is enough. If you have more than ten entries, though, you may notice that the numerical labels in the list start to get misaligned:

Figure 2: thebibliography with a label that’s too short.

We’ll have to make it \begin{thebibliography}{99} instead, so that the longest label is wide enough to accommodate the longer labels, like this:

Figure 3: thebibliography with a longer label width.

If you compile this example code snippet on a local computer you may notice that after the first time you run pdflatex (or another \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) processor), the reference list appears in the PDF as expected, but the \cite commands just show up as question marks [?] .

This is because after the first \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) run the cite keys from each \bibitem ( texbook , lamport94 ) are written to the .aux file and are not yet available for reading by the \cite commands. Only on the second run of pdflatex are the \cite commands able to look up each cite key from the .aux file and insert the corresponding labels ( [1] , [2] ) into the output.

On Overleaf, though, you don’t have to worry about re-running pdflatex yourself. This is because Overleaf uses the latexmk build tool , which automatically re-runs pdflatex (and some other processors) for the requisite number of times needed to resolve \cite outputs. This also accounts for other cross-referencing commands, such as \ref and \tableofcontents .

A note on compilation times

Processing \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) reference lists or other forms of cross-referencing, such as indexes, requires multiple runs of software—including the \(\mathrm{\TeX}\) engine (e.g., pdflatex ) and associated programs such as \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\), makeindex , etc. As mentioned above, Overleaf handles all of these mulitple runs automatically, so you don’t have to worry about them. As a consequence, when the preview on Overleaf is refreshing for documents with bibliographies (or other cross-referencing), or for documents with large image files (as discussed separately here ), these essential compilation steps may sometimes make the preview refresh appear to take longer than on your own machine. We do, of course, aim to keep it as short as possible! If you feel your document is taking longer to compile than you’d expect, here are some further tips that may help.

Enter \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)

There are, of course, some inconveniences with manually preparing the thebibliography list:

• It’s up to you to accurately format each \bibitem based on the reference style you’re asked to use—which bits should be in bold or italic? Should the year come immediately after the authors, or at the end of the entry? Given names first, or last names first?
• If you’re writing for a reference style which requires the reference list to be sorted by the last names of first authors, you’ll need to sort the \bibitem s yourself.
• For different manuscripts or documents that use different reference styles you’ll need to rewrite the \bibitem for each reference.

This is where \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) and bibliography database files ( .bib files) are extremely useful, and this is the recommended approach to manage citations and references in most journals and theses. The biblatex approach, which is slightly different and gaining popularity, also requires a .bib file but we’ll talk about biblatex in a future post.

Instead of formatting cited reference entries in a thebibliography list, we maintain a bibliography database file (let’s name it refs.bib for our example) which contains format-independent information about our references. So our refs.bib file may look like this:

You can find more information about other \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) reference entry types and fields here —there’s a huge table showing which fields are supported for which entry types. We’ll talk more about how to prepare .bib files in a later section.

Now we can use \cite with the cite keys as before, but now we replace thebibliography with a \bibliographystyle{...} to choose the reference style, as well as \bibliography{...} to point \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) at the .bib file where the cited references should be looked-up.

This is processed with the following sequence of commands, assuming our \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) document is in a file named main.tex (and that we are using pdflatex ):

• pdflatex main
• bibtex main

and we get the following output:

Figure 4: \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) output using the plain bibliography style.

Whoah! What’s going on here and why are all those (repeated) processes required? Well, here’s what happens.

During the first pdflatex run, all pdflatex sees is a \bibliographystyle{...} and a \bibliography{...} from main.tex . It doesn’t know what all the \cite{...} commands are about! Consequently, within the output PDF, all the \cite{...} commands are simply rendered as [?], and no reference list appears, for now. But pdflatex writes information about the bibliography style and .bib file, as well as all occurrences of \cite{...} , to the file main.aux .

It’s actually main.aux that \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) is interested in! It notes the .bib file indicated by \bibliography{...} , then looks up all the entries with keys that match the \cite{...} commands used in the .tex file. \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) then uses the style specified with \bibliographystyle{...} to format the cited entries, and writes a formatted thebibliography list into the file main.bbl . The production of the .bbl file is all that’s achieved in this step; no changes are made to the output PDF.

