BibTeX

BibTeX keeps your references in one database file (.bib) and builds the bibliography for LaTex automatically. Workflow context: Research Notes.

The idea

flowchart LR
    B["refs.bib (all references)"] --> P[Bibliography tool bibtex or biber]
    T["paper.tex \cite keys"] --> L[LaTeX]
    P --> L
    L --> O[paper.pdf citations + reference list]

You cite by key in the text; only the cited entries appear in the reference list, formatted in the style you choose.

An example `refs.bib`

@article{lamport1978time,
  author  = {Lamport, Leslie},
  title   = {Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System},
  journal = {Communications of the ACM},
  volume  = {21},
  number  = {7},
  pages   = {558--565},
  year    = {1978},
  doi     = {10.1145/359545.359563}
}

@inproceedings{dean2004mapreduce,
  author    = {Dean, Jeffrey and Ghemawat, Sanjay},
  title     = {{MapReduce}: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of OSDI},
  year      = {2004}
}

@book{kleppmann2017ddia,
  author    = {Kleppmann, Martin},
  title     = {Designing Data-Intensive Applications},
  publisher = {O'Reilly Media},
  year      = {2017}
}

Entry types

Type	Use for	Key fields
`@article`	Journal paper	author, title, journal, year, volume, pages
`@inproceedings`	Conference paper	author, title, booktitle, year
`@book`	Book	author or editor, title, publisher, year
`@incollection`	Chapter in an edited book	plus booktitle, editor
`@phdthesis` / `@mastersthesis`	Theses	author, title, school, year
`@techreport`	Report	institution, number
`@misc`	Websites, software, datasets, preprints	title, author, year, `howpublished`, `url`

Using it in a document

As shown by Lamport~\cite{lamport1978time}, clocks need not be physical.
Several systems build on this~\cite{dean2004mapreduce,kleppmann2017ddia}.

\bibliographystyle{plain}   % style: plain, ieeetr, alpha, abbrv...
\bibliography{refs}         % refs.bib, without the extension

Build (the order matters because the first run collects the citations):

$ pdflatex paper && bibtex paper && pdflatex paper && pdflatex paper
$ latexmk -pdf paper        # does all of that for you

BibLaTeX and biber (the modern option)

\usepackage[backend=biber,style=authoryear]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}
...
\textcite{lamport1978time} showed that ...   % Lamport (1978) showed ...
\parencite{lamport1978time}                  % (Lamport, 1978)
\printbibliography

- Handles Unicode, more entry types, URLs and DOIs better, and has flexible styles. - Build with latexmk -pdf paper (it detects biber). - Use BibTeX when a journal or template requires it (many do); use BibLaTeX otherwise.

Good habits

Keys: authoryearword (lamport1978time), unique and lowercase, never changed after you start citing.
Authors: separate with and, written as Last, First.
Protect capitals with braces: title = {{MapReduce}: ...}, or BibTeX will lowercase them.
Ranges use -- (558--565).
Include the DOI where there is one.
Export from Zotero (Better BibTeX plugin gives stable keys) or manage the file with JabRef, instead of typing entries by hand.
Keep one master .bib for all papers, in version control.

Common errors

Message	Likely cause
`Citation 'x' undefined`	Wrong key, or you did not run bibtex/biber and LaTeX again
`I couldn't open database file`	`\bibliography{}` name does not match the file
`Missing $ inserted`	Special character in a field (`_`, `&`, `%`): escape with `\`
`Empty author`	Missing `author` (use `editor` for edited books)
Wrong capitals in titles	Add braces around words that must keep capitals
`(?)` in the PDF	Run LaTeX once or twice more after bibtex