BibTeX is a bibliographic database format and processing tool often used with LaTeX.
Basic usage
At some point in your LaTeX document:
\bibliographystyle{prsty} % Phys. Rev. style
other syles include abbrv
, alpha
, plain
, unsrt
, ...
In your LaTeX document where you want the bibliography:
\bibliography{wtk} % wtk.bib is the name of the database
compile (using latex
for example) with:
$ latex example
$ bibtex example
$ latex example
$ latex example
There are many possible author name formats, but the least ambiguous
is von Last, Jr., First Middle
. If the von
is capitalized
(e.g. "Emanuela Di Cola"), use \uppercase
:
@String{EDCola = "{\uppercase{d}}i Cola, Emanuela"}
See Tame the BeaST for details.
Natbib
The Natbib package adds support for other citation styles & link formats.
Makebst
Customize bibliography with Makebst (latex makebst
, from
custom-bib), makes .bst
(bib-style) format files according to
your specifications.
Pybtex
Pybtex is a bibtex processor written in Python. I've modified the trunk code a bit and use it to keep my BibTeX databases neat and tidy.
References
There are a number of good resources to get you going:
- very basic tutorial
- really awesome explaination of how BibTeX works: Tame the BeaST
- process overview
- entry types reference
- fields reference
- entry and fields reference, but with little discussion
- examples of assorted styles
- assorted tools
- Nelson Beebe's list of bibliographies
- Nelson Beebe's GNU bibliography