LaTeX bibliography types

CiteDrive
2 min readJan 6, 2025

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In LaTeX, bibliography types are typically defined through BibTeX or BibLaTeX, where each entry has a specific type that dictates how it is formatted in the bibliography. Here’s a breakdown of common types:

1. Article (@article)

For journal or magazine articles.
Example:

@article{einstein1905,
author = {Albert Einstein},
title = {Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper},
journal = {Annalen der Physik},
year = {1905},
volume = {17},
pages = {891--921}
}

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2. Book (@book)

For entire books.
Example:

@book{knuth1984,
author = {Donald E. Knuth},
title = {The TeXbook},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
year = {1984}
}

3. In-Book (@inbook)

For a chapter or specific section in a book.
Example:

@inbook{chapter_knuth,
author = {Donald E. Knuth},
title = {The Art of Computer Programming},
chapter = {2},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
year = {1968}
}

4. In-Collection (@incollection)

For a contribution in a collection or edited volume.
Example:

@incollection{latex_book,
author = {Leslie Lamport},
title = {LaTeX: A Document Preparation System},
booktitle = {TeX Users Group Annual},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
year = {1994}
}

5. Proceedings (@proceedings)

For conference proceedings as a whole.
Example:

@proceedings{siggraph2003,
title = {Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2003},
year = {2003},
organization = {ACM}
}

6. In-Proceedings (@inproceedings)

For individual papers within conference proceedings.
Example:

@inproceedings{smith2020,
author = {John Smith},
title = {A Study on Algorithms},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Algorithms},
year = {2020}
}

7. Tech Report (@techreport)

For technical reports from institutions or organizations.
Example:

@techreport{techrep2021,
author = {Jane Doe},
title = {Machine Learning Trends},
institution = {Tech Institute},
year = {2021},
number = {TR-2021-09}
}

8. Thesis Types

  • @phdthesis – For PhD theses.
  • @mastersthesis – For master's theses.
    Example:
@phdthesis{johnson_thesis,
author = {Alex Johnson},
title = {Quantum Computing Approaches},
school = {MIT},
year = {2022}
}

9. Misc (@misc)

For entries that don’t fit traditional categories. Often used for online resources.
Example:

@misc{website2023,
author = {John Doe},
title = {Understanding AI},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {\url{https://ai.example.com}}
}

For more details on BibTeX entry types, you can explore bibtex.eu.

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