bibliography style for thesis latex

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Guide to Writing Your Thesis in LaTeX

The bibliography and list of references.

The Graduate School requires a Bibliography which includes all the literature cited for the complete thesis or dissertation. Quoting from the Graduate School’s Guidelines for the Format of Theses and Dissertations :

“Every thesis in Standard Format must contain a Bibliography which lists all the sources used or consulted in writing the entire thesis and is placed at the very end of the work. The complete citations are arranged alphabetically by last name of the author. Individual citations are not numbered. No abbreviations in titles of published works will be accepted. The full title of a book, journal, website, proceedings, or any other published work must be italicized or underlined. Citations must follow standards set by the style manual that the student is using. The bibliography for URI theses is not broken into categories.”

The List of References is not required by the Graduate School, but is the style commonly used in Engineering, Mathematics, and many of the Sciences. It consists of a numbered list of the sources used or consulted in writing the thesis in the order that they are referenced in the text. There can be either one List of References for the entire thesis, or a List of References at the end of each chapter.

Both the Bibliography and the List of References will be generated by the urithesis LaTeX class. All you need to do is add information about your sources to the references.bib file, which is a database containing all of the necessary information about the references, then cite the reference in your thesis using the \cite{} command.

Generating the Bibliography and References

The bibliography and list of references are generated by running BibTeX. To generate the bibliography, load the file thesisbib.tex into your editor, then run BibTeX on it.

If each chapter has its own list of references, you will need to run BibTeX on each chapter to update its list of references. If there is one list of references for the whole thesis (because you used the oneref option, you will only need to run BibTeX on the top level file thesis.tex .

How to Add a Bibliography Entry

When we want to refer to a source in the thesis, we place an entry for that source in the file references.bib , then cite the source in the thesis with the \cite{LABEL} command. The syntax for an entry in the references.bib file is of the form:

ENTRYTYPE is the type of bibliographic entry such as Book , Article , or TechReport , that this entry describes. At the end of this page is a list of all possible entry types .

LABEL is a unique string that is used to refer to this entry in the body of the thesis when using the \cite{LABEL} command.

The FIELDNAMEn entries are the fields that describe this entry, (ie. author, title, pages, year, etc.). Each entry type has certain required fields and optional fields. See the list of all entry types for a description of the available fields.

As an example, suppose we have a paper from a conference proceedings that we want to cite. First we make an entry in the our references.bib file of the form:

We then cite this source in the text of our thesis with the command \cite{re:toolan:as03} . This will generate a Bibliography entry that looks something like:

and a List of References entry that looks something like:

Types of List of References

The Graduate School requires that the bibliography is always at the end of the thesis and sorted alphabetically by author, therefore there is no options that affect it. The list of references is optional, therefore there are a few different ways that it can created.

By default a separate list of references appears at the end of each chapter, and are sorted by the order that they are cited in that chapter. The option oneref (see options ) will create a single list of references for the whole thesis, which due to the requirements of the Graduate School, will appear after the last chapter and before any appendices.

The option aparefs will cite references using the APA style, which is the last name of the author and year of publication, such as (Toolan, 2006), instead of the default IEEE style, which is a number, such as [1]. This option will also sort the references alphabetically by author, instead of in order of citation. The options oneref and aparefs can be used together to create a single list of references using the APA style.

Supported Bibliography Entry Types

The following is a list of all the entry types that can be used. Click on the desired type to see a detailed description of how to use that type.

• Article – An article from a journal or magazine
• Book – A book with an explicit publisher
• InBook – A part of a book, such as a chapter or selected page(s)
• InCollection – A part of a book having its own title
• Booklet – Printed and bound works that are not formally published
• Manual – Technical documentation
• InProceedings – An article in a conference proceedings
• Proceedings – The entire proceedings of a conference
• MastersThesis – A Master’s thesis
• PhDThesis – A Ph.D. dissertation
• TechReport – A report published by a school or other institution
• Unpublished – A document that has not been formally published
• Electronic – An internet reference like a web page
• Patent – A patent or patent application
• Periodical – A magazine or journal
• Standard – Formally published standard
• Misc – For use when nothing else fits

Articles that have not yet been published can be handled as a misc type with a note. Sometimes it is desirable to put extra information into the month field such as the day, or additional months. This is accomplished by using the BIBTEX concatenation operator “#“:

Example .bib using this type:

Books may have authors, editors or both. Example .bib using this type:

Inbook is used to reference a part of a book, such as a chapter or selected page(s). The type field can be used to override the word chapter (for which IEEE uses the abbreviation “ch.”) when the book uses parts, sections, etc., instead of chapters

Incollection is used to reference part of a book having its own title. Like book , incollection supports the series, chapter and pages fields. Also, the type field can be used to override the word chapter.

Booklet is used for printed and bound works that are not formally published. A primary difference between booklet and unpublished is that the former is/was distributed by some means. Booklet is rarely used in bibliographies.

Technical documentation is handled by the manual entry type.

References of papers in conference proceedings are handled by the inproceedings or conference entry type. These two types are functionally identical and can be used interchangeably. Example .bib using this type:

It is rare to need to reference an entire conference proceedings, but, if necessary, the proceedings entry type can be used to do so.

Master’s (or minor) theses can be handled with the mastersthesis entry type. The optional type field can be used to override the words “Master’s thesis” if a different designation is desired:

The phdthesis entry type is used for Ph.D. dissertations (major theses). Like mastersthesis , the type field can be used to override the default designation. Example .bib using this type:

Techreport is used for technical reports. The optional type field can be used to override the default designation “Tech. Rep.” Example .bib using this type:

The unpublished entry type is used for documents that have not been formally published. IEEE typically just uses “unpublished” for the required note field.

The electronic entry type is for internet references. IEEE formats electronic references differently by not using italics or quotes and separating fields with periods rather than commas. Also, the date is enclosed within parentheses and is placed closer to the title. This is probably done to emphasize that electronic references may not remain valid on the rapidly changing internet. Note also the liberal use of the howpublished field to describe the form or category of the entries. The organization and address fields may also be used. Example .bib using this type:

The nationality field provides a means to handle patents from different countries

The nationality should be capitalized. The assignee and address (of the assignee) fields are not used, however, they are provided. The type field provides a way to override the “patent” description with other patent related descriptions such as “patent application” or “patent request”:

The periodical entry type is used for journals and magazines.

The standard entry type is used for formally published standards. Alternatively, the misc entry type, along with its howpublished field, can be used to create references of standards.

Misc is the most flexible type and can be used when none of the other entry types are applicable. The howpublished field can be used to describe what exactly (or in what form) the reference is (or appears as). Possible applications include technical-report-like entries that lack an institution, white papers and data sheets.

Additional Comments

Because we are effectively creating multiple bibliographies, (one for the actual bibliography, and one for each list of references), the two LATEX commands \bibliographystyle{} and \bibliography{} are not used. They have been redefined to do nothing, and the equivalent of these commands are done automatically when necessary.

When there is a reference that should be included in the bibliography, but does not need to be explicitly referenced in the thesis, use the \nocite{} command. This command works like the \cite{} command, except it does not put the citation in the list of references, only in the bibliography. The \nocite{} command must appear after the first \newchapter{} command, or it will be ignored.

When using the option aparefs , and a citation does not have an author, (such as often occurs with a web page), the key field can be used to specify what to use in the citation instead of the author’s name.

About the Bibliography Format

The bibliography format used by the urithesis class is based on the IEEE format. See the article “How to Use the IEEEtran BIBTEX Style” by Michael Shell for more details.

LaTeX-Tutorial.com

Bibliography in latex with bibtex/biblatex, learn how to create a bibliography with bibtex and biblatex in a few simple steps. create references / citations and autogenerate footnotes., creating a .bib file, using bibtex.

• Autogenerate footnotes with BibLaTeX
• BibTeX Format

BibTeX Styles

• New Post! Export Bibliographic Database (BibTeX) Entries from Online Databases

We have looked at many features of LaTeX so far and learned that many things are automated by LaTeX. There are functions to add a table of contents, lists of tables and figures and also several packages that allow us to generate a bibliography. I will describe how to use bibtex and biblatex (both external programs) to create the bibliography. At first we have to create a .bib file, which contains our bibliographic information.

A .bib file will contain the bibliographic information of our document. I will only give a simple example, since there are many tools to generate the entries automatically. I will not explain the structure of the file itself at this point, since i suggest using a bibtex generator (choose one from google). Our example will contain a single book and look like this:

If you don’t want to use a BibTeX generator or a reference management tool like Citavi (which generates BibTeX files automatically for you), you can find more examples of BibTeX formats here.

After creating the bibtex file, we have to tell LaTeX where to find our bibliographic database. For BibTeX this is not much different from printing the table of contents. We just need the commands \bibliography  which tells LaTeX the location of our .bib file and \bibliographystyle which selects one of various bibliographic styles.

By using this code, we will obtain something like this:

I named my .bib file lesson7a1.bib, note that I did not enter the .bib extension. For the style, I’ve choosen the ieeetr style, which is very common for my subject, but there are many more styles available. Which will change the way our references look like. The ieeetr style will mark citations with successive numbers such as [1] in this example. If I choose the style to apalike instead, i will get the following result:

Most editors will let you select, to run bibtex automatically on compilation. In TeXworks (MiKTeX) for example, this should be selected by default.

If you use a different editor, it can be necessary to execute the bibtex command manually. In a command prompt/shell simply run:

It is necessary to execute the pdflatex command, before the bibtex command, to tell bibtex what literature we cited in our paper. Afterwards the .bib file will be translated into the proper output for out references section. The next two steps merge the reference section with our LaTeX document and then assign successive numbers in the last step.

Autogenerate footnotes in \(\LaTeX\) using BibLaTeX

The abilities of BibTeX are limited to basic styles as depicted in the examples shown above. Sometimes it is necessary to cite all literature in footnotes and maintaining all of them by hand can be a frustrating task. At this point BibLaTeX kicks in and does the work for us. The syntax varies a bit from the first document. We now have to include the biblatex package and use the \autocite and \printbibliography  command. It is crucial to move the \bibliography{lesson7a1} statement to the preamble of our document:

The \autocite command generates the footnotes and we can enter a page number in the brackets \autocite[1]{DUMMY:1} will generate a footnote like this:

For BibLaTeX we have to choose the citation style on package inclusion with:

The backend=bibtex  part makes sure to use BibTeX instead of Biber as our backend, since Biber fails to work in some editors like TeXworks. It took me a while to figure out how to generate footnotes automatically, because the sources I found on the internet, didn’t mention this at all.

BibTeX Formats

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of BibTeX formats, but rather give you an idea of how to cite various sources properly. If you’re interested in an extensive overview of all BibTeX formats, I suggest you to check out the resources on Wikibooks.

Inbook (specific pages)

This is a list of the formats that I have most commonly used. If you think some important format is missing here, please let me know.

Here’s a quick overview of some popular styles to use with BibTeX.

I’m trying to keep this list updated with other commonly used styles. If you’re missing something here, please let me know.

