BIB File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
File Extension .bib
Format Type Text
Primary Usage Bibliographic references in LaTeX documents
Open Format Yes
Standard Oren Patashnik's BibTeX version 0.99
MIME Type application/x-bibtex
Character Encoding ASCII, but can support UTF-8 with Biber
File Structure Styled Text with Key-Value Pairs
Entry Types Article, Book, Inbook, Incollection, Inproceedings, etc.
Common Fields Author, Title, Year, Publisher, Journal, Pages, etc.
Commenting Use % for single line comments
File Purpose Reference management for LaTeX documents
Tools for Manipulation TeXworks, JabRef, BibDesk, etc.
Encoding Support Mostly ASCII, Extended support with Biber
Integration Directly with LaTeX, Through ibliography{} command
Database Linking Through BibTeX keys
Entry Duplication Avoid using duplicate BibTeX keys
Compatibility Widely compatible with LaTeX editors and compilers
Automation Tools Makefile, Latexmk for automating bibliography generation
Standard References Available through packages like BibLaTeX