How to Cite and Create Reference Lists in LaTeX

LaTeX  is a free and open source document preparation system which is excellent for the preparation of scientific works.

In order to be able to follow this tutorial basic skills in LaTeX are required. In case you are a beginner, we recommend the Tutorials on Overleaf or a course by the Central IT services of UZH.

LaTeX contains many packages  which allow for  various functionalities and customizations. die As a consequence there are also various possibilities for generating citations and reference lists in a document.

In order to cite in LaTeX you will need:

• A LaTeX package which allows for the creation of citations and reference lists
• A *.bib file that contains the references in a specific text-only format
• A citation style (if not already included in the package)

There are two widely used packages for creating references in LaTeX:

• biblatex  is the best option for almost any use case, especially for seminar papers, lab reports and theses. 
• natbib should only be used when writing a manuscript for a journal that explicitly requires its use (e.g. in the REVTex class).

Another component when citing in LaTeX is a text file that contains the metadata of all references you want to use in your document. The file has the extension *.bib and is usually stored in the same folder as the corresponding *.tex file.

References in the *.bib file have a certain structure, which is explained in the following figure.

Be aware that biblatex and bibtex are not identical. The exact field structure and available document types in *.bib files is different for the bibtex and biblatex format.

• Download *.bib sample file in biblatex format. (BIB, 441 bytes).
• Download *.bib sample file in bibtex format. (BIB, 401 bytes)
  For a quick display of *.bib files you can use e.g. Windows Editor or Mac TextEdit.

Which of the two formats you need depends on the package you are using. For the biblatex package you need the biblatex format, for natbib you need bibtex.

We recommend that you use a literature management softwareto export the desired references as a *.bib file. Depending on the program, it is possible to choose between bibtex and biblatex format for the export, but many only allow the bibtex export.
With the free literature management program JabRef you can convert *.bib files from bibtex to biblatex, and vice versa.

The biblatex package is loaded in the preamble of the LaTeX document. Additionally, it is recommended to load the packages inputencwith the parameter utf8, babelwith the language of the document, as well as csquotes:

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{biblatex}

The next step is to specify the path to the .bib file that contains the references for your work, replacing "references.bib" with the name of your file:

\addbibresource{references.bib}

At the point in your document where you want a simple citation of a reference to appear, set the citation command \cite{Nobody2023},  replacing "Nobody2023" with the citekey of the desired reference.

There are many more citation commands in biblatex that you can use to customize your citations almost any way you want. More information can be found in chapter 3.8 of the biblatex user manual and on the biblatex cheat sheet.

At the point in your document where you want the bibliography to appear, set the /printbibliography command. This only works if you have cited references in the document. There are also many options for customizing the reference lists, which you can find in chapter 3.7 in the biblatex user manual

A minimal working example for citations and reference lists with biblatex is explained in the following figure. You can also download our example file. (ZIP, 725 bytes)

Careful: This minimal reproducible example is only intended as an explanation of how the biblatex package works. The references generated with it are insufficiently formatted for most applications. In the next steps of the tutorial you will learn how to apply citation styles.

Biblatex offers several built-in styles for formatting citations and references. A compilation of the most popular packages and citation styles is available on the biblatex overview page.

To apply a style, specify it as a parameter (in square brackets) when loading biblatex, e.g. for the Nature citation style:

\usepackage[backend=biber, style=nature]{biblatex} 

Below are some formatting tips for some of the most popular citation styles.