igbuend/biblatex

biblatex + biber — Modern Bibliography Management

CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/biblatex
Manual: texdoc biblatex

Setup

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,        % modern backend (not bibtex)
  style=authoryear,     % citation + bibliography style
  sorting=nyt,          % name-year-title
  maxbibnames=99,       % show all authors in bibliography
  maxcitenames=2,       % truncate in citations
]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}   % .bib file (include extension!)

% At end of document:
\printbibliography

Compilation Workflow

pdflatex  main.tex    # 1. Generate .bcf file
biber     main        # 2. Process bibliography (no extension!)
pdflatex  main.tex    # 3. Resolve references
pdflatex  main.tex    # 4. Final pass (page numbers, back-refs)

Or with latexmk: latexmk -pdf main.tex (handles everything automatically).

.bib File Format

@article{einstein1905,
  author    = {Einstein, Albert},
  title     = {On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies},
  journal   = {Annalen der Physik},
  year      = {1905},
  volume    = {322},
  number    = {10},
  pages     = {891--921},
  doi       = {10.1002/andp.19053221004},
}

@book{knuth1984,
  author    = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title     = {The {\TeX}book},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
  year      = {1984},
  isbn      = {0-201-13447-0},
}

@inproceedings{smith2023,
  author    = {Smith, John and Doe, Jane},
  title     = {Deep Learning for Everything},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of ICML},
  year      = {2023},
  pages     = {100--110},
  doi       = {10.1234/icml.2023.100},
}

@online{wiki2024,
  author    = {{Wikipedia contributors}},
  title     = {LaTeX},
  url       = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX},
  urldate   = {2024-01-15},
  year      = {2024},
}

@thesis{jones2020,
  author    = {Jones, Alice},
  title     = {Quantum Computing Applications},
  type      = {phdthesis},
  institution = {MIT},
  year      = {2020},
}

@manual{pgfmanual,
  author    = {Tantau, Till},
  title     = {The TikZ and PGF Packages},
  year      = {2023},
  url       = {https://ctan.org/pkg/pgf},
}

Common Entry Types

| Type | Use for | |------|---------| | @article | Journal articles | | @book | Books | | @inproceedings | Conference papers | | @incollection | Chapter in edited book | | @thesis | PhD/Master's thesis (use type field) | | @online | Websites, web resources | | @manual | Technical documentation | | @techreport | Technical reports | | @misc | Anything else | | @unpublished | Unpublished manuscripts | | @patent | Patents | | @software | Software packages |

Common Fields

| Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | author | Author(s) — {Last, First and Last, First} | | title | Title — protect caps with {NASA} | | year/date | Publication year or full date (2023-06-15) | | journal | Journal name | | booktitle | Conference/collection title | | publisher | Publisher | | volume/number | Volume and issue | | pages | Page range (10--20) | | doi | Digital Object Identifier | | url | Web URL | | urldate | Access date for online sources | | isbn/issn | Identifiers | | editor | Editor(s) | | edition | Edition ({2nd}) | | note | Additional notes | | abstract | Abstract (not printed by default) | | keywords | Keywords for filtering | | langid | Language (english, german) — for hyphenation |

Author Name Formats

author = {Last, First},                    % single
author = {Last, First and Last, First},    % multiple
author = {Last, Jr., First},               % suffix
author = {{World Health Organization}},    % corporate (double braces)
author = {da Silva, João},                 % name particles

Citation Commands

| Command | Output (authoryear) | Output (numeric) | |---------|--------------------|--------------------| | \cite{key} | Einstein 1905 | [1] | | \parencite{key} | (Einstein 1905) | [1] | | \textcite{key} | Einstein (1905) | Einstein [1] | | \autocite{key} | Style-dependent | Style-dependent | | \fullcite{key} | Full bibliography entry inline | — | | \footcite{key} | Footnote citation | — | | \citeauthor{key} | Einstein | Einstein | | \citeyear{key} | 1905 | 1905 | | \citetitle{key} | On the Electro... | — |

With Options

\parencite[see][p.~42]{einstein1905}
% Output: (see Einstein 1905, p. 42)

\parencite[p.~42]{einstein1905}
% Output: (Einstein 1905, p. 42)

% Multiple citations
\parencite{einstein1905, knuth1984}
% Output: (Einstein 1905; Knuth 1984)

