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Math Majors’ Seminar

Suggestions for researching the literature in mathematics.

LaTeX and BibTeX

LaTeX (pronounced "lay-tech") is a "document preparation system".  It is used often in mathematics and computer science and is especially adept at handling the presentation of complex mathematical equations.

BibTeX (pronounced "bib-tech") is an extension of LaTeX that allows you to manage cited references in a LaTeX system.  

To use BibTeX, you need additional elements in your LaTeX project, including:

  • A .bib file that includes records for all of your citations. The .tex file refers to the .bib file to get information for in-line citations and the list of references.
  • Each record in the .bib file is identified by the type of source followed by a unique name.
    • For example, @article{Jones2015 is a journal article and will be formatted accordingly, @book{Smith2015 is a book, etc.
  • Within the .tex file, use the command \cite to indicate in-line citations. The \cite references records in the .bib file by the unique names.
    • The above examples would be cited with \cite{Jones2015} and \cite{Smith2015}
  • The .sty file (referenced in the .tex file by \usepackage) includes options for formatting in-line citations. Search the .sty file for \citationstyle to find the available citation styles. In the example below, harvard.sty includes citation styles called agsm and dcu.
  • Towards the end of the .tex file, use the command \bibliographystyle to indicate the style for the bibliography or works cited.
  • Then use the command \bibliography to reference the .bib file containing your citations.

You can find examples of these elements in the template file linked in the next box below.

Note: the basic \cite{record_name} command produces a default in-line citation according to the style, usually an author-date reference. For other varieties of in-line citations, such as using just the date (because the author's name is mentioned in the sentence), listing one or more authors, or including several citations at the end of a sentence, see this tip sheet.

Details

Important details in the .tex file:

An example of a record in the .bib file: