Although some people manage their citations in BibTeX, a citation manager can still be extremely helpful for organizing and keeping track of your citations. Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote all allow you to export citations to BibTeX.

For information about choosing and using a citation manager see:

For instructions on how to export to BibTeX from a citation manager see:

LaTeX allows you to manage citations within your document through the use of a separate BibTeX file ([filename].bib). BibTeX files follow a standard syntax that allows you to easily reference the citations included in that file through the use of a reference- or bibliography-management package. There are multiple bibliography-management packages that you can use to handle citations in LaTeX. This guide will demonstrate how to use BibLaTeX which allows for the most customization.

Example BibTeX file:

@article{grimberg,
   author = {Grimberg, Bruna Irene and Hand, Brian},
   title = {Cognitive Pathways: Analysis of students' written texts for science understanding},
   journal = {International Journal of Science Education},
   volume = {31},
   number = {4},
   pages = {503-521},
   ISSN = {0950-0693},
   DOI = {10.1080/09500690701704805},
   url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690701704805
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09500690701704805?needAccess=true},
   year = {2009},
   type = {Journal Article}
}

You can always create BibTeX files manually. However, many databases and citation managers allow you to export BibTeX files that can then be uploaded into your LaTeX environment.

To add a BibTeX file to your LaTeX document, you can either create a new file in your Overleaf environment or upload a .bib file to the environment.

To start using the BibLaTeX package to cite, we first need to add the package and establish the specific BibTeX file we are using in the preamble of the document.

\usepackage[backend=biber,
style=numeric,
citestyle=authoryear]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}

To create in text citations within your document, we can use the cite command (\cite{citationkey}) and include the citation key in the argument. The citation key can be found by looking up the first word included in the relevant citation within the BibTeX file. These can always be updated by editing the BibTeX file.

You can cite authors in line by using the cite command \cite{grimberg}.

We can then simply print the bibliography at the end of the document.

\printbibliography

BibLaTeX supports most common citation styles. To change the citation style in your document you have to edit the citestyle command of the BibLaTeX package in the preamble.

\usepackage[backend=biber,
style=numeric,
citestyle=apa]{biblatex}

You can also change the way the bibliography is sorted by adding a sorting command of the BibLaTeX package:

\usepackage[backend=biber,
style=numeric,
citestyle=authoryear,
sorting=nty]{biblatex}

For more information on editing BibLaTeX citation styles, see: