Shanto Roy

I Explore Research, Tech, Travel, and Business. PhD Student @UHCS.

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In this post, we will learn how to manage bibliography using BibTex in Latex. This is the most convenient way to use references in a document and also while moving from one template to another one. The only thing you will have to do is changing the bibliography style that requires one line of change.

Add a bibliography File

  • Create a bibliography file with .bib extension. For example: references.bib
  • Add the file in the main tex file as follows: 
      \bibliographystyle{plain}
  \bibliography{references}
  • You can simply use the bibliography style as plain. In case you are using a particular journal/conference template, use their style file. A style file has the .bst extension. For example, in IEEE template you will find ieeetran.bst style file. Then the code will look like as follows: 
      \bibliographystyle{ieeetran}
  \bibliography{references}

Add Bibliographic Entry in .bib File

For Journals/Conferences/Books

  • Go to Google Scholar
  • Write the title of your article/conference proceeding/book and press Enter. For example, you want to cite the paper entitled Information loss in black holes. So, write the title in the search box and hit Enter. You will get the following output.
  • Now click on the double quotation mark as follows.
  • A new dialog box will appear. Then click on the BibTeX link.
  • Copy the whole entry using Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C. The entry will look like as follows: 
      @article{hawking2005information,
    title={Information loss in black holes},
    author={Hawking, Stephen W},
    journal={Physical Review D},
    volume={72},
    number={8},
    pages={084013},
    year={2005},
    publisher={APS}
  }
  • Paste it in your .bib file. Then, in the main file cite like this: 
      Hawking et al.\ proposed... ~\cite{hawking2005information}.
  • Install an extension- BibTeX entry from URL in your Chrome browser or Bibitnow! add-on in your firefox.
  • Go to the page you want to cite.
  • Click on the extension. The entry will be copied to clipboard.
  • Paste the entry in the .bib file.
  • Cite as before.

That’s all folks. Cheers! :sunglasses:

You can find a comprehensive list of Latex resources in the following post:

Latex Resources in a Nutshell

If you are a new Latex user, check out this post: 20 Most Common Mistakes Made by New Latex Users

You can find all Latex oriented posts of mine in: https://shantoroy.com/categories/#latex

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