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| <h2 align="left">BibTeX</h2> |
| |
| <p align="right"><em>A printer friendly PDF version of this page is available |
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| <h3>Description</h3> |
| BibTeX is a program and file format designed by Oren Patashnik and Leslie |
| Lamport in 1985 for the LaTeX document preparation system. The format is |
| entirely character based, so it can be used by any program (although the |
| standard character set for accents is TeX). It is field (tag) based and the |
| BibTeX program will ignore unknown fields, so it is expandable. It is |
| probably the most common format for bibliographies on the Internet. |
| |
| <h3>References</h3> |
| <ul> |
| <li><cite>LaTeX: A Document Preparation System</cite> by Leslie Lamport, |
| 1986, Addison-Wesley.</li> |
| <li><cite>BibTeXing</cite> ( <a |
| href="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/packages/TeX/biblio/bibtex/distribs/doc/btxdoc.tex"> |
| <tt>btxdoc.tex</tt></a>), by Oren Patashnik, February 1988, (BibTeX |
| distribution).</li> |
| <li><a href="http://jasper.ora.com/texhelp/bibtx-4.html">Help file for |
| BibTeX format</a></li> |
| <li><a href="http://hypatia.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/html/bibliography.html">Hypatia's |
| Guide to BibTeX</a>. A very nice document that serves the same function |
| of this one.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3>Software Support</h3> |
| The BibTeX program uses <a |
| href="http://jasper.ora.com/texhelp/bibtx-50.html">style files</a>, a list of |
| citations from LaTeX, and a BibTeX database to create a LaTeX file listing |
| the cited references. |
| |
| <p>Dana Jacobsen maintains a <a |
| href="http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/tools/bibtex.html">list of |
| some BibTeX tools</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you're looking for BibTeX for the Mac, Vince Darley has done a <a |
| href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~darley/MacBibTeX.html">port of BibTeX to |
| the Mac</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p><a |
| href="http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/bp/index.html"><cite>bp</cite></a> |
| and BibDB both fully support BibTeX.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Examples</h3> |
| <pre>@article{Gettys90, |
| author = {Jim Gettys and Phil Karlton and Scott McGregor}, |
| title = {The {X} Window System, Version 11}, |
| journal = {Software Practice and Experience}, |
| volume = {20}, |
| number = {S2}, |
| year = {1990}, |
| abstract = {A technical overview of the X11 functionality. This is an update |
| of the X10 TOG paper by Scheifler \& Gettys.} |
| }</pre> |
| |
| <h3>Common problems</h3> |
| <ul> |
| <li>The original documents specified a large number of field names, but |
| there are many common items that are not listed. A list of some of the |
| ones people have added are below.</li> |
| <li>When using BibTeX, the interaction between names and accenting is |
| somewhat tricky. You should use `G{\"o}del' or `G{\"{o}}del', and not |
| `{G{\"{o}}del}' or `{G\"{o}del}'.</li> |
| <li>The BibTeX program is written, as is all TeX, using static data |
| structures, and the maximum length of any one string is by default 1000 |
| characters. It is not uncommon for fields like abstract and contents to |
| overflow this buffer. Solutions to this include |
| <ul> |
| <li>change the source code to BibTeX (I've changed mine to 3000)</li> |
| <li>use <tt>\include{<i>file.tex</i>}</tt> to include an external |
| file</li> |
| <li>split the field into <i>field1</i>, <i>field2</i>, ...</li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3>Format Description</h3> |
| |
| <h3>Special features</h3> |
| The <tt>@STRING</tt> command is used to define abbreviations for use by |
| BibTeX. The command <tt>@string{jgg1 = "Journal of Gnats and Gnus, |
| Series~1"}</tt> defines 'jgg1' to be the abbreviation for the string "Journal |
| of Gnats and Gnus, Series~1". Any reference outside of quotes or braces to |
| <tt>jgg1</tt> will be filled in with the full string. |
| |
| <p>The <tt>@PREAMBLE</tt> command is used to define formatter code that will |
| be output directly to the <tt>bbl</tt> file produced by the BibTeX program. |
| This usually consists of LaTeX macros. It is unclear what one should do with |
| the fields when converting to a format that does not use TeX.</p> |
| |
| <p>The <tt>@COMMENT</tt> command lets you put any text inside it. It isn't |
| really necessary, since BibTeX will ignore any text that isn't inside an |
| entry. However, you can not have an <b>@</b> character outside of an item.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Standard entry types</h3> |
| <dl> |
| <dt><tt>@article</tt></dt> |
| <dd>An article from a journal or magazine.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@book</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A book with an explicit publisher.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@booklet</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or |
| sponsoring institution.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@conference</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The same as <tt>inproceedings</tt>.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@inbook</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A part of a book, which may be a chapter (or section or whatever) |
| and/or a range of pages.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@incollection</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A part of a book having its own title.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@inproceedings</tt></dt> |
| <dd>An article in a conference proceedings.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@manual</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Technical documentation.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@mastersthesis</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A Master's thesis.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@misc</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Use this type when nothing else fits.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@phdthesis</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A PhD thesis.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@proceedings</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The proceedings of a conference.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@techreport</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered |
| within a series.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>@unpublished</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A document having an author and title, but not formally |
| published.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h3>Other entry types</h3> |
| Using these entry types is not recommended, but they might occur in some |
| bibliographies. |
| <dl> |
| <dt><tt>@collection</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A collection of works. The same as <tt>proceedings</tt></dd> |
| <dt><tt>@patent</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A patent.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h3>Standard fields</h3> |
| For now I'm going to be lazy and give you what Oren Patashnik wrote about the |
| fields. I'll redo this sometime, including references to how each field |
| should be formatted. |
| <dl> |
| <dt><tt>address</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Usually the address of the <tt>publisher</tt> or other type of |
| institution. For major publishing houses, van Leunen recommends |
| omitting the information entirely. For small publishers, on the other |
| hand, you can help the reader by giving the complete address.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>annote</tt></dt> |
| <dd>An annotation. It is not used by the standard bibliography styles, |
| but may be used by others that produce an annotated bibliography.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>author</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The name(s) of the author(s), in the format described in the LaTeX |
