The 14 BibTeX entry types
Possibly the most difficult aspect of using BibTeX to manage bibliographies is deciding what entry type to use for a reference source. We list all the 14 BibTeX entry types including their description on when to use.
article
An article from a journal, magazine, newspaper, or periodical.
``` @article{CitekeyArticle, author = "P. J. Cohen", title = "The independence of the continuum hypothesis", journal = "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", year = 1963, volume = "50", number = "6", pages = "1143--1148", } ```
book
A book where the publisher is clearly identifiable.
``` @book{CitekeyBook, author = "Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky", title = "Classical mechanics: the theoretical minimum", publisher = "Penguin Random House", address = "New York, NY", year = 2014 } ```
booklet
A printed work that is bound, but does not have a clearly identifiable publisher or supporting institution.
``` @booklet{CitekeyBooklet, title = "Canoe tours in {S}weden", author = "Maria Swetla", howpublished = "Distributed at the Stockholm Tourist Office", month = jul, year = 2015 } ```
conference
An article that has been included in conference proceedings. See inproceedings for details.
inbook
A section, such as a chapter, or a page range within a book.
``` @inbook{CitekeyInbook, author = "Lisa A. Urry and Michael L. Cain and Steven A. Wasserman and Peter V. Minorsky and Jane B. Reece", title = "Photosynthesis", booktitle = "Campbell Biology", year = "2016", publisher = "Pearson", address = "New York, NY", pages = "187--221" } ```
incollection
A titled section of a book. Such as a short story within the larger collection of short stories that make up the book.
``` @incollection{CitekeyIncollection, author = "Shapiro, Howard M.", editor = "Hawley, Teresa S. and Hawley, Robert G.", title = "Flow Cytometry: The Glass Is Half Full", booktitle = "Flow Cytometry Protocols", year = 2018, publisher = "Springer", address = "New York, NY", pages = "1--10" } ```
inproceedings
A paper that has been published in conference proceedings. The usage of conference and inproceedings is the same. The conference entry was included for Scribe compatibility.
``` @inproceedings{CitekeyInproceedings, author = "Holleis, Paul and Wagner, Matthias and Koolwaaij, Johan", title = "Studying mobile context-aware social services in the wild", booktitle = "Proc. of the 6th Nordic Conf. on Human-Computer Interaction", series = "NordiCHI", year = 2010, pages = "207--216", publisher = "ACM", address = "New York, NY" } ```
manual
A technical manual for a machine software such as would come with a purchase to explain operation to the new owner.
``` @manual{CitekeyManual, title = "{R}: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing", author = "{R Core Team}", organization = "R Foundation for Statistical Computing", address = "Vienna, Austria", year = 2018 } ```
mastersthesis
A thesis written for the Master’s level degree.
``` @mastersthesis{CitekeyMastersthesis, author = "Jian Tang", title = "Spin structure of the nucleon in the asymptotic limit", school = "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", year = 1996, address = "Cambridge, MA", month = sep } ```
misc
Used if none of the other entry types quite match the source. Frequently used to cite web pages, but can be anything from lecture slides to personal notes.
``` @misc{CitekeyMisc, title = "Pluto: The 'Other' Red Planet", author = "{NASA}", howpublished = "\url{https://www.nasa.gov/nh/pluto-the-other-red-planet}", year = 2015, note = "Accessed: 2018-12-06" } ```
phdthesis
A thesis written for the PhD level degree.
``` @phdthesis{CitekeyPhdthesis, author = "Rempel, Robert Charles", title = "Relaxation Effects for Coupled Nuclear Spins", school = "Stanford University", address = "Stanford, CA", year = 1956, month = jun } ```
proceedings
A conference proceeding.
``` @proceedings{CitekeyProceedings, editor = "Susan Stepney and Sergey Verlan", title = "Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computation and Natural Computation, Fontainebleau, France", series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science", volume = "10867", publisher = "Springer", address = "Cham, Switzerland", year = 2018 } ```
techreport
An institutionally published report such as a report from a school, a government organization, an organization, or a company. This entry type is also frequently used for white papers and working papers.
``` @techreport{CitekeyTechreport, title = "{W}asatch {S}olar {P}roject Final Report", author = "Bennett, Vicki and Bowman, Kate and Wright, Sarah", institution = "Salt Lake City Corporation", address = "Salt Lake City, UT", number = "DOE-SLC-6903-1", year = 2018, month = sep } ```
unpublished
A document that has not been officially published such as a paper draft or manuscript in preparation.
``` @unpublished{CitekeyUnpublished, author = "Mohinder Suresh", title = "Evolution: a revised theory", year = 2006 } ```