• Generate a bibliography with BibTeX and BibLaTeX
• First define a .bib file using: \bibliography{BIB_FILE_NAME} (do not add .bib)
• For BibTeX put the \bibliography statement in your document , for BibLaTeX in the preamble
• BibTeX  uses the \bibliographystyle command to set the citation style
• BibLaTeX chooses the style as an option like:  \usepackage[backend=bibtex, style=verbose-trad2]{biblatex}
• BibTeX uses the \cite command, while BibLaTeX uses the \autocite command
• The \autocite command takes the page number as an option: \autocite[NUM]{}

Next Lesson: 08 Footnotes

Overleaf - LaTeX: Bibliographies and Citing

• Getting Started
• Creating a LaTeX Document in Overleaf
• Structuring and Formatting
• Lists, Tables, Images, and Labelling
• Mathematics in LaTeX
• Bibliographies and Citing
• Books and Dissertations
• Submitting from Overleaf

Bibliographies in LaTeX

In order to cite references, you first need to create a separate bibliography file ending with a .bib extension within your LaTeX project.  You can do that by clicking on the New File icon on the upper-left corner of the screen.

Then, enter your file name. Note that the default file extension in LaTeX is .tex. Your bibliography file must end in .bib. Once you create your file, you can add references to it in the BibTeX format.

Exporting references from ProQuest RefWorks

If you use RefWorks to manage your references, you can export your references from RefWorks into the BibTeX format. To export your references from RefWorks, click on the Share  tab. Then, click on Export References  and select the BibTeX  option. You can import the references you exported from RefWorks into LaTeX as a .bib file.

To learn more about RefWorks, visit the  RefWorks e-course module .

Exporting references from a database or Google Scholar

The easiest way to add references to your .bib file, other than exporting them from RefWorks, is to import or copy them directly from Google Scholar or from a database. To cite from Google Scholar, click on the cite  icon underneath the article, which is represented with a quotation sign. Select the option BibTeX  at the bottom of the pop-up screen. You will be directed to another page where you can copy the reference in the BibTeX format. Make sure to check that the relevant fields are entered correctly before copying the reference into your .bib file.

Note that Google Scholar does not include a DOI, which is often needed as part of your reference.

Some databases also provide the option to export a reference in the BibTeX format. The way to export a reference from a database can vary depending on the database being used.

Note: Not all databases allow you to export citation information in the BibTeX format. To work around this, use RefWorks to manage your references which you can then export in the BibTeX format. 

Entering references manually

When entering a reference to BibTeX, the fields that are required to be filled in for each citation will vary depending on the type of the work you are citing. The reference type is specified by using the @ symbol followed by the type. Regardless of the reference type, the first field to be entered in the reference is the label that you want to give to a particular reference. You will later be able to use this label to cite the reference in the main text of the document.

Below is an example of the fields you are required to enter for articles.

Here's another example illustrating the fields required for a Ph.D. thesis.

Visit the page on standard templates for BibTeX to see how other types of works can be included.

Citing in LaTeX

To begin citing sources within your LaTeX document, you can use the biblatex  package. Add  \usepackage { biblatex } to your preamble. Note that there are other packages that you could use for this, including the natbib  package, which is also a popular option.

There are a number of specifications you can enter to the \usepackage { biblatex } command. The first specification you should add within the  square brackets of the command is backend = biber . Biber provides the relevant information needed to implement the biblatex package.

You can also specify the style of your bibliography by using the style  parameter. For instance, style=authoryear  will print your references in the author-year format. Another common variant is style=authoryear-comp , which will only print the author's last name once, and not for the subsequent references. Visit the page on biblatex's citation styles for a full list.

Using biblatex, you can also determine what criteria should be used to sort your bibliography by specifying the sorting  parameter. For instance, sorting=nyt  will sort your bibliography by name, title, and year. The end result of specifying these parameters may look something like this:

To be able to cite the references from your bibliography, you will need to implement a command mapping your BibTeX file to your document. To do that, you can use the \addbibresource {..} command and add your file name in between the curly brackets.

There are many options to call and format your in-text citations in LaTeX. Below is a list of common commands you can use with the corresponding output. For instance, the command \parencite {JonesandSmith1997} will result in (Jones and Smith 1997) in the pdf.   

Adding the \printbibliography command at the end of the document will instruct LaTeX to print your references.

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BibTeX Guide: Mastering Reference Management for Bibliographies

For those diving into academic or technical writing, BibTeX is an indispensable ally. Despite the intricate details surrounding LaTeX packages, citation styles, and formatting, with a structured approach, BibTeX can be easy to grasp.

Need a simple solution for managing your BibTeX entries? Explore CiteDrive!

• Web-based, modern reference management
• Collaborate and share with fellow researchers
• Integration with Overleaf
• Comprehensive BibTeX/BibLaTeX support
• Save articles and websites directly from your browser
• Search for new articles from a database of tens of millions of references

This guide provides a foundational understanding of BibTeX, helping you set up and use it effectively. While we’ll explore other document systems in subsequent sections, our current focus is on mastering the BibTeX basics.

Understanding BibTeX

Developed in the 1980s by Oren Patashnik and Leslie Lamport, BibTeX has become the go-to software for managing and formatting bibliographies in LaTeX and markdown documents. Its widespread acceptance in academic circles, especially in fields like math, computer science, and physics, is a testament to its efficiency. By storing references in plain text .bib files and associating each with a unique key, BibTeX simplifies citations in the main LaTeX document.

The beauty of BibTeX lies in its versatility. The .bib-file entries can range from articles and books to conference papers, each containing fields like authors, title, journal, volume, and year, tailored to the reference type.

BibTeX eliminates redundancy. Once you’ve detailed a reference in the ‘.bib-file’, simply use its unique key for citations in the LaTeX or Markdown document. During compilation, BibTeX takes care of the formatting, drawing from the .bib file and the style guidelines in the LaTeX document.

