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Introduction and example

Biblatex provides numerous citation styles but if no citation style is set LaTeX uses the one that matches the bibliography style. Here is a minimal example showing use of the biblatex parameter style=alphabetic to set the citation style to alphabetic.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[
backend=biber,
style=alphabetic,
]{biblatex}
\title{A bibLaTeX example}
\addbibresource{sample.bib} %Imports bibliography file

\begin{document}
\section{First section}

Items that are cited: \textit{The \LaTeX\ Companion} book \cite{latexcompanion} together with Einstein's journal paper \cite{einstein} and Dirac's book \cite{dirac}---which are physics-related items. Next, citing two of Knuth's books: \textit{Fundamental Algorithms} \cite{knuth-fa} and \textit{The Art of Computer Programming} \cite{knuth-acp}.

\medskip

\printbibliography
\end{document}

 Open this example in Overleaf (the sample.bib file is created for you).

This example produces the following output:

A biblatex example

Citation styles

Standard citation styles include:

  • numeric Implements a numeric citation scheme intended for in-text citations. Should be employed in conjunction with the numeric bibliography style.
  • numeric-comp Compact variant of the numeric mode. Citations like [1, 2, 3] are replaced by [1-3].
  • numeric-verb Verbose variant of the numeric style. Instead of [2, 5, 7] will print [2];[5];[7].
  • alphabetic Alphabetic citation scheme similar to the standard alpha in style bibtex. To be used in conjunction with the alphabetic bibliography style.
  • alphabetic-verb Verbose version of the alphabetic style. Instead of [Doe98, Doe95, Farn2004] will print [Doe98];[Doe95];[Farn2004].
  • authoryear Implements the author-year citation scheme. To be used in conjunction with the author-year bibliography style.
  • authoryear-comp Compact variant of the authoryear style. Prints the author only once if subsequent references passed to a single citation command share the same author. Prints Doe 1992, 1995 instead of Doe 1992, Doe 1995.
  • authoryear-ibid A variant of the authoryear intended for footnote citations. Replaces repeated citations by the abbreviation ibidem.
  • authoryear-icomp A style combining the features of authoryear-comp and authoryear-ibid
  • authortitle Implements the author-title scheme. Intended for citations given in footnotes.
  • authortitle-comp Compact variant of authortitle. Instead of Doe, First title; Doe, Second title this will print Doe, First title, Second title.
  • authortitle-ibid A variant of the authortitle intended for footnote citations. Replaces repeated citations by the abbreviation ibidem.
  • authortitle-icomp A style combining authortitle-comp and authortitle-ibid.
  • authortitle-terse Variant of authoritle that only prints the title if the bibliography contains more than one work of the respective author/editor.
  • authortitle-tcomp Style combining authortitle-terse and authortitle-comp.
  • authortitle-ticomp Style combining authortitle-icomp and authortitle-terse.
  • verbose Citation style that prints a full citation when the entry is cited for the first time and a short version afterwards.
  • reading Citation style that goes with the bibliography style by the same name. Loads the authortitle style.

There are other non-standard citation styles popular in different journals and thesis

  • In Sciences:
    • American Chemical Society (ACS) style
    • American Institute of Physics (AIP) style
    • American Mathematical Society (AMS) style
    • Vancouver system
    • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) style
    • Nature style
    • Science style
  • In Humanities:
    • Chicago Style
    • Harvard referencing style
    • MLA style
  • In Socials:
    • American Psychological Association (APA) style
Citation style biblatex stylename
ACS chem-acs
AIP phys (*)
Nature nature
Science science
IEEE ieee
Chicago chicago-authordate
MLA mla
APA apa

(*) this is a new style, see http://ctan.org/pkg/biblatex-phys

Further reading

For more information see

Overleaf guides

LaTeX Basics

Mathematics

Figures and tables

References and Citations

Languages

Document structure

Formatting

Fonts

Presentations

Commands

Field specific

Class files

Advanced TeX/LaTeX