When pdflatex is run again, it now sees that a main.bbl file is available! So it inserts the contents of main.bbl i.e. the \begin{thebibliography}....\end{thebibliography} into the \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) source, where \bibliography{...} is. After this step, the reference list appears in the output PDF formatted according to the chosen \bibliographystyle{...} , but the in-text citations are still [?].

pdflatex is run again, and this time the \cite{...} commands are replaced with the corresponding numerical labels in the output PDF!

As before, the latexmk build tool takes care of triggering and re-running pdflatex and bibtex as necessary, so you don’t have to worry about this bit.

Some notes on using \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) and .bib files

A few further things to note about using \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) and .bib files :

• You may have noticed that although refs.bib contained five \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) reference entries, only two are included in the reference list in the output PDF. This is an important point about \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\): the .bib file’s role is to store bibliographic records, and only entries that have been cited (via \cite{...} ) in the .tex files will appear in the reference list. This is similar to how only cited items from an EndNote database will be displayed in the reference list in a Microsoft Word document. If you do want to include all entries—to be displayed but without actually citing all of them—you can write \nocite{*} . This also means you can reuse the same .bib file for all your \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) projects: entries that are not cited in a particular manuscript or report will be excluded from the reference list in that document.
• \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) requires one \bibliographystyle{...} and one \bibliography{...} to function correctly—in future posts we’ll see how to create multiple bibliographies in the same document. If you keep getting “undefined citation” warnings, check that you have indeed included those two commands, and that the names are spelled correctly. File extensions are not usually required, but bear in mind that file names are case sensitive on some operating systems—including on Overleaf! Therefore, if you typed \bibliographystyle{IEEetran} (note the typo: “e”) instead of \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran} , or wrote \bibliography{refs} when the actual file name is Refs.bib , you’ll get the dreaded [?] as citations.
• In the same vein, treat your cite keys as case-sensitive, always. Use the exact same case or spelling in your \cite{...} as in your .bib file.
• The order of references in the .bib file does not have any effect on how the reference list is ordered in the output PDF: the sorting order of the reference list is determined by the \bibliographystyle{...} . For example, some readers might have noticed that, within my earlier example, the first citation in the text latex2e is numbered [2], while the second citation in the text ( texbook ) is numbered [1]! Have \(\mathrm{\LaTeX}\) and \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) lost the plot? Not at all: this is actually because the plain style sorts the reference list by alphabetical order of the first author’s last name . If you prefer a scheme where the numerical citation labels are numbered sequentially throughout the text, you’ll have to choose a bibliography style which implements this. For example, if instead we had used \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran} for that example, we’d get the following output. Notice also how the formatting of each cited item in the reference list has automatically updated to suit the IEEE’s style:

Figure 5: IEEEtran bibliography style output.

We’ll talk more about different bibliography styles, including author–year citation schemes, in a future article. For now, let’s turn our attention to .bib file contents, and how we can make the task of preparing .bib files a bit easier.

Taking another look at .bib files

As you may have noticed earlier, a .bib file contains \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) bibliography entries that start with an entry type prefixed with an @ . Each entry has a some key–value \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) fields , placed within a pair of braces ( {...} ). The cite key is the first piece of information given within these braces, and every field in the entry must be separated by a comma :

As a general rule, every bibliography entry should have an author , year and title field, no matter what the type is. There are about a dozen entry types although some bibliography styles may recognise/define more; however, it is likely that you will most frequently use the following entry types:

• @article for journal articles (see example above).
• @inproceedings for conference proceeding articles:
• @book for books (see examples above).
• @phdthesis , @masterthesis for dissertations and theses:
• @inbook is for a book chapter where the entire book was written by the same author(s): the chapter of interest is identified by a chapter number:
• @incollection is for a contributed chapter in a book, so would have its own author and title . The actual title of the entire book is given in the booktitle field; it is likely that an editor field will also be present:
• you will often find it useful to add \usepackage{url} or \usepackage{hyperref} in your .tex files’ preamble (for more robust handling of URLs);
• not all bibliography styles support the url field: plain doesn’t, but IEEEtran does. All styles support note . More on this in a future post;
• you should be mindful that even web pages and @misc entries should have an author , a year and a title field:

Multiple authors in \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)

In a .bib file, commas are only used to separate the last name from the first name of an author—if the last name is written first. Individual author names are separated by and . So these are correct:

But none of the following will work correctly —you’ll get weird output, or even error messages from \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)! So take extra care if you are copying author names from a paper or from a web page.