Advantages of Using BibTeX

• Consistency : BibTeX ensures uniform citation styles, minimizing manual errors.
• Efficiency : Change styles or reuse references without starting from scratch.
• Flexibility : Compatible with diverse tools, including Pandoc for Markdown.
• Control : Customize fields and types to fit specific requirements.
• Reliability : Being text-file based, BibTeX databases are easy to backup and share.

Limitations of BibTeX

While BibTeX is harmonious with LaTeX and Markdown, its integration with Microsoft Word, Libre Office, and Google Docs is somewhat patchy. Workarounds exist, like Bibtex4Word (exclusive to Windows). For frequent users of these platforms, Zotero might be more appropriate.

Moreover, the static nature of BibTeX can be a drawback. Its maintenance is sparse, which might leave users wanting more up-to-date fields or types. And while its format is easily readable, minor errors like a missing parenthesis can disrupt your LaTeX/Pandoc flow. To avoid such pitfalls, consider BibTeX tools like CiteDrive or jabRef , which offer features like duplication prevention.

Biber, BibLaTeX

Please keep some of the alternatives in mind, especially Biber in conjunction with BibLaTeX. It is a complete reimplementation of BibTeX’s bibliographic features; in addition to a large number of supported types and fields, it supports a wide range of customizations, including sorting bibliographies by types, keywords, authors, and other fields, as well as full Unicode and multi-language support and customizations with in-text citations without the need for additional packages, such as natbib. Although BibTeX is still highly regarded for its durability, it should be noted that bibLatex is far more powerful and well-maintained, as many significant BibTeX updates occurred decades ago. Although the tutorial is primarily geared toward BibTeX, much of it also applies to biblatex, making it an excellent place to start. The format remains the same; entries are saved in bib files with additional fields and types. Additional biblatex tutorials can be found on this page.

In a markdown file, you can specify your bibliography ‘.bib-file’in the YAML section for use with citations and in conjunction with Pandoc, which formats your document using Citation Style Language as a formatter and CiteProc as a processesor as a backend. More information is available on their website, or in our guides.

Quick Start Guide

BibTeX, while well-established, is evolving with the rise of Markdown-based systems such as Pandoc, Jupyter, Obsidian, Quarto, and R Markdown. Here’s a brief tutorial on integrating BibTeX with LaTeX. Don’t forget to check out our sections on BibLaTeX and Pandoc.

Preparations

1. install a latex distribution.

If you wish to utilize BibTeX, ensure you have a LaTeX distribution installed:

• TeX Live and MiKTeX are renowned open-source options.
• Platforms like Overleaf come pre-packaged, removing the need for manual installations.

2. Organize Your Document Structure

Your project folder might look like this:

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: crafting a .bib file.

• Create a .bib file named bibliography.bib . This will house your BibTeX entries.
• Use text editors like Notepad or specialized tools such as CiteDrive or JabRef .
• A typical BibTeX entry might resemble:

Key Components :

• Entry-type : E.g., @book .
• Entry fields : E.g., title , author .
• Citation-key : E.g., Hemingway1952 (used as \cite{Hemingway1952} in LaTeX).

Step 2: Picking a Style

• With your .bib file ready, select a citation style.
• Use the \bibliographystyle{style-name} command in LaTeX to specify your chosen style, omitting the .bst extension.
• Common styles include: plain , alpha , unsrt , abbrv , ieee , apalike , apa , and acm .

Step 3: Integrating with LaTeX

• Embed your references within a LaTeX document:

Upon compilation, the \cite{Hemingway1952} command will be replaced with a relevant citation.

Tool Recommendations

Managing BibTeX entries manually can be cumbersome. Here are some tools to simplify the process:

• CiteDrive : A web-based, collaborative tool offering seamless export functionalities to Overleaf and R Markdown.
• Zotero : A powerful, free reference manager. For optimal BibTeX integration, consider the Better BibTeX For Zotero plugin.
• JabRef : An open-source, BibTeX-centric reference manager available across major operating systems.

Entry Types

Next to @book from our example above, BibTeX supports a wide range of reference types, including journal articles, theses, conference papers, and much more. Here’s a list of some of the most commonly used reference types in BibTeX:

• @article : used for articles in journals or magazines
• @book : used for complete books
• @inbook : used for chapters in a book
• @incollection : used for articles in a collection
• @inproceedings : used for conference or workshop papers
• @phdthesis : used for PhD theses
• @mastersthesis : used for Master’s theses
• @techreport : used for technical reports
• @manual : used for software manuals or guides

Entry fields

For each reference type, you’ll need to provide a set of fields that describe the reference. The ones you’ll need are determined by the type of reference and citation style you’re using. For example, a @article reference will typically include fields for the author, title, journal, year, volume, and pages.

• author : the author of the reference
• title : the title of the reference
• journal : the name of the journal or magazine
• year : the year the reference was published
• volume : the volume number of the journal or book
• pages : the page numbers of the reference
• booktitle : the title of the book in which the reference was published (for @inbook and @incollection references)
• editor : the editor of the book in which the reference was published (for @book references)
• series : the series in which the book was published (for @book references)
• chapter : the chapter number of the reference (for @inbook references)
• address : the address of the publisher
• edition : the edition of the book
• publisher : the name of the publisher
• school : the name of the school at which the thesis was written (for @phdthesis and @mastersthesis references)
• institution : the name of the institution that published the report (for @techreport references)
• howpublished : any special instructions for publishing the reference
• note : any additional notes about the reference

It is important to note that not all citation styles support all reference types and fields, but you should enter as much information into your BibTeX database as accurately and completely as possible. This ensures that your references are formatted correctly and that the information is correct. Fields that are not supported are simply ignored, so the more, the better. You should double-check any journal requirements.

