Research Guides: LaTeX, BibTeX, and Overleaf: BibTeX

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by Brian Gray Last Updated Jan 28, 2022 130 views this year

Introduction to BibTeX

Save your bibliography as a .bib file in the same folder as your document. Make sure your filename ends in .bib.
To make changes to your bibliography, you can edit the .bib file directly or make changes within the reference manager of your choice (EndNote, Refworks, Mendeley, Zotero, JabRef, BibDesk, etc)

Lear more about BibTeX
How to use BibTeX as a reference library for LaTeX
Using BibTeX to Create Your Bibliography
Instructions from Reed College.

Citation styles available for BibTeX

LaTeX comes with several citation styles:

plain.bst: references listed in alphabetical order and labeled numerically
acm.bst: ACM style
ieeetr.bst: IEEE style
alpha.bst: same as plain except labeled by entry
abbrv.bst: same as plain except use abbreviations for first names and journal names
siam.bst: SIAM style
apalike.bst: APA style

Other citation styles are also available:

TeXMed - a BibTeX interface for PubMed
Astronomy style
Additional citation styles
List of style available on Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN).
Customized citation styles
If no suitable BibTeX style can be found, most desired styles can be conveniently assembled with custombib/makebst.

ArXiv This link opens in a new window
Open access to preprints in physics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, economics, and electrical engineering and systems science.

Exporting citations to BibTeX

Many databases allow exporting citations to BibTeX.

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Collection of IEEE journals, transactions, magazines, letters, conference proceedings, and standards from 1988 to the present.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Citation index of diverse, scholarly information from across the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Also includes search and analysis tools to enhance this content.
ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive collection of full-text publications, including journals, conference proceedings, technical magazines, books, and newsletters published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Sage Data This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This resource provides tools to dynamically compare and manipulate tens of millions of statistical data series available in the Data-Planet repository. The interactive database allows users to create tables, maps, and figures from a variety data sources covering banking, criminal justice, education, energy, food and agriculture, government, health, housing and construction, industry and commerce, labor and employment, natural resources and environment, income, cost of living, stocks, transportation, and more. Data holdings for the United States are significant with some data available at state, county, or local geographies. International data, available at the country level, include population, food and agriculture, labor, trade, and more. Data are organized by subject and source.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Platform that provides access to journal articles and e-books from across a wide range of disciplines, predominantly scientific, technical, and medical.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a search engine that can find scholarly material such as peer-reviewed journal articles, books, reports, theses and dissertations on the Internet.

Export from citation manager software

If you prefer to collect, organize, and manage your references in a citation manager, your software may be able to export citations to BibTeX.

LaTeX, BibTeX, and Overleaf