Managing citations

Creating/exporting references for LaTeX

A BibTex database is essentially a plain text file with the file extension of .bib. There are a few ways you can create one.

To create a BibTex file from scratch you can use your favourite LaTeX editor to create a plain text file, manually add in your references in the correct format ( https://www.bibtex.com/g/bibtex-format/)  and save it with a file extension of .bib.

Many databases also allow you to export a BibTex file, including Web of Science, IEEEXplore and Scopus.

If you have already built a library of references, an easier option is to export a BibTex file from one of the reference management software tools below.

Endnote

Zotero

Referencing in LaTeX

Once you have a list of references, you can use a bibliographic package to easily insert in-text citations and automatically create a bibliography in a selected style. There are three main bibliographic packages for LaTeX: BibTeX, Natbib and BibLaTeX. Each process bibliographic information and have different referencing styles to choose from. Overleaf reccomends BibLaTeX as the easiest and most customisible package, however, many journals still use Natbib and BibTex.

BibTeX package Overleaf guide

BibLaTeX package Overleaf guide

Natbib package Overleaf guide