• Basic remarks
• Bitmap fonts
• Page layout

Bibliography

• Footnote citing

Tips on Writing a Thesis in LaTeX

A typical scientific document contains a number of references, and this leads to the problem of organizing and presentation of the references in the document. The problem can be subdivided into several parts: store of the reference information, later retrieval of this information while preparing the document, and presentation (formatting) of the reference information in the document and in the bibliography according to a particular format.

A widely-used approach to deal with references in LaTeX documents is to employ BibTeX reference management software. In BibTeX reference information is stored in format-independent plain text file(s) (usually with .bib extension), which can be modified with almost any text editor. Such a text file contains BibTeX entries , and each entry, formed by several text lines, has

• unique ID or key , needed to identify and refer to the particular entry, for instance Author2001 ;
• entry type , which can be article , book , thesis , etc.;
• entry fields (such as year , publisher , journal , etc.), corresponding to the particular type.

Here is an example of the article type entry from the .bib file I used while typesetting thesis:

The command \bibliography { reference_list } placed before \begin { document } is used to specify a plain text input file ( reference_list.bib here) containing information on references.

References can be "cited" during editing the LaTeX document using, for example, \cite { key } command, and later at the document compilation step LaTeX input files must be processed with LaTeX and BibTeX .

The most popular approaches to indicate a reference appearing in the text can be classified as "numeric" and "author–year". The former uses sequential number of a reference in the document

while "author–year" is based on the extended reference information and may appear like this:

Each indication has particular advantages and drawbacks. For example, numeric is more compact (i.e., require less space in a text line), and a group of references can be "compressed" into a range in the case they have sequential numbering (i.e., [1,2,3,5] will be shown as [1–3,5]). On the other hand, author–year indication shows more information on the cited document (typically, first one or two author names, and a year of a publication), but requires more space compared to the numeric one. The space consumed by reference may become important if your document has high density of references (and you care about in-line space "wasted" by references :).

In my thesis I have decided to use "numeric" indication, but contrary to the example above reference numbers appear in the text as a footnote: reference number by itself has script size ,

and each number has associated script-sized text at the bottom of the page (where the reference appeared) containing extended information on the cited reference:

This citation scheme improves in-line space saving compared to the plain numeric indication due to the reduced size of numbers, and at the same time allows the reader to see what exactly was cited without looking in the bibliography (which is typically located at the end of a document or chapter). The drawback of the footnote citation scheme follows from the space consumed at the bottom of the page: if there are too many citations on the page, footnote text will occupy a lot of space. For example:

To create citations in my thesis, I employed the biblatex package, which is one of the most notable packages I have used with LaTeX. The package provides a highly customizable interface for the creation and edit of the presentation of bibliographic data in the document. Compared to the plain BibTeX, biblatex enables relatively easy customization of the appearance of bibliographic data. Below I provide customizations I used to modify the default biblatex output. The detailed description of the biblatex commands is available in the package documentation .

The two basic commands to enable biblatex and output citation list are

While preparing the thesis I activated biblatex with the following options compiling the document using biblatex with the options below will need custom-numeric-comp.bbx and custom-numeric-comp.cbx files (see next sections, "Biblatex customization" and "Footnote citation") :

Option hyperref=true was specified to transform various citation elements (like citation number, page number where citation appears, hyperlink to the web page where cited document can be found, etc.) into clickable hyperlinks. This option requires hyperref package (see also notes on hyperref ).

With options url=false,isbn=false I disabled printing the URLs and ISBNs in the bibliography.

Back references

Option backref=true enables generation of the back references to the citation, which are usually number(s) of the page where citation appears:

The back reference text preceding the page number ("see p.") can be modified using the following command:

Just a note on the back references. When you are reading a .pdf document, encounter a reference, and click on it, .pdf viewer will change view to the record of this reference in the bibliography. Now, if you want to return to the main text and continue reading, you may find it difficult to do using back reference when the reference was cited on several pages (back reference will contain several page numbers and you have to bear in mind the original page number you came to the bibliography), and a good solution here is to use " Alt + ← " instead of the back reference itself. On the other hand, back references are useful to indicate how often and where a particular reference was cited in the document.

Citation style

Option style=custom-numeric-comp determines the citation style. As seen from its name, the chosen citation style uses numbers ( numeric ) to indicate citations in text, and consequent numbers are compressed ( comp ) into a range: [1,2,3,5] is printed as [1–3,5]. Above it was mentioned that I used footnote version of the standard biblatex numeric-comp style — as a result, each citation has i) its number typeset as superscript, and ii) short and extended reference information located at the bottom of the page ("footnote text") and in the bibliography, respectively:

Option citereset=chapter defines biblatex behavior for the reference footnote text in a typical situation when a citation appears several times in the document: footnote text for the particular citation is printed only once per document chapter ( citereset=chapter ), where chapter is defined according to the LaTeX sectioning commands . In my thesis a typical chapter includes about 20 pages, and I assumed citereset=chapter to be quite acceptable. However, one of my colleagues was confused by such a rule for printing the footnote text (i.e., he did not get the logic behind the rule until I have explained it). I was thinking about resetting footnote text as "once-per-page" (not "once-per-chapter") but decided to avoid this due to high density of the references in my thesis. If you are interested in such a behavior some useful information can be found here .

Number of displayed author names

Options maxcitenames=3 and maxbibnames=100 limit number of authors of the cited document to be printed in the document body and in the bibliography, respectively. If the number of authors exceeds maxcite(bib)names , the author list is truncated according to biblatex settings, and usually printed as "Author1 et al." In my case I have very short authors lists in the footnote text (document body) to reduce space occupied by footnote citations,

and virtually all authors are displayed in the bibliography:

I note that I have prepared my thesis with biblatex v. 0.9a (19.03.2010), while this on-line document was prepared and tested on biblatex v. 1.6 (29.07.2011). Options maxcitenames and maxbibnames were not available in v. 0.9a, and the described biblatex behavior (with maxcitenames=3 and maxbibnames=100 ) was obtained using maxnames=3 while loading the biblatex package, and maxnames=100 while printing the bibliography, i.e.

The next section continues the discussion of the biblatex customization.

• Getting Started
• Basics of a LaTeX File
• Installing LaTeX & Editors
• Thesis/Dissertation Template
• Thesis & Dissertation Troubleshooting
• Bibliography with BIbTeX

Create a Bibliography

Example command:

\bibliographystyle{plain} \usepackage{plain}

The \bibliographystyle command tells LaTEX which style to use for the bibliography. The bibliography style called <style>, is defined in the file <style>.bst. This example demonstrates how you use the \bibliographystyle command to select a bibliography style called plain. While not required, it is a good idea to put the \bibliographystyle command in the preamble of your document. The bibliography style plain requires the additional package plain, which explains why the additional command \usepackage{plain} is used in the example.

End-of-Chapter Bibliographies

1. Import biblatex with your favourite options

\usepackage[<options>]{biblatex}

2. Specify the names of your bibliography database(s).

\addbibresource{<your .bib file names>}

3. Add a refsection environment for each chapter and print the bibliography at the end of the chapter.

\chapter{From K\"onigsberg to G\"ottingen} \begin{refsection} … % Lots of text and citations omitted. \printbibliography[heading=subbibliography] \end{refsection}

4. Run latex on your LaTEX source file. This will create an auxiliary file for each refsection with a \printbibligraphy command in it. The names of theses auxiliary files are of the form <base name><number>- blx.aux, where <base name> is the base name of your main document.

5. Run bibtex on each auxiliary file. 

6. Run LaTEX twice.

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Information Technology

Choosing a BibTeX Style

• How to Choose a Specific Style

The Seven Standard Styles

Styles recommended by reed.

• Citation Commands Within NatBib

Biblatex-Chicago Style

Discipline specific listings of bibtex journal styles.

The great feature of BibTeX is that it takes a standardized database of books, articles, and other bibliographic entries and puts it in a customized format. A BibTeX style can change how a work is cited and how the bibliography is formatted. For more about using BibTeX than is described here, read our BibTeX documentation .

How to Use a Specific Style

• Choose your BibTeX style from the list below. Place it in the same folder as your LaTeX document.
• Change the \bibliographystyle line of your LaTeX document to reflect the style you chose. Remember to remove the file extension. For example, if you wanted to use the American Anthropologist style, \bibliographystyle{ filename } would become \bibliographystyle{humannat}.
• Many BibTeX styles require the inclusion of a package at the top of the document. The comments about a style will tell you exactly how to include its package. To learn more about your specific style, open up the .bst in your LaTeX editor or read the readme file, if available.
• Anytime you want to cite a document, type \cite[ pagenumber ]{ citekey }. The square brackets and page number are optional. Some BibTeX styles use non-standard citations. Such styles include citation directions within the .bst itself or an included readme file.
• You will need to typeset your document four times, first LaTeX, BibTeX, LaTeX, and then LaTeX again. Your bibliography will now appear in the style of your choice and your citations will be correctly formatted. If question marks appear where citations should, that means you need to LaTeX your document once more. If the citations are entirely missing, you have likely forgotten to BibTeX your document.

Every computer with LaTeX comes with the following seven standard styles. While they work, we recommend the natbib interpretations below. NatBib is a citation package that standardizes citation commands across many different bibliography styles, so you can switch from using plain.bst to acm.bst without having to change your in-text citations.

The following two styles were created or modified by Reed to match the following style manuals as closely as possible. Right-click (Control-Click on a Mac) on the linked name to download the style you want.

Natbib Standard Styles

Citation commands within natbib.

For additional modifications not covered above, this is a great NatBib reference sheet put out by a physical science professor in France.

And this one too!  - This reference sheet includes instructions on how to change (Jones 1990, 341) to (Jones 1990: 341) [or (Jones, 1990: 341) to (Jones 1990: 341)] using the \setcitestyle command

You will see that your urls are formatted in typewritter font. If you want to change the font of your urls, add the command \urlstyle{same} to your preamble to make them the same font as the body of your paper. 

back to top

To use biblatex-Chicago, you need to change the backend from "bibtex" to "biber." To do this, pull up the preferences window (TeXShop/Preferences... or "⌘,"). Go to the "Engine" tab and change the entry in the BibTeX Engine field to "biber." This does require a somewhat new-ish version of tex, so if it's not working and you have an old version, you may need to download a new one.

Chicago A (footnotes)

To use Chicago style citations, comment out or remove the following line from the preamble: \usepackage{natbib}

To use Chicago A (footnote style citations), add these lines to the preamble (where "thesis" should be changed to the title of your .bib file): \usepackage{biblatex-chicago} \bibliography{thesis}

Then go to the end of the .tex file and remove the following lines: \bibliographystyle{APA/apa-good} \bibliography{thesis}

And replace them with this line: \printbibliography[heading=bibintoc]

Chicago B (parenthetical in-line citations)

To use Chicago B (parenthetical in-line citations), add these lines to the preamble (where "thesis" should be changed to the title of your .bib file): \usepackage[authordate,autocite=inline,backend=biber, natbib]{biblatex-chicago} \bibliography{thesis}

In order to have the author and year all in parenthesis, use \autocite for in-text citation. If you want only the year in parenthesis, use \citet instead. 

