Bibliography & Citations

How to Create a Bibliography in LaTeX

A bibliography lists all sources cited in your document. LaTeX can generate it automatically from your .bib file.

Using BibTeX (Classic Method)

Add these lines at the end of your document:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
% Your content with \cite{} commands...

\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{references}  % loads references.bib
\end{document}

Using BibLaTeX (Modern Method)

More flexible and powerful:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=authoryear]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

\begin{document}
As noted by \textcite{smith2020}...

\printbibliography
\end{document}

Manual Bibliography

For short documents without .bib file:

\begin{thebibliography}{9}
\bibitem{lamport}
  Leslie Lamport,
  \textit{\LaTeX: A Document Preparation System},
  Addison-Wesley, 1994.

\bibitem{knuth}
  Donald E. Knuth,
  \textit{The TeXbook},
  Addison-Wesley, 1984.
\end{thebibliography}

💡 Tips

•BibLaTeX with Biber is the modern standard—use it for new projects
•Common styles: plain, ieee, apa, chicago, mla
•Only cited references appear in the bibliography (use \nocite{*} for all)

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