BibLaTeX – sophisticated bibliographies in LaTeX

BibLaTeX provides advanced bibliographic facilities for use with LaTeX in conjunction with BibTeX. The package is a complete reimplementation of the bibliographic facilities provided by LaTeX.

A custom backend Biber by default is used which processes the BibTeX format data files and them performs all sorting, label generation (and more). Legacy BibTeX is also supported as a backend, albeit with a reduced feature set. Biblatex does not use the backend to format the bibliography information as with traditional BibTeX: instead of being implemented in BibTeX style files, the formatting of the bibliography is entirely controlled by TeX macros.

This package also supports subdivided bibliographies, multiple bibliographies within one document, and separate lists of bibliographic shorthands. Bibliographies may be subdivided into parts and/or segmented by topics. Just like the bibliography styles, all citation commands may be freely defined. With Biber as the backend, features such as customisable sorting, multiple bibliographies with different sorting, customisable labels, dynamic data modification are available.

BibLaTex is included in TeX Live and MikTeX distributions.

Key Features

• Can be used with or without BibTeX the program since its default backend Biber uses fully supports the BibTeX file format.
• Entry types supported by the data model:
  • article – an article in a journal, magazine, newspaper, or other periodical which forms a self-contained unit with its own title.
  • book – a single-volume book with one or more authors where the authors share credit for the work as a whole.
  • mvbook – a multi-volume book.
  • inbook – a part of a book which forms a self-contained unit with its own title.
  • bookinbook – similar to inbook but intended for works originally published as a stand-alone book.
  • suppbook – supplemental material in a book.
  • booklet – a book-like work without a formal publisher or sponsoring institution.
  • collection – a single-volume collection with multiple, self-contained contributions by distinct authors which have their own title.
  • mvcollection – a multi-volume collection.
  • incollection – a contribution to a collection which forms a self-contained unit with a distinct author and title.
  • suppcollection – supplemental material in a collection.
  • manual – technical or other documentation, not necessarily in printed form.
  • misc – a fallback type for entries which do not fit into any other category.
  • online – intended for sources such as web sites which are intrinsically online resources.
  • patent – a patent or patent request.
  • periodical – a complete issue of a periodical, such as a special issue of a journal.
  • suppperiodical – supplemental material in a periodical.
  • proceedings – a single-volume conference proceedings.
  • mvproceedings – a multi-volume proceedings entry.
  • inproceedings – an article in a conference proceedings.
  • reference – a single-volume work of reference such as an encyclopedia or a dictionary.
  • mvreference – a multi-volume reference entry.
  • inreference – an article in a work of reference.
  • report – a technical report, research report, or white paper published by a university or some other institution.
  • set – an entry set.
  • thesis – a thesis written for an educational institution to satisfy the requirements for a degree.
  • unpublished – a work with an author and a title which has not been formally published, such as a manuscript or the script of a talk.
  • xdata – hold data which may be inherited by other entries using the xdata field
  • custom[a–f] – custom types for special bibliography styles.
• Customisable data model (define your own .bib types and fields, for example).
• Verify bib data against a datamodel.
• On-the-fly modification of data without changing source data.
• Highly sophisticated full UTF-8 sorting of bibliography with custom sort routines.
• Automatic disambiguation facility for names, years, labels, name lists.
• Multiple bibliographies with different sorting.
• Flexible way of dealing with “related” entries (reprints, translations, collections).
• Customisable bibliography labels.

Website: ctan.org/pkg/biblatex
Support: Documentation
Developer: Philip Lehman, Joseph Wright, Audrey Boruvka, Philip Kime
License: The LaTeX Project Public Li­cense

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