\bibliography{references}

LaTeX Bibliography

A complete guide to managing references in LaTeX — from a simple BibTeX .bib file to the modern BibLaTeX + Biber workflow. Includes entry types, cite commands, bibliography styles, and the correct compilation order.

BibTeX— legacy, widely supportedBibLaTeX— modern, recommended

Which should you use?

Use BibLaTeX + Biber for new projects. It supports more entry types, flexible citation styles, per-chapter bibliographies, and active maintenance. BibTeX is legacy but still widely supported — required for arXiv submissions and older journal templates.

\section{Quick start}

Quick Start with BibTeX

Two files: a .bib database and your .tex document.

Step 1 — Create references.bib

% references.bib
@article{einstein1905,
  author  = {Einstein, Albert},
  title   = {On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies},
  journal = {Annalen der Physik},
  year    = {1905},
  volume  = {17},
  pages   = {891--921}
}

@book{knuth1984,
  author    = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title     = {The \TeX{}book},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
  year      = {1984}
}

Step 2 — Reference in your document

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{natbib}

\begin{document}

Einstein's theory of special relativity \citep{einstein1905} revolutionized physics.
The \TeX{}book by \citet{knuth1984} is the definitive reference.

\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{references}

\end{document}

\section{Entry types}

BibTeX Entry Types

Common entry types and their required fields.

Type	Required fields	Description
@article	author, title, journal, year	Journal article
@book	author/editor, title, publisher, year	Published book
@inproceedings	author, title, booktitle, year	Conference paper
@thesis	author, title, school, year	Thesis or dissertation
@online	author, title, url, year	Web resource (BibLaTeX)
@misc	author, title, year	Miscellaneous source

\section{Cite commands}

Cite Commands

natbib commands for BibTeX; biblatex commands for the modern workflow.

Package	Command	Output	Description
natbib	\cite{key}	Author (Year) or [1]	Basic citation
natbib	\citep{key}	(Author, Year)	Parenthetical citation
natbib	\citet{key}	Author (Year)	Textual citation
natbib	\citealp{key}	Author, Year	No brackets
biblatex	\autocite{key}	Depends on style	Style-aware citation
biblatex	\textcite{key}	Author (Year)	Inline textual citation
biblatex	\parencite{key}	(Author Year)	Parenthetical citation

\section{Modern approach}

The Modern Approach: BibLaTeX

BibLaTeX with the Biber backend replaces BibTeX's legacy toolchain. It supports UTF-8 natively, more entry types, and flexible citation style configuration through package options.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=authoryear,
  sorting=nyt
]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}

\begin{document}

This result was shown by \textcite{einstein1905}.
For LaTeX fundamentals, see \autocite{knuth1984}.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

style=authoryear

Author-year citations (Smith, 2024). Default for humanities.

style=numeric

Numbered citations [1], [2]. Common in sciences and engineering.

style=alphabetic

Alphanumeric labels [Ein05]. Middle ground between named and numbered.

\section{Bibliography styles}

Bibliography Styles

Style	Package	Description
plain	BibTeX	Numbered, alphabetical order
alpha	BibTeX	Label-based (e.g. [Ein05])
abbrv	BibTeX	Abbreviated author names
IEEEtran	BibTeX	IEEE journal style
authoryear	BibLaTeX	Author-year citations (Chicago-like)
numeric	BibLaTeX	Numbered citations
alphabetic	BibLaTeX	Alphanumeric labels

\section{Compilation order}

Compilation Order

LaTeX + BibTeX requires multiple passes to resolve citations and build the bibliography.

step 1

pdflatex

writes .aux

step 2

bibtex

reads .aux → .bbl

step 3

pdflatex

reads .bbl

step 4

pdflatex

resolves refs

Or automate with latexmk -pdf — see the latexmk guide for details.

\section{Common mistakes}

Common Mistakes

Missing \bibliography command

BibTeX only generates the bibliography where \bibliography{filename} appears. Without it, no reference list is printed, even if \cite commands are present.

Fix: Add \bibliographystyle{plain} and \bibliography{references} before \end{document}.

Wrong .bib filename

\bibliography{references} expects a file named references.bib in the same directory. A mismatch produces a "I found no \bibstyle command" or similar error.

Fix: Ensure the filename in \bibliography{} exactly matches your .bib file, without the .bib extension.

Not running BibTeX

LaTeX alone does not process .bib files. Skipping the bibtex run leaves citations as [?] and omits the bibliography — a very common beginner mistake.

Fix: Run: pdflatex → bibtex → pdflatex → pdflatex. Or use latexmk -pdf to automate this.

\begin{document}

Compile your bibliography online

FormaTeX runs pdfLaTeX with BibTeX automatically. Paste your .tex source and get a PDF — no local install required.

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