BIBTeX: Entry Format

BIBTeX entries are made with one standard format and then are listed all in one file. When you run LaTeX with BIBTeX the two programs cross reference each other so only the books that you cite in that particular article, book, or dissertation are the citations that get listed in the bibliography. This allows you to make the entries for works just once, then use them repeatedly in different projects with complete ease. Because BIBTeX gathers the data and then lets you tell it how to display that data, you can easily switch from one citation style to another. Some of these entries include the commands to make special characters. For more on special characters in BIBTeX, please see the page on special characters, which also has links on how to type special characters with key commands.

Sample BIBTeX Entry
Declare the type of entry, which always begins with the @ symbol. The word (if words, these should be hyphenated) or letters following the entry type, and after the bracket, make up the call name for this particular work. You can use the call name to do intext citations which are consistent throughout your document, and which will all change with the bibliography to a new style if you decide to apply a new style.	@book{fg,
Varied number of fields, which depend on the type of entry. The rest of these follow based on the entry @book.	title = {{An Inkeeper's Diary}},
	author = {John Fothergill},
	edition = {3rf},
	publisher = {Penguin},
	year = 1929,
	address = {London}
	}

As shown in the sample above, please note some of BIBTeX's conventions:

Omit the comma after the last field in the entry. For instance, no comma after London.
Titles may be auto-capitalized in some styles. To prevent auto-capitalization, enclose the title in double curly braces.
Entry values which are purely numeric do not require brackets. For instance, the year 1929 does not require brackets.
Fields can occur in any order, but the format of each field and of the overall entry must be very strictly observed. With this, formatting all of the same items in the same manner makes it easier to catch mistakes.

@COMMENT(You may put a comment in a `comment' command.)

Or you may dispense with the command and simply give the comment, as long as it's not within an entry.

If you really want to put a comment inside an entry, simply make up a never-to-be-used field.

never-to-be-used-field = "Even if this were a real entry,
I could still have a comment inside an entry
by making up a fake field"
CONVENTIONS (for naming BibTeX citation keys): Books are tagged by the first author's last name, a colon, up to 3 upper-case letters taken from the first three upper-case words in the title (ignoring words like A, And, The), followed by the last two digits of the publication year. If there is a volume entry, it is appended to the tag, prefixed by a hyphen.

@MISC{prime-number-theorem,: author = "Charles Louis Xavier Joseph de la Vall{\'e}e Poussin",
note = "A strong form of the prime number theorem, 19th century" }
@INBOOK{chicago,: title = "The Chicago Manual of Style",
publisher = "University of Chicago Press",
edition = "Thirteenth",
year = 1982,
pages = "400--401",
key = "Chicago" }
@BOOK{texbook,: author = "Donald E. Knuth",
title= "The {{\TeX}book}",
publisher = "Addison-Wesley",
year = 1984 }
@BOOK{latex,: author = "Leslie Lamport",
title = "{\LaTeX \rm:} {A} Document Preparation System",
publisher = "Addison-Wesley",
year = 1986 }
@UNPUBLISHED{btxdoc,: author = "Oren Patashnik",
title = "{{\BibTeX ing}}",
note = "Documentation for general {\BibTeX} users",
month = "8~" # feb,
year = 1988 }
@UNPUBLISHED{btxhak,: author = "Oren Patashnik",
title = "Designing {\BibTeX} Styles",
note = "The part of \BibTeX's documentation
that's not meant for general users", month = "8~" # feb,
year = 1988 }
@BOOK{strunk-and-white,: author = "Strunk, Jr., William and E. B. White",
title = "The Elements of Style",
publisher = "Macmillan",
edition = "Third",
year = 1979 }
@BOOK{van-leunen,: title = "A Handbook for Scholars",
author = "Mary-Claire van Leunen",
publisher = "Knopf",
year = 1979 }

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