Explore the Biblatex-Chicago readme  on CTAN to find customizations.

Styles Available at CTAN.org

CTAN.org is the official LaTeX archive containing both the official LaTeX packages and items contributed by LaTeX users. Many of these BibTeX styles have either been created by journal editors or publishers for their authors or by users creating packages to fulfill a personal need. One problem with the user-contributed styles is that they may not match the official style they claim to implement exactly. However, the journal-specific styles will exactly match the journal's house style, as they were designed by the journals. Therefore, we recommend testing any non-journal style by using it with a large BibTeX database and compare the resulting bibliography to the official style.

• Human Nature (humannat.bst)
• American Anthropologist (humannat.bst)
• Behavior and Brain Sciences (bbs.bst)
• American Journal of Human Genetics (ajhg.bst)
• American Medical Association Journals (JAMA, Cancer, etc.) (ama.bst)
• Applied Bioinformatics (openmind.bst, include openmind package)
• Applied Bionics and Biomechanics (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Applied Biotechnology, Food Science and Policy (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Applied Environmental Science and Public Health (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Applied Health Economics and Health Policy (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Applied Nanoscience (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Applied Population and Policy (openmind.bst, include openmind)
• Bioinformatics (bioinformatics.bst, include bioinformatics package)
• Council of Biology Editors (includes such journals as American Naturalist, Evolution, etc) (cbe.bst)
• Cell (cell.bst)
• Development (development.bst)
• Ecology (ecology.bst, include natbib, emboj, floatfig packages)
• Human Biology (humanbio.bst)
• Human Mutation (humanmutation.bst, include humanmutation package)
• Journal of Bacteriology (jbact.bst)
• Journal of Molecular Biology (jmb.bst)
• Journal of Neuroscience (namedplus.sty, include namedplus package)
• Journal of Super Computing (jsupercomp,include jsupercomp package)
• Journal of Theoretical Biology (jtb.bst and newjtb.bst)
• Methods in Enzymology (methenz.bst)
• Molecular Cell Biology (molcellbiol, include molcellbiol package)
• National Cancer Institute (nci.bst, include nci and \usepackage[normalem]{ulem})
• Nature (nature.bst, include nature, citesuppernumber, naturefem packages)
• Neuron (neuron.bst)
• Nucleic Acid Research (nar.bst)
• PLoS: Public Library of Science Journals (plos.bst, include natbib package)
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (pnas.bst)
• Proteins (proteins.bst, include proteins, citesupernumber packages)
• Science (science.bst, scicite.sty)
• American Chemical Society Journals (achemso.bst, include achemso package)
• Journal of Computation Chemistry (jcc.bst)
• Journal of Physical Chemistry (jpc.bst)
• Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (pccp.bst)
• Reviews in Computational Chemistry (revcompchem.bst)
• American Economic Review (aer.bst, include harvard, aer, aertt, and ulem packages)
• Canadian Journal of Economics (cje.bst, include cje package)
• Econometrica (econometrica.bst, include harvard package)
• Economic Theory (et.bst, include et package)
• Journal of Economics and Business (JEB.bst, include JEB, harvard, endnotes, caption2 packages)
• Journal of Finance (jf.bst, include harvard package)
• Journal of Investing (JOI.bst, include JOI, harvard, endnotes, caption2 packages)
• Macroeconomic Dynamics (et.bst, include et package)
• Review of Financial Studies (rfs.bst)
• English and Creative Writing
• Abbreviated (abbrv-fr.bst)
• Alphabetical (alpha-fr.bst)
• Plain (plain-fr.bst)
• Unsorted (unsrt-fr.bst)
• Abbreviated (abbrvdin.bst)
• Alphabetical (alphadin.bst)
• Nat Bib for German (natdin.bst)
• Plain (plaindin.bst)
• Unsorted (unsrtdin.bst)
• Abbreviated (gerabbrv.bst)
• Alphabetical (geralpha.bst)
• Apalike (gerapali.bst)
• Plain (gerplain.bst)
• Unsorted (gerunsrt.bst)
• Ancient Greek
• CSLI (cslibib.bst)
• Language (laslike.bst)
• Lingua (lingua.bst)
• Linguistic Society of America style sheet (lsalike.bst)
• Natural Language Semantics (nals.bst)
• Association for Computing Machinery (acm.bst)
• Association for Computing Machinery Transactions (acmtrans.bst)
• alphabetical (amsalpha.bst)
• plain (amsplain.bst)
• American Statistician
• Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics
• Journal of the American Statistical Association
• Journal of Business and Economic Statistics
• Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics
• Technometrics
• Biometrika (biometrika.bst)
• Computer Journal (cj.bst)
• Design Computing Unit, University of Sydney (dcu.bst)
• IEEE Transactions (ieeetr.bst)
• Annals of Applied Probability
• Annals of Probability
• Annals of Statistics
• Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (rss.bst)
• Numerical Algorithms (numalg.bst)
• American Association for Artificial Intelligence (aaai.bst)
• American Institute of Physics Journal (phaip.bst)
• Astronomy (astron.bst)
• Computer Physics Communications (phcpc.bst)
• International Atomic Energy Agency Conferences (phiaea.bst)
• IEEE with annotations(IEEEannot.bst)
• Journal of Computational Physics (phjcp.bst)
• Journal of Quality Technology (jqt1999.bst)
• Nuclear Fusion
• Nuclear Fusion Letters
• Optical Society of America (osa.bst)
• Physics of Fluids
• Reviews of Modern Physics (amsrmp.bst)
• Physical Review (covers A, B, C, D, E, Special Topics, Focus, and Letters) (apsrev.bst)
• Translate Physics Journals Initials into Full Names
• American Political Science Review (apsr-new.bst)
• Sorted (gost71s.bst)
• Unsorted (gost71u.bst)
• Sorted (gost780s.bst)
• Unsorted (gost780u.bst)
• American Journal of Sociology (ajs.bst)
• American Sociological Review (asr.bst)

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How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 1): Basic Structure

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Author: Josh Cassidy (August 2013)

This five-part series of articles uses a combination of video and textual descriptions to teach the basics of writing a thesis using LaTeX. These tutorials were first published on the original ShareLateX blog site during August 2013; consequently, today's editor interface (Overleaf) has changed considerably due to the development of ShareLaTeX and the subsequent merger of ShareLaTeX and Overleaf. However, much of the content is still relevant and teaches you some basic LaTeX—skills and expertise that will apply across all platforms.

