BIBTeX works the same way other bibliographic databases do: you keep
details of every document you want to refer to in a separate file,
using BIBTex's own format. You then give each entry a short label, as
with cross-references, and then you use this label to refer to it in
your own documents with the command:
\cite{label}
The \cite command has many variations, like the
author and year, which returns this: AuthorLastName, (Year
Published). The cite command for author and year is:
\citeauthoryear{label}
To print the bibliographic listing (usually called 'References' on
articles and 'Bibliography' in books and reports), use the commands:
\bibliography{filename}
\bibliographystyle{ieeetr}
The \bibliography command is followed by the filename of your BIBTeX file, without the .bib extension. The \bibliographystyle command is followed by the name of any of LaTeX's supported bibliography styles.
| The standard styles distributed with BIBTeX | |
|---|---|
| alpha | Sorted alphabetically. Labels are formed from name of author and year of publication with entry labels like "Knu66" formed from the author's name and the year of publication. |
| plain | Standard style for producing bibliographies that are sorted alphabetically by author and labeled with numbers. | unsrt | Like `plain', but entries are in order of citation. Standard style for producing bibliographies that are labeled with numbers and with entries that appear in the order of their first citation. |
| abbrv | Like `plain', but more compact labels. Standard style for producing bibliographies that are sorted alphabetically by author and labeled with numbers. Author names, month names and journal names are abbreviated. |
In addition, numerous other BibTeX style files exist tailored to the demands of various publications.
There are dozens of other styles available on CTAN at http://www.ctan.org. A description of BIBTeX entry types and fields is here: http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/formats/bibtex.html