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Making a Bibliography in LaTeX Manually

Manually

If you prefer manually typing everything, then you can make your own .bib file from scratch. Unlike a manual bibliography as described here, you can still change your bibliography style without having to edit every single entry.

  1. Open a text editor. (like TeXShop, TextEdit, Simple Text or Notepad).
  2. You will need to enter your bibliographic information in a form that BibTeX will understand. The following formats include the required fields only. You can always add extra fields for needed information. Be sure to check out the tips if you have not yet done so.
  3. Save the file in BibTeX format, or just change the file extension to .bib (instead of .txt or .rtf). Continue on to the next step: setting up your LaTeX file to use your .bib file.
The format for a book is:
@book{DoyleOwl:2004, <--This is the cite key, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {My Life}, <--Title Field
Publisher = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó Press}, <--Publisher Field
Year = {2004}} <--Year Field

For a Journal Article:
@article{DoyleOwl:2003, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {The Honor Principle}, <--Title Field
Journal = {The Quest}, <--Journal Field
Year = {2003}} <--Year Field
For a booklet (unpublished books):
@booklet{DoyleOwl2002, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}} <--Author Field
For a chapter or part of a book:
@inbook{DoyleOwl:2003a, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó in Space}, <--Title Field

Chapter={Chapter 7: New Frontier},
AND/OR
Pages={350-450},

<--Chapter Title and Page Number Field

Publisher = {Macmillan} <--Publisher Field
Year = {2003}} <--Year Field
For a edited volume of articles or a collection:
@incollection{DoyleOwl:1998, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {Owls and Inflation}, <--Chapter or Article Title Field
BookTitle = {Economics of Lawn Ornaments}, <--Title Field
Publisher = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó Press}, <--Publisher Field
Year = {1998}} <--Year Field
For an article in a book of conference proceedings:
@inproceedings{DoyleOwl:2000, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {Owls and the US Debt}, <--Chapter or Article Title Field
BookTitle = {Lawn Ornaments Conference}, <--Title Field
Publisher = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó Press}, <--Publisher Field
Year = {2000}} <--Year Field
For a technical manual or documentation:
@manual{Popular, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Title = {How to Become Popular}} <-- Title Field
For a Master's thesis:
@mastersthesis{DoyleOwl:1990, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {My Life}, <--Title Field
School = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó College}, <--Publisher Field
Year = {1990}} <--Year Field
For a source that does not fit into any particular category:
@misc{DoyleOwl:2004,} <--This is the Label, and type of citation
none <--no Fields required

For a PhD thesis,

@phdthesis{DoyleOwl:1990, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {My Life}, <--Title Field
School = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó College}, <--Publisher Field
Year = {1990}} <--Year Field

For a conference proceedings,

@proceedings{Mascots:1990, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Title = {School Mascots}, <--Title Field
Year = {1990}} <--Year Field

For a report published by a university or other institutions, usually as part of a series,

@techreport{DoyleOwl:1980, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {Sociology of Mascots}, <--Title Field
Institution= {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó College}, <--Institution Field
Year = {1990}} <--Year Field

For unpublished sources,

@unpublished{DoyleOwl:1970, <--This is the Label, and type of citation
Author = {Doyle Owl}, <--Author Field
Title = {My Life}, <--Title Field
Note = {ÈËÆÞÓÕ»ó College}} <--Note Field

There are many other optional fields that you can use in each database entry, such as Volume=, Number=, Abstract=, Series=, Month= . All of the acceptable fields and entry types are listed below.

<tableclass="table" style="margin:0 auto" >
address Address of Publisher
author Names of Authors
booktitle Book Title when part of book is cited
chapter Chapter Number
edition Book Edition
editor Book Editor or translator
howpublished States anything unusual about how it was published
institution Sponsoring Institution of Technical Report
journal Journal Name
key Addition for alphabetizing if author missing
month Month Published
note Any more Info?
Number Number of Journal
Organization Organization that sponsors a conference
pages Page range
publisher Publisher's Name
school Name of school for thesis
series Book Series Name
title Title of work
type Type of Technical Report
url Website Address
volume Volume Number of Book or Journal
year Year of publication