Glossary of Terms: BibLaTeX Reference Guide

📚 Glossary of Terms: BibLaTeX Reference Guide

This glossary helps you understand common terms and concepts used when working with BibLaTeX, BibTeX, and reference managers like CiteDrive. Whether you’re just getting started with LaTeX or want a deeper understanding of citation tools, this guide has you covered.

BibLaTeX

A modern bibliography package for LaTeX that provides advanced control over citation formatting. It works with biber as the backend processor and supports localization, custom styles, and more.

BibTeX

The original tool for managing references in LaTeX. While still widely used, BibTeX is less flexible than BibLaTeX and does not support full Unicode or modern field types.

Biber

The default backend for BibLaTeX. It reads your .bib file and handles advanced sorting, filtering, and localization. Must be selected in your LaTeX editor or Overleaf for BibLaTeX to function correctly.

`.bib` File

A plain text file that contains your reference entries in BibTeX or BibLaTeX format. Each entry includes a citation key, type (@article, @book, etc.), and fields like title, author, year.

Entry Type

The category of the source you’re citing, such as:

@article for journal articles
@book for books
@misc for websites or miscellaneous items

BibLaTeX also includes additional types like @online, @software, @movie, @patent.

Citation Key

A unique identifier (e.g., smith2022) used to cite an entry in your LaTeX document using \cite{smith2022}.

Field

Each piece of information within an entry, such as:

author
title
year
url
urldate (for BibLaTeX)
langid (language identifier for BibLaTeX)

Style

Determines how citations and bibliographies are formatted. Examples:

authoryear (e.g., Smith 2022)
numeric (e.g., [1])
alphabetic (e.g., [Smi22])

BibLaTeX offers more flexibility than BibTeX in customizing styles.

Backend

Specifies the tool that processes the .bib file. For BibLaTeX, this is usually biber. For BibTeX, it is simply bibtex.

Example in LaTeX preamble:

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

CiteDrive

A cloud-based reference manager built specifically for BibTeX and BibLaTeX users. It offers:

Real-time Overleaf integration
Smart citation capture via browser extension
Clean, properly formatted .bib files
Support for BibLaTeX-specific fields and entry types

Overleaf

A popular online LaTeX editor. Overleaf supports both BibTeX and BibLaTeX, and integrates seamlessly with tools like CiteDrive for real-time bibliography syncing.

Localization

BibLaTeX supports multiple languages for bibliography elements (e.g., “accessed” → “zugegriffen am” in German). Use the langid field to specify the language for each entry.

Sorting

BibLaTeX lets you define how your references are ordered (e.g., by author, year, title). You can customize sorting rules using options like sorting=ynt.

DOI

A Digital Object Identifier. Often used in the doi field to provide a permanent link to journal articles or datasets.

URL / URLDate

Fields used to cite online sources:

url is the link to the resource
urldate is the date you accessed the source

These fields are crucial when citing websites or digital publications using BibLaTeX.

Crossref

Used when one entry shares fields with another. For example, a @incollection may reference a @book via crossref = {bookkey}.

XData

BibLaTeX feature that allows you to define reusable sets of fields that can be shared across entries. Useful for reducing repetition in .bib files.

Bibliography Style File

Defines how references appear in the document. With BibLaTeX, the .bst file is replaced by the style= option in \usepackage.

✅ Tips for Beginners

Always choose biber as your backend for BibLaTeX.
Use CiteDrive to manage your .bib file and sync with Overleaf.
Include required fields (author, title, year) for each entry type.
For websites, don’t forget url and urldate.