Bibliography Styles

| Style | Citation | Bibliography | Use for | |-------|----------|-------------|---------| | authoryear | Einstein (1905) | Alphabetical by author | Humanities, social sciences | | numeric | [1] | Numbered by citation order | Sciences, engineering | | alphabetic | [Ein05] | Alphabetical labels | Math, CS | | authortitle | Einstein, "On the..." | Author-title | Humanities | | verbose | Full cite in footnotes | Detailed | Law, history | | ieee | [1] | IEEE format | Engineering (needs biblatex-ieee) | | apa | (Einstein, 1905) | APA 7th ed | Psychology (needs biblatex-apa) | | chicago-authordate | (Einstein 1905) | Chicago | Humanities (needs biblatex-chicago) | | nature | ¹ | Nature format | Natural sciences (biblatex-nature) |

% For IEEE:
\usepackage[style=ieee, backend=biber]{biblatex}

% For APA:
\usepackage[style=apa, backend=biber]{biblatex}
% Also needs: \DeclareLanguageMapping{english}{english-apa}

Sorting Options

| Value | Sorting order | |-------|---------------| | nty | Name, title, year (default for authoryear) | | nyt | Name, year, title | | none | Citation order (for numeric) | | ynt | Year, name, title | | anyt | Alphabetic label, name, year, title |

Printing the Bibliography

% Simple
\printbibliography

% With title
\printbibliography[title={References}]

% As section (not chapter)
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]

% Filtered
\printbibliography[type=article, title={Journal Articles}]
\printbibliography[keyword=primary, title={Primary Sources}]
\printbibliography[notkeyword=primary, title={Secondary Sources}]

Multiple Bibliographies

% By type
\printbibliography[type=book, heading=subbibliography, title={Books}]
\printbibliography[type=article, heading=subbibliography, title={Articles}]

% By keyword
% In .bib: keywords = {primary}
\printbibliography[keyword=primary, title={Primary Sources}]
\printbibliography[notkeyword=primary, title={Other Sources}]

% Per chapter (refsection)
\begin{refsection}
\chapter{First Chapter}
Text \cite{something}.
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{refsection}

Useful Options

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  style=authoryear,
  sorting=nyt,
  maxbibnames=99,      % all authors in bibliography
  maxcitenames=2,      % "Smith et al." after 2 authors
  mincitenames=1,      % show at least 1 before "et al."
  uniquelist=false,    % don't disambiguate with more names
  uniquename=false,    % don't disambiguate with initials
  dashed=false,        % repeat author name (vs dash for same author)
  doi=true,            % print DOIs
  isbn=false,          % hide ISBNs
  url=false,           % hide URLs (except @online)
  eprint=false,        % hide eprint info
  date=year,           % show only year
]{biblatex}

Comparison: biblatex vs natbib/BibTeX

| Feature | biblatex + biber | natbib + BibTeX | |---------|-----------------|-----------------| | Unicode | ✅ Full support | ❌ Limited | | Styles | Flexible (LaTeX macros) | .bst files (hard to edit) | | Entry types | More (@online, @software) | Fewer | | Filtering | keyword, type filters | Manual | | Multiple bibliographies | Built-in | Needs multibib/etc | | Fine-grained citations | \textcite, \parencite, etc | \citet, \citep | | Date handling | Full dates, ranges | Year only | | Name handling | Sophisticated | Basic | | Compilation | pdflatex → biber → pdflatex² | pdflatex → bibtex → pdflatex² | | Journal requirement | Some require BibTeX | ✅ Traditional |

Recommendation: Use biblatex for new documents. Use natbib only if a journal template requires it.

Common Pitfalls

| Problem | Cause | Fix | |---------|-------|-----| | "I found no \citation commands" | biber not run | Run biber after first pdflatex | | "I found no \bibstyle command" | Mixing bibtex with biblatex | Use biber, not bibtex | | Citation shows [key] | biber hasn't run / error | Check biber log, re-run | | .bib file not found | Missing extension in \addbibresource | Include .bib extension | | Unicode in .bib fails | Using BibTeX backend | Use backend=biber | | Author "et al." wrong | maxcitenames too low | Adjust maxcitenames | | Style not found | Missing package | Install biblatex-ieee, biblatex-apa, etc. | | Refsection empty | Citations outside refsection | Each refsection is independent | | Name sorting wrong | Particles (van, de) | Use \DeclareNameAlias or check useprefix | | "Runaway argument" | Missing comma in .bib | Check .bib syntax (commas between fields) |