LaTeX & BibTeX

This guide provides resources/tips for using LaTeX & BibTeX commands. While this Libguide is intended for any users, we can’t assist non-members of UTSA with any specific questions about using BibTeX and LaTex software programs or coding.

LaTeX: What, Where, How & Why

  • What:  LaTeX is a software system for document preparation, especially used as an editor for scientific documents while it makes easy to typeset complex mathematical formulas.
  • Where:  Overleaf operates entirely within a browser, offering accessibility across devices.  Although Overleaf is not the only game in town as there are many LaTex editors freely available on the internet (stand-alone editors that require local installation), Overleaf stands out as a widely used, accessible online, and collaborative cloud-based solution.  
  • How: You type the content (with LaTex commands) into a LaTeX editor's document  - any document created by LaTex editor ending with file extension .tex - then LaTex system can compile the source code in the .tex document, and finally generate a PDF file.  In a sense of its finished product, the LaTex system is acting like MS-Word, yet in need of LaTex commands/coding. 
  • Why with BibTeX  (file extension .bib):  Within a LaTeX .tex document, through the use of a package called BibTex, you can automatically generate and format a bibliography (the reference list) in the chosen bibliography style, with corresponding in-text citations. 

BibTex: What, Where, & How

  • What: BibTeX stands for a file format - with file extension of .bib -  that contains input data, structured, bibliographic input data, or a list of your references, with each of reference entries in the bib file coming from different sources you have used at different time
  • Where is .bib file - so to be used as your references - ultimately imported into Overleaf?  
    • Stored in one place -  ​Zotero on web, or EndNote program
      • Zotero Online > under My Library > Highlight the title(s) - single one or multiple by "ctrl + right click" - you want to export it as .bib file
      • click "Up Arrow " (then a menu pop-up) 
      • In pop-up menu select "BibLaTex" - click it in order to Export 
      • open a file ending with .bib in your computer "Downloads" folder ("Downloads" folder is accesible from your browser, such as Chrome)
      • import this .bib file to Overleaf anytime
    • Google Scholar - accumulating one by one or on the fly when you just find them from there
      • Google Scholar > Any search results  > click Cite (at the end of any record)
      • "Cite" window automatically pop-up
      • Select BibTex at the bottom of the pop-up window, and
      • clcik BibTex to get the resulting .bib record
      • then copy/paste the whole record into Overleaf program - weather as an additional entry in an existing .bib file or a brand new .bib file in your Overleaf account. 
    • From UTSA Libraries databases
      • UTSA Library Quick Search > Any Search Result Page > Scroll down to  "Send to" - "EXPORT BIBITEX" > click Download button > the .bib file would appear in your computer's downlaod folder >   copy/paste the whole record into Overleaf program
      • IEEE Xplore >  any search reuslt > "CITE This" (immediately below the title) > click "CITE This" pop-up it >  select the 2nd tab "BibTex" > two options on the right corner of the pop-up window: Copy | Download ​​​
  • Location of BibTeX -  transitory: even stored in EndNote or Zotero
    •  in the end, the .bib file uploaded / imported into a LaTeX program to be interacted within a Tex file so automatically a reference list generated in your paper. 
  • How & Why automatically:  How your in-text citations and a list of references seamlessly connected and interacted in Overleaf? by what? coding?
    • Each reference in .bib file is automatically formatted with first line that has a "key" (key = unique identifier of a bibliographic entry)
    • It is that key - to be used/coded in the .tex file -  that allows LaTeX program to identify and retrieve a specific, unique sources in the .bib file you already uploaded, and then generate the result of a list of Works Cited at the end of your paper
    • with the help of interaction of three BibTeX-related Commands:
    1. \cite{XYZ-unique-identifie} 
    2. \bibliography{Name-of-.bib-file} and 
    3. \bibliographystyle{STYLE_name}  

Video: What is LaTeX

Video: LaTeX Tutorial pt 1 - Creating Your First Document