| book.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>booktitle</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Title of a book, part of which is being cited. See the LaTeX book for |
| how to type titles. For book entries, use the <tt>title</tt> field |
| instead.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>chapter</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A chapter (or section or whatever) number.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>crossref</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The database key of the entry being cross referenced. Any fields that |
| are missing from the current record are inherited from the field being |
| cross referenced.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>edition</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The edition of a book---for example, ``Second''. This should be an |
| ordinal, and should have the first letter capitalized, as shown here; |
| the standard styles convert to lower case when necessary.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>editor</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Name(s) of editor(s), typed as indicated in the LaTeX book. If there |
| is also an <tt>author</tt> field, then the <tt>editor</tt> field gives |
| the editor of the book or collection in which the reference |
| appears.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>howpublished</tt></dt> |
| <dd>How something strange has been published. The first word should be |
| capitalized.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>institution</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The sponsoring institution of a technical report.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>journal</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A journal name. Abbreviations are provided for many journals.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>key</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Used for alphabetizing, cross referencing, and creating a label when |
| the ``author'' information <!-- See odds-and-ends --> |
| is missing. This field should not be confused with the key that |
| appears in the <tt>cite</tt> command and at the beginning of the |
| database entry.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>month</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The month in which the work was published or, for an unpublished |
| work, in which it was written. You should use the standard three-letter |
| abbreviation, as described in Appendix B.1.3 of the LaTeX book.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>note</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Any additional information that can help the reader. The first word |
| should be capitalized.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>number</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The number of a journal, magazine, technical report, or of a work in |
| a series. An issue of a journal or magazine is usually identified by |
| its volume and number; the organization that issues a technical report |
| usually gives it a number; and sometimes books are given numbers in a |
| named series.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>organization</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The organization that sponsors a conference or that publishes a |
| <tt>manual</tt>.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>pages</tt></dt> |
| <dd>One or more page numbers or range of numbers, such as |
| <tt>42--111</tt> or <tt>7,41,73--97</tt> or <tt>43+</tt> (the |
| `<tt>+</tt>' in this last example indicates pages following that don't |
| form a simple range). To make it easier to maintain |
| <cite>Scribe</cite>-compatible databases, the standard styles convert a |
| single dash (as in <tt>7-33</tt>) to the double dash used in TeX to |
| denote number ranges (as in <tt>7--33</tt>).</dd> |
| <dt><tt>publisher</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The publisher's name.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>school</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The name of the school where a thesis was written.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>series</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The name of a series or set of books. When citing an entire book, the |
| the <tt>title</tt> field gives its title and an optional |
| <tt>series</tt> field gives the name of a series or multi-volume set in |
| which the book is published.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>title</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The work's title, typed as explained in the LaTeX book.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>type</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The type of a technical report---for example, ``Research Note''.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>volume</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The volume of a journal or multi-volume book.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>year</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The year of publication or, for an unpublished work, the year it was |
| written. Generally it should consist of four numerals, such as |
| <tt>1984</tt>, although the standard styles can handle any |
| <tt>year</tt> whose last four nonpunctuation characters are numerals, |
| such as `\hbox{(about 1984)}'.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| <h3>Other fields</h3> |
| BibTeX is extremely popular, and many people have used it to store |
| information. Here is a list of some of the more common fields: |
| <dl> |
| <dt><tt>affiliation</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The authors affiliation.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>abstract</tt></dt> |
| <dd>An abstract of the work.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>contents</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A Table of Contents</dd> |
| <dt><tt>copyright</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Copyright information.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>ISBN</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The International Standard Book Number.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>ISSN</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The International Standard Serial Number. Used to identify a |
| journal.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>keywords</tt></dt> |
| <dd>Key words used for searching or possibly for annotation.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>language</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The language the document is in.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>location</tt></dt> |
| <dd>A location associated with the entry, such as the city in which a |
| conference took place.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>LCCN</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The Library of Congress Call Number. I've also seen this as |
| <tt>lib-congress</tt>.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>mrnumber</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The <i>Mathematical Reviews</i> number.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>price</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The price of the document.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>size</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The physical dimensions of a work.</dd> |
| <dt><tt>URL</tt></dt> |
| <dd>The WWW Universal Resource Locator that points to the item being |
| referenced. This often is used for technical reports to point to the |
| ftp site where the postscript source of the report is located.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| [<a href="/~jacobsd/bib/formats/index.html">Back to Formats</a>] |
| <hr> |
| <b>12 December 1996</b> |
| <address> |
| <a href="http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/Dana.html">Dana |
| Jacobsen</a><br> |
| dana@acm.org |
| </address> |
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