Your thesis could be the longest and most complicated document you'll ever write, which is why it's such a good idea to use L a T e X instead of a common word processor. L a T e X makes tasks that are difficult and awkward in word processors, far simpler.

When writing something like a thesis its worth splitting up the document into multiple .tex files. It's also wise to organise the project using folders; therefore, we'll create two new folders, one for all the images used in the project and one for all the .tex files making up the main body of the thesis.

• 1 The preamble
• 2 The frontmatter
• 3 The main body
• 4 The endmatter
• 5 All articles in this series

The preamble

In this example, the main.tex file is the root document and is the .tex file that will draw the whole document together. The first thing we need to choose is a document class. The article class isn't designed for writing long documents (such as a thesis) so we'll choose the report class, but we could also choose the book class.

We can also change the font size by adding square brackets into the \documentclass command and specifying the size—we'll choose 12pt. Let's also prepare the document for images by loading the graphicx package. We'll also need to tell L a T e X where to look for the images using the \graphicspath command, as we're storing them in a separate folder.

The start of our preamble now looks like this:

Now we can finish off the preamble by filling in the title, author and date information. To create the simplest title page we can add the thesis title, institution name and institution logo all into the \title command; for example:

This isn't the best way to alter the title page so we'll look at more elaborate ways of customising title pages later on in the series, but this will suffice for now.

This is what the \maketitle command now produces for us:

The frontmatter

After the title page we need to add in an abstract, dedication, declaration and acknowledgements section. We can add each of these in on separate pages using unnumbered chapters. To do this we use the \chapter command and add an asterisk. After these sections we'll add a table of contents using the \tableofcontents command:

The main body

Now for the main body of the document. In this example we will add-in five chapters, one of which will be an introduction and another will be a conclusion. However, instead of just composing these chapters in the main .tex file, we'll create a separate .tex file for each chapter in the chapters folder. We can then fill in these chapters with text remembering to split them up into sections and subsections.

Then to add these chapters into the document, we use the \input command in the root document. Remember to add in chapters/ before the file name so that L a T e X knows where to find it.

The endmatter

We will now add in an appendix at the end of the document. To do this we use the \appendix command to tell L a T e X that what follows are appendices. Again We'll write the appendix in a separate file and then input it.

If we now compile the document, all our chapters will be added to the document and the table of contents will be automatically generated.

Now we have a basic structure for a thesis set up. In the next post I will show you how to change the page layout and add headers.

All articles in this series

• Part 1: Basic Structure ;
• Part 2: Page Layout ;
• Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables ;
• Part 4: Bibliographies with BibLaTeX ;
• Part 5: Customising Your Title Page and Abstract .
• Documentation Home
• Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

• Creating a document in Overleaf
• Uploading a project
• Copying a project
• Creating a project from a template
• Using the Overleaf project menu
• Including images in Overleaf
• Exporting your work from Overleaf
• Working offline in Overleaf
• Using Track Changes in Overleaf
• Using bibliographies in Overleaf
• Sharing your work with others
• Using the History feature
• Debugging Compilation timeout errors
• How-to guides
• Guide to Overleaf’s premium features

LaTeX Basics

• Creating your first LaTeX document
• Choosing a LaTeX Compiler
• Paragraphs and new lines
• Bold, italics and underlining

Mathematics

• Mathematical expressions
• Subscripts and superscripts
• Brackets and Parentheses
• Fractions and Binomials
• Aligning equations
• Spacing in math mode
• Integrals, sums and limits
• Display style in math mode
• List of Greek letters and math symbols
• Mathematical fonts
• Using the Symbol Palette in Overleaf

Figures and tables

• Inserting Images
• Positioning Images and Tables
• Lists of Tables and Figures
• Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
• TikZ package

References and Citations

• Bibliography management with bibtex
• Bibliography management with natbib
• Bibliography management with biblatex
• Bibtex bibliography styles
• Natbib bibliography styles
• Natbib citation styles
• Biblatex bibliography styles
• Biblatex citation styles
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using polyglossia and fontspec
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
• International language support
• Quotations and quotation marks

Document structure

• Sections and chapters
• Table of contents
• Cross referencing sections, equations and floats
• Nomenclatures
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Lengths in L a T e X
• Headers and footers
• Page numbering
• Paragraph formatting
• Line breaks and blank spaces
• Text alignment
• Page size and margins
• Single sided and double sided documents
• Multiple columns
• Code listing
• Code Highlighting with minted
• Using colours in LaTeX
• Margin notes
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Font typefaces
• Supporting modern fonts with X Ǝ L a T e X

Presentations

• Environments

Field specific

• Theorems and proofs
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• Feynman diagrams
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• Chess notation
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• CircuiTikz package
• Pgfplots package
• Typesetting exams in LaTeX
• Attribute Value Matrices

Class files

• Understanding packages and class files
• List of packages and class files
• Writing your own package
• Writing your own class

Advanced TeX/LaTeX

• In-depth technical articles on TeX/LaTeX

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