Using bibliographies on Overleaf
It's possible to include references in Overleaf using all of LaTeX's major bibliography management programs: biblatex, natbib and bibtex. This article explains how to create a .bib
file storing your bibliography database from scratch, how to upload an existing one, how to import your references from Mendeley or Zotero to an Overleaf .bib
file, and how to create a .bib
file starting from a template.
Creating your bibliography database
To create a new bibliography file in your Overleaf project, in the editor, click New File icon |
an input box will appear for you to set the name of the new file. The file should have the .bib extension, in this example is called "mybibliography.bib"; now click on Create. |
A new file will be listed in the left panel, click it to edit its contents. Add your bibliography entries there. |
Now you can import this .bib file in the main .tex file. See the next example
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[
backend=biber,
style=alphabetic,
sorting=ynt
]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{mybibliography.bib}
\title{Bibliography management: \texttt{biblatex} package}
\author{Share\LaTeX}
\date{ }
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{First section}
Using \texttt{biblatex} you can display bibliography divided into sections,
depending of citation type.
Let's cite! The Einstein's journal paper \cite{einstein} and the Dirac's
book \cite{dirac} are physics related items.
Next, \textit{The \LaTeX\ Companion} book \cite{latexcompanion}, the
Donald Knuth's website \cite{knuthwebsite}, \textit{The Comprehensive
Tex Archive Network} (CTAN) \cite{ctan} are \LaTeX\ related items; but
the others Donald Knuth's items \cite{knuth-fa,knuth-acp} are dedicated
to programming.
\medskip
\printbibliography
\end{document}
The command \addbibresource{mybibliography.bib}
adds the created bibliography file to the document so you can use those references. See Bibliography management in LaTeX for more information about bibliography management.
Uploading your bibliography database
If you already have a bibliography file that you need to use in a Overleaf project, you can upload it. Click the Upload icon |
A dialogue box will appear, you can either drag and drop the .bib file or click Select file(s) to navigate to the location of your file. |
Once the upload process is finished you can include the .bib file in your main .tex document. See the last example in the previous section.
Using a template
Overleaf provides a vast set of templates for almost all kind of LaTeX documents, they include several bibliography-related ones.
If you are in the editor view, click the "Back to projects" icon |
In the the Project Management view click the button New Project, then in the drop-down menu that will appear click Bibliographies. |
You will be redirected to a list of bibliography templates |
click the one you prefer, in the next page click Open as Template: |
The template will open in the Overleaf editor so you can start working on it. |
Quick guides
- Creating a bibliography file from scratch. In editor, on the upper left corner click the New file icon
then enter the name for your new file with extension .bib and click Create. You can now start editing you file.
- Uploading your bibliography database. To upload an existing .bib file click the Upload icon
. Drag and drop your file in the dialogue box and wait for your file(s) to be uploaded. After that you can use your .bib within the document.
- Using a template. In the Project Management page click New Project => Bibliographies you will be redirected to the Templates page, select the one you need and then click Open as Template
Supported bibliography packages
For more information about bibliography management in LaTeX see.
Overleaf guides
- Creating a document in Overleaf
- Uploading a project
- Copying a project
- Creating a project from a template
- Including images in Overleaf
- Exporting your work from Overleaf
- Working offline in Overleaf
- Using Track Changes in Overleaf
- Using bibliographies in Overleaf
- Sharing your work with others
- Debugging Compilation timeout errors
- How-to guides
LaTeX Basics
- Creating your first LaTeX document
- Choosing a LaTeX Compiler
- Paragraphs and new lines
- Bold, italics and underlining
- Lists
- Errors
Mathematics
- Mathematical expressions
- Subscripts and superscripts
- Brackets and Parentheses
- Fractions and Binomials
- Aligning Equations
- Operators
- Spacing in math mode
- Integrals, sums and limits
- Display style in math mode
- List of Greek letters and math symbols
- Mathematical fonts
Figures and tables
- Inserting Images
- Tables
- Positioning Images and Tables
- Lists of Tables and Figures
- Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
- TikZ package
References and Citations
- Bibliography management in LaTeX
- Bibliography management with biblatex
- Biblatex bibliography styles
- Biblatex citation styles
- Bibliography management with natbib
- Natbib bibliography styles
- Natbib citation styles
- Bibliography management with bibtex
- Bibtex bibliography styles
Languages
- Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using polyglossia and fontspec
- International language support
- Quotations and quotation marks
- Arabic
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- French
- German
- Greek
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Document structure
- Sections and chapters
- Table of contents
- Cross referencing sections and equations
- Indices
- Glossaries
- Nomenclatures
- Management in a large project
- Multi-file LaTeX projects
- Hyperlinks
Formatting
- Lengths in LaTeX
- Headers and footers
- Page numbering
- Paragraph formatting
- Line breaks and blank spaces
- Text alignment
- Page size and margins
- Single sided and double sided documents
- Multiple columns
- Counters
- Code listing
- Code Highlighting with minted
- Using colours in LaTeX