Sooni Saheb

In this article, we will study how to easily include bibliography or references into your LaTex document. We will also discuss how to cite a paper in any LaTex document in detail.

Steps to include bibliography/reference and cite a bibliography/reference are as follows:

Step 1 First create an empty LaTex document with .tex extension using your LaTex editor TeXstudio/ShareLaTeX/Texmaker. Say paper.tex. You can also create this file using notepad/notepad++/gedit, etc. However, LaTex should be installed in your system in order to compile and run your LaTex code.

Step 2 Create another empty file with .bib extension. Say reference.bib. This is a file containing all your references which are formatted in a particular way, which we will discuss in later steps.

Step 3 Open your paper.tex file with any of the LaTex editor (Eg., TeXstudio) and insert the below code:

Now, look at the two important lines at the bottom of the above LaTex code: \bibliographystyle{plain} \bibliography{reference}

\bibliographystyle{plain}: This command is used to specify the type of styling for your references and can be one of the following: plain, abbrev, acm, apalike, ieeetr, alpha, siam, unsrt

\bibliography{reference}: By using this command you specify the name of your bibliography/reference file (Here, reference.bib ) without the .bib extension.

Step 4 Now, open your bibliography file reference.bib and insert the references you would like to cite or include in your paper or article

Latex Bibliography Example:

Note: You must strictly follow the correct syntax otherwise you might get compile errors.

Step 5 Each entry in the .bib file must start with a reference type declaration, which is in a form of @type.

Some of the commonly used @types are: @inproceedings, @article,@book, etc.

After a type declaration, you must type all reference attributes in the the curly braces { and }.

The first attribute immediately following the left curly brace { is called as citation key (Here, femto_anup is the citation key). Citation key should be unique and distinct for all the entries in your reference.bib file. This key will act as an identifier to cross-reference it to this particular entry.

Step 6 Now observe the command \cite{femto_anup}, this command is used to cross-reference or cite the record/entry with the citation key femto_anup.

Step 7 Compile and run to see the output.

Go to the Interaction Menu and turn on invincibility (so you don't die) Also, disable the Wanted Status Click on Directors Mode (still in interaction menu)