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 in Overleaf?  
    • Import from sources > Store in Endnote/Zotero > Export to Overleaf, as below
    • Stored in one place - in Reference Management Software Program or website, such as EndNote, ​Zotero, and even Google Scholar's My library
      • 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 " (to get and see the pop-up menu) >
      • then select "BibLaTex" from the pop-up menu in order to Export >
      • now you can open a file ending with .bib in your "Downloads" folder ("Downloads" folder is accesible from your browser, such as Chrome)
    • Accumulate one by one or on the fly when you just find them from resources, such as Google Scholar
      • Google Scholar > Any search results  > click Cite (at the end of any record) > Cite window pop-up > select  BibTex at the bottom of pop-up > get the result and copy the whole record, then paste into an existing .bib file as an additional entry (in that same .bib file, that is already existing in a project within Overleaf program) 
    • From UTSA Libraries databases
      • UTSA Library Quick Search > Search Result > "EXPORT BIBITEX" (under "Send to" > click Download button > check the downladed .bib file in your default downlaod folder.
      • IEEE Xplore >  any search reuslt > immediately below the title > click "CITE This" botton to po-up it >  select the 2nd tab "BibTex" > Now you have two options: Copy | Download 
  • Location of BibTeX -  transitory: even stored in EndNote or Zotero, in the end, the .bib file would be uploaded / imported into a LaTeX editor program if you want to cite them in your paper. 
  • How/Why:  as .bib files act as a data source for LaTeX, you can streamline the citation process by coding (using three commands below), automatically creating in-text citations and a complete bibliography. 
    • Each reference in .bib file is automatically formatted with first line having a "key" (key = unique identifier of a bibliographic entry)
    • It is that key - to be used in a .tex file -  that allows LaTeX program to identify and retrieve a specific, unique sources in the .bib file, 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{variable-XYZ} 
    2. \bibliography{variable-XYZ} and 
    3. \bibliographystyle{citation_STYLE_name}  

Video: What is LaTeX

Video: LaTeX Tutorial pt 1 - Creating Your First Document