Multiple-word last names

If an author’s last name is made up of multiple words separated by spaces, or if it’s actually an organisation, place an extra pair of braces around the last name so that \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) will recognise the grouped words as the last name:

Alternatively, you can use the Lastname, Firstname format; some users find that clearer and more readable:

Remember: Whether the first or last name appears first in the output (“John Doe” vs “Doe, John”), or whether the first name is automatically abbreviated “J. Doe” or “Doe, J.” vs “John Doe” “J. Doe”), all such details are controlled by the \bibliographystyle .

I tried to use % to comment out some lines or entries in my .bib file, but I got lots of error messages instead?

% is actually not a comment character in .bib files! So, inserting a % in .bib files not only fails to comment out the line, it also causes some \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) errors. To get \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) to ignore a particular field we just need to rename the field to something that \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) doesn’t recognise. For example, if you want to keep a date field around but prefer that it’s ignored (perhaps because you want \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) to use the year field instead) write Tdate = {...} or the more human-readable IGNOREdate = {...} .

To get \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) to ignore an entire entry you can remove the @ before the entry type. A valid reference entry always starts with a @ followed by the entry type; without the @ character \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) skips the lines until it encounters another @ .

How/where do I actually get those .bib files?

Edit the .bib file as plain text.

Because .bib files are plain text you can certainly write them by hand—once you’re familiar with \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)’s required syntax. Just make sure that you save it with a .bib extension, and that your editor doesn’t surreptitiously add a .txt or some other suffix. On Overleaf you can click on the “Files…” link at the top of the file list panel, and then on “Add blank file” to create a fresh .bib file to work on.

Pro tip: Did you know that Google Scholar search results can be exported to a \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) entry? Click on the “Cite” link below each search result, and then on the “\(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)” option search. You can then copy the \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) entry generated. Here’s a video that demonstrates the process. Note that you should always double-check the fields presented in the entry, as the automatically populated information isn’t always comprehensive or accurate!

Help from GUI-based .bib editors

Many users prefer to use a dedicated \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) bibliography database editor/manager, such as JabRef or BibDesk to maintain, edit and add entries to their .bib files. Using a GUI can indeed help reduce syntax and spelling errors whilst creating bibliography entries in a \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) file. If you prefer, you can prepare your .bib file on your own machine using JabRef, BibDesk or another utility, and then upload it to your Overleaf.

Pro tip: If you’d like to use the same .bib for multiple Overleaf projects, have a look at this help article to set up a “master project”, or this one for sharing files from Google Drive (the instructions apply to other cloud-based storage solutions, such as Dropbox).

Export from reference library services

If you click on the Upload files button above the file list panel, you'll notice some options: Import from Mendeley, and Import from Zotero. If you’re already using one of those reference library management services, Overleaf can now hook into the Web exporter APIs provided by those services to import the .bib file (generated from your library) into your Overleaf project. For more information, see the Overleaf article How to link your Overleaf account to Mendeley and Zotero .

For other reference library services that don’t have a public API, or are not yet directly integrated with Overleaf, such as EndNote or Paperpile , look for an “export to .bib ” option in the application or service. Once you have a .bib file, you can then add it to your Overleaf project.

I’ve already got a reference list in a Microsoft Word/HTML/PDF file; can I somehow reuse the data without re-typing everything?

It used to be that you would have to hand-code each line into a \bibitem or an @article{...} entry (or another entry type) in a .bib file. As you can imagine, it’s not exactly a task that many people look forward to. Fortunately, these days some tools are available to help. They typically take a plain text file, e.g.

and attempt to parse the lines, converting it into a structured bibliography as a \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) .bib file. For example, have a look at text2bib or Edifix . Be sure to go through the options of these tools carefully, so that they work well with your existing unstructured bibliography in plain text.

Summary and further reading

We’ve had a quick look at how \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\) processes a .bib bibliography database file to resolve \cite commands and produce a formatted reference list, as well as how to prepare .bib files.

Happy \(\mathrm{Bib\TeX}\)ing!

