biblatex

name	biblatex
description	LaTeX biblatex/biber packages for modern bibliography management. Use when helping users cite references, manage .bib files, choose citation styles, or troubleshoot bibliography compilation.

biblatex + biber — Modern Bibliography Management

CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/biblatex
Manual: texdoc biblatex

Setup

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,        % modern backend (not bibtex)
  style=authoryear,     % citation + bibliography style
  sorting=nyt,          % name-year-title
  maxbibnames=99,       % show all authors in bibliography
  maxcitenames=2,       % truncate in citations
]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}   % .bib file (include extension!)

% At end of document:
\printbibliography

Compilation Workflow

pdflatex  main.tex    # 1. Generate .bcf file
biber     main        # 2. Process bibliography (no extension!)
pdflatex  main.tex    # 3. Resolve references
pdflatex  main.tex    # 4. Final pass (page numbers, back-refs)

Or with latexmk: latexmk -pdf main.tex (handles everything automatically).

.bib File Format

@article{einstein1905,
  author    = {Einstein, Albert},
  title     = {On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies},
  journal   = {Annalen der Physik},
  year      = {1905},
  volume    = {322},
  number    = {10},
  pages     = {891--921},
  doi       = {10.1002/andp.19053221004},
}

@book{knuth1984,
  author    = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title     = {The {\TeX}book},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
  year      = {1984},
  isbn      = {0-201-13447-0},
}

@inproceedings{smith2023,
  author    = {Smith, John and Doe, Jane},
  title     = {Deep Learning for Everything},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of ICML},
  year      = {2023},
  pages     = {100--110},
  doi       = {10.1234/icml.2023.100},
}

@online{wiki2024,
  author    = {{Wikipedia contributors}},
  title     = {LaTeX},
  url       = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX},
  urldate   = {2024-01-15},
  year      = {2024},
}

@thesis{jones2020,
  author    = {Jones, Alice},
  title     = {Quantum Computing Applications},
  type      = {phdthesis},
  institution = {MIT},
  year      = {2020},
}

@manual{pgfmanual,
  author    = {Tantau, Till},
  title     = {The TikZ and PGF Packages},
  year      = {2023},
  url       = {https://ctan.org/pkg/pgf},
}