Yale University Library Research Guides: BibTeX, natbib, biblatex: Managing Citations in LaTeX: Bibliography Packages

BibTeX, natbib, Biblatex, biber

BibTeX.org [HTML web site]
The main web site for BibTeX, this page contains guides and other information about getting BibTeX to work for you. See the Links page to look at some of the tools available for using BibTeX. This also contains information about non-BibTeX citation tools.
jurabib: Extended BibTeX Citation Support for the Humanities and Legal Texts (LaTeX package)
Originally adapted for legal cases, jurabib is an alternative to natbib that raises the functionality of citing sources using BibTeX. This package enables automated citation with BibTeX for legal studies and the humanities. In addition, the package provides commands for specifying editors in a commentary in a convenient way. Simplified formatting of the citation as well as the bibliography entry is also provided. It is possible to display the (short) title of a work only if an authors is cited with multiple works. Giving a full citation in the text, conforming to the bibliography entry, is supported. Several options are provided which might be of special interest for those outside legal studies—for instance, displaying multiple full citations. In addition, the format of last names and first names of authors may be changed easily. Cross references to other footnotes are possible. Language dependent handling of bibliography entries is possible by the special language field.
Tame the BeaST [pdf, CTAN]
This guide is hard, but useful. If you're looking to do anything incredibly complicated with BibTeX, use special characters, or need to hack more functionality, look no further. This 48-page tutorial presents and explains, as clearly and exhaustively as possible, what BibTEX can do.

natbib Guide [pdf, CTAN]
Originally implemented only for the natural sciences (hence the document title), this package builds more functionality into your citations and is a good choice for using styles. "The natbib package is a reimplementation of the LATEX \cite command, to work with both author{year and numerical citations. It is compatible with the standard bibliographic style les, such as plain.bst, as well as with those for harvard, apalike, chicago, astron, authordate, and of course natbib."
natbib: Flexible Bibliography Support (LaTeX package)
May be installed within specific software pieces or separately; see documentation. The bundle provides a package that implements both author-year and numbered references, as well as much detailed of support for other bibliography use. Also Provided are versions of the standard BibTeX styles that are compatible with natbib—plainnat, unsrtnat, abbrnat. The bibliography styles produced by custom-bib are designed from the start to be compatible with natbib.
Reference Sheet for natbib Usage
If you decide natbib is for you, this reference sheet provides essential reference in just over five full pages. "The natbib package is a reimplementation of the LATEX \cite command, to work with both author-year and numerical citations. It is compatible with the standard bibliographic style les, such as plain.bst, as well as with those for harvard, apalike, chicago, astron, authordate, and of course natbib."

Remember advanced Google searches!

You can search for filetype:bbx to find your own biblatex+biber-compatible styles!

Example search: nature filetype:bbx

Biblatex bibliography styles [Overleaf]
This page provides commands that set the bibliography style and import the bibliography file, and it includes images of what the bibliography will look like.
Biblatex citation styles [Overleaf]
This page shows the standard citation styles that biblatex provides. Please note that you can set the style of in-text citations and the style of the bibliography separately.
biblatex Styles for the Humanities and (Some) Social Sciences
This contains the following styles:
standard-luh-ipw.bbx
authoryear-luh-ipw.bbx
verbose-inote-luh-ipw.bbx
Bibliography management in LaTeX [Overleaf]
"Biblatex is a modern program to process bibliography information, provides an easier and more flexible interface and a better language localization that the other two options. This article explains how to use biblatex to manage and format the bibliography in a LaTeX document."
Comprehensive biber Documentation on CTAN [PDF]
This 58-page document discusses all that biber can do for you and provides information that can be useful if you need to Google error messages or preferred syntax to debug.
Comprehensive biblatex Documentation on CTAN [PDF]
This document is a systematic (and large) reference manual for the biblatex package.
Getting Started with biblatex [Overleaf]
Basic information in a cleanly-formatted interface on how to use biblatex.
LaTeX Bibliographies with Biblatex and biber
This is a short overview of how to use biblatex and biber from Wikibooks. It can be used as a complement to Overleaf's materials.
Using biblatex with LyX
This wiki page describes how LyX users can customize their settings to work with biber and biblatex.

For this example, I will use texmaker, a desktop-based LaTeX editing tool.

In the texmaker menu, click on Preferences. On a Mac, this will be under texmaker > Preferences; in Windows, it will probably be under File > Preferences.

You will see something like this:

The location of the BibTeX file path is circled in red above. Copy all of the information you see here to a secure location in case you want to easily and quickly move between BibTeX and biber.

Otherwise, navigate to the file location on your machine where biber is kept and replace the information about BibTeX with the biber file path. On a Mac, this probably means replacing the string "/usr/texbin/bibtex" %.aux with "/usr/local/texlive/2014/bin/universal-darwin/biber" % (or something similar).

Contact Info

Kayleigh Bohemier

Email Me

Contact:

Please email me or use the Schedule Appointment button. In-person and virtual (Zoom) appointments are both possible. Please note that Science Hill is a 15-minute walk from central campus, and there is a temporary entrance due to construction.

My default ONSITE days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. During the semester (not during breaks!), I am onsite on Thursdays. I am OFFSITE most Mondays.

———

Marx Science and Social Science Library (formerly called CSSSI)
Office C41
219 Prospect Street
Concourse Level
Kline Biology Tower

203-432-9519

Subjects: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Neuroscience, Physics and Astronomy

BibTeX, natbib, biblatex: Managing Citations in LaTeX: Bibliography Packages

BibTeX, natbib, Biblatex, biber

Contact Info

Site Navigation

Yale's Libraries