Further reading

For more information see:

• Bibtex bibliography styles
• Bibliography management with natbib
• Bibliography management with biblatex
• BibTeX documentation at CTAN web site
• tocbind package documentation
• Table of contents
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Documentation Home
• Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

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• Using bibliographies in Overleaf
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• Guide to Overleaf’s premium features

LaTeX Basics

• Creating your first LaTeX document
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Figures and tables

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References and Citations

• Natbib bibliography styles
• Natbib citation styles
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• Biblatex citation styles
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• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
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Document structure

• Sections and chapters
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• Using colours in LaTeX
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• Font typefaces
• Supporting modern fonts with X Ǝ L a T e X

Presentations

• Environments

Field specific

• Theorems and proofs
• Chemistry formulae
• Feynman diagrams
• Molecular orbital diagrams
• Chess notation
• Knitting patterns
• CircuiTikz package
• Pgfplots package
• Typesetting exams in LaTeX
• Attribute Value Matrices

Class files

• Understanding packages and class files
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Advanced TeX/LaTeX

• In-depth technical articles on TeX/LaTeX

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LaTeX Guide : Citing with BibTeX

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Quick Links

BibTex4Word

BibTeX Managers

Jabref is a great stand alone reference manager that uses BibTeX. It is freely available and is competitive with EndNote in capabilities including abbreviations lists. Highly recommended.

BebTex4Word  is a plug-in for most versions of Microsoft Word that allow you to use BibTeX references directly in Word. You then do not need LaTeX.

In order to cite works in LaTeX documents, you should use the file format of BibTeX  . Most databases and even current citation managers such as RefWorks, Endnote and Zotero can export citations in the BebTeX format. BibTeX files get exported as simple text files with a .bib extension. Reed College has a good guide at: http://web.reed.edu/cis/help/latex/bibtex.html

Once you have BibTeX files, you then establish the type of style you want to use in your document. Here is a good guide from Reed College: http://web.reed.edu/cis/help/latex/bibtexstyles.html

You can get many styles from CTAN (the archive for all things TeX), but many of them are out of date so a simple Google search may be better.

BibTex with Zotero, RefWorks, EndNote, & Mendeley

Transferring citations from a different citation manager into a BibTeX file is quite easy.  The process varies depending on the type of citation manager.

1.   Zotero : Left-click on the folder of citations you would like to transfer into a BibTex file. Select export collection, then "BibTeX."  Save the .bib file to your computer.

2.   RefWorks : Go into the RefWorks "output style manager" and add the BibTeX format to your favorites.  Next, click on "bibliography," select a folder of citations, and select "BibTeX" as the output style.  A new tab will open up in your browser with each citation in BibTeX form.  Copy and paste the information into a text document and save the .bib file to your computer.  

3.   EndNote :In the toolbar, click on the citation management dropdown menu.  Select BibTeX export.  The BibTeX format will appear in the preview box for each citation.  Copy and paste into a .bib file.

4.   Mendeley : once in Mendeley desktop, select "tools," then options.  Next, select "enable BibTeX syncing."  Select the type of BibTeX file (whole library, collection, or document) and a path will be created to a .bib file of your Mendeley citations.  

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• Last Updated: Apr 8, 2022 12:02 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/c.php?g=178007

Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Home

• Using Templates on Overleaf
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Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX  here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

• One version of your project accessible to collaborators via a shared link or email invitation
• Easily select the level of access for collaborators (view, edit, or owner access)
• Real-time commenting speeds up the review process
• Tracked changes and full history view help to see contributions from collaborators
• Labels help to organize and compare different versions
• Chat in real time with collaborators right within the project

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery .

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos  if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

Add Institutional Library contact info here.

Contact Overleaf   or email [email protected]

5-part Guide on How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX

5-part LaTeX Thesis Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex corresponding video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract corresponding video

ShareLaTeX Joins Overleaf!

Read more about Overleaf and ShareLaTeX joining forces here

Link your ORCiD ID

Link your ORCiD account to your Overleaf account.

See Overleaf news   on  our blog.

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Citation Management Tools: BibTeX

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BibTeX Reference Formatting

B ib T E X references are formatted in the following style:

@type { unique_identifier ,    field1 = "value",    field2 = "value",    field3 = "value",     ... }

Field values can either be enclosed in quotes, as above, or in curly braces (e.g.  field1 = {value} )

The  @type  field identifies the type of resource. Common types include:

• @conference (or @proceedings )
• @inbook (book chapter/section)
• @mastersthesis
• @misc (outside the normal categories, used for websites)

Various fields are available to use. Standard ones include:

• author (i.e. city)
• address  

BibTeX Basics

B ib T E X is the bibliographic side of L A T E X.  Technically speaking, B ib T E X is a specific program which  processes bibliographic data and interfaces between . tex  and .bib files.  However, it is used as a catch-all term for a number of L A T E X  bibliographic tools with  similar functionality. Collectively, these tools get lumped into the term “B ib T E X.”  In essence “using B ib T E X” has come to mean managing references in a .bib file, rather than doing them by hand.

Every B ib T E X citation needs a unique identifier. This is the first item after the opening curly brace, as shown in the example to the left. A best practice is to use a standard system for assigning identifiers, such as the author's last name and year (e.g. sackson1969 ).

Though they all work similarly, each bibliographic tool in  L A T E X has its own syntax. The UPenn dissertation template  uses the  natbib  package, in which the standard citation command is \citep{ identifier } . As an example, suppose you want to cite the following reference:

@book{  engel1961,    author = "Leonard Engel",    title = "Medicine Makers of Kalamazoo",    publisher = "McGraw-Hill",    address = "New York",    year = "1961" }

In your .tex file, use the command \citep{ engel1961 } . By default, the citation will be display as [Engel, 1961] . If you are using the UPenn dissertation template, the citations are pre-formatted, so it will instead display as (Engel, 1961) .

In order to use natbib , you must first add the proper commands to your .tex file. ( NOTE: If you are using the UPenn dissertation template, these commands are already included, so you can skip this step. ) There are three standard commands. The first two go in the preamble:

\usepackage{ natbib } \bibliographystyle{ plainnat }

And the last one goes just before the \end{ document }  command:

\bibliography{ filename }

Note that the filename does not include the .bib  extension.

There are various ways to customize your references and citations. Ample documentation can be found on Overleaf and elsewhere.

Computer Science & Engineering Librarian

Helpful Links

• Overleaf (natbib) Overleaf's information about bibliography management with natbib.
• Linking Overleaf to Mendeley/Zotero Overleaf's information about linking to citation management programs.
• UPenn Dissertation Template The official UPenn dissertation template.
• LaTeX LibGuide Penn Libraries' LibGuide about using LaTeX.
• Penn Libraries LaTeX Instruction A series of instructional videos demonstrating how to use LaTeX.
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Citation Guide

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  BIBTEX NPS Template v2.6 and earlier: Code Examples (Click  here  if you are using version 2.7 or above)

The following codes are customized for NPS theses and are not intended for use with any other publisher or template. The NPS thesis LaTeX template comes prepackaged with a BibTeX tool and a bib file containing the examples below.

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universalSourceForm.defaults.intro.title

universalSourceForm.overwrites.thesis.intro.text,universalSourceForm.defaults.intro.text

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Cite a Dissertation in BIBTEX

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper

Consider your source's credibility. ask these questions:, contributor/author.

• Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
• Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
• Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
• Book: What have reviews said about it?
• What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
• Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
• Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
• Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
• Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
• Are there ads?
• When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
• Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
• Does the source even have a date?
• Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
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Bibtex Citation Generator

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• Archive material
• Chapter of an edited book
• Conference proceedings
• Dictionary entry
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• DVD, video, or film
• E-book or PDF
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• Encyclopedia article
• Government publication
• Music or recording
• Online image or video
• Presentation
• Press release
• Religious text

Popular BibTeX generic citation style style Citation Examples

How to cite a book in bibtex generic citation style style.

Use the following template to cite a book using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

Reference List

Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.

In-text citation

Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.

How to cite a Journal in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a journal using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite Film or Movie in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a film or movie using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an Online image or video in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an online image or video using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Website in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a website using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

Additional BibTeX generic citation style style Citation Examples

How to cite a blog in bibtex generic citation style style.

Use the following template to cite a blog using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Court case in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a court case using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Dictionary entry in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a dictionary entry using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an E-book or PDF in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an e-book or pdf using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an Edited book in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an edited book using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an Email in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an email using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an Encyclopedia article in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an encyclopedia article using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite an Interview in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite an interview using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Magazine in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a magazine using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Newspaper in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a newspaper using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Podcast in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a podcast using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a Song in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a song using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite The Bible in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite The Bible using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

How to cite a TV Show in BibTeX generic citation style style

Use the following template to cite a TV Show using the BibTeX generic citation style citation style.

Guide to BibTeX Type MasterThesis

BibTeX is a reference management tool that is commonly used in LaTeX documents. The “masterthesis” BibTeX type is used for master’s theses. In this guide, we will explain the required and optional fields for the “masterthesis” BibTeX type.

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Required Fields

The “masterthesis” BibTeX type requires the following fields:

• author : The author of the thesis.
• title : The title of the thesis.
• school : The name of the institution that awarded the degree.
• year : The year the degree was awarded.

Optional Fields

In addition to the required fields, the “masterthesis” BibTeX type also has a number of optional fields that can be used to provide additional information. These fields include:

• type : The type of the thesis, such as “Master’s thesis”.
• address : The location of the institution.
• month : The month the thesis was submitted.
• note : Any additional information about the thesis.

Here is an example of how to use the “masterthesis” BibTeX type:

In this example, the BibTeX entry defines a master’s thesis authored by Jane Doe titled “A Study of Example”. The degree was awarded in 2022 by the University of Example, and the thesis was submitted in June in Example City, CA. The type of the thesis is specified as “Master’s thesis”, and a note is included that provides a URL for the thesis.

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Avoid plagiarism — quickly check for missing citations and check for writing mistakes., is this source credible consider the criteria below..

Is the purpose to entertain, sell, persuade, or inform/teach ? Journal articles are often designed to inform or teach. Books and websites could have any of these or a combination of the purposes above. So it is important to determine why the source was created and if it is appropriate for your research. For websites in particular, looking at their "About Us" page or "Mission Statement" can help you evaluate purpose.

Accuracy is the reliability and truthfulness of the source. Here are a few indicators of an accurate source:

• Citations or a works cited list. For websites, this can be links to other credible sites.
• Evidence that backs up claims made by the author(s).
• Text that is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
• Information that matches that in other, credible sources.
• Language that is unbiased and free of emotion.

Based on the above the source could be accurate, inaccurate, a mixture of accurate and inaccurate, or hard to tell.

Authority: Author

The author is the individual or organization who wrote the information in the book, in the journal article, or on the website. If no author is listed, there may be another contributor instead. For example, an editor or a translator. A credible author has:

• Written several articles or books on the topic.
• Provided contact information. For example, an email address, mailing address, social media account, etc.
• The experience or qualifications to be an expert on the topic.

Authority: Publisher

The credibility of the publisher can contribute to the authority of a source. The publisher can be a person, company or organization. Authoritative publishers:

• Accept responsibility for content.
• Are often well-known.
• Often publish multiple works on the same or related topics.

Relevance describes how related or important a source is to your topic. While a source may be credible, it does not necessarily mean it is relevant to your assignment. To determine relevance, you should:

• Determine the website's intended audience. Look at the level of the information and the tone of the writing. For example, is it meant for academics or the general public?
• Make sure that the information is related to your research topic.
• Make sure that the information helps you answer your research question.

A publication date is an important part of evaluating the credibility of a source and its appropriateness for your topic. It is generally best to use content that was recently published or updated, but depending on your assignment, it may be appropriate to use older information. For example, a journal entry from Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War is too outdated to use in a discussion about modern politics and war, but would be appropriate for a paper about the Civil War. Consider the following when evaluating currency:

• Was it published or updated recently? If a website, is there even a publication date listed?
• Is the date of the source appropriate or inappropriate for my assignment?

After analyzing your source, do you believe it is credible, not credible, partially credible, or are you unsure? If you are still unsure, it may help to ask your instructor a librarian for assistance.

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BibTeX mastersthesis template

The mastersthesis entry type is intended to be used for a Master's thesis.

Minimal template

Minimal template with required fields only for a BibTeX mastersthesis entry.

Full template

Full template including required and optional fields for a BibTeX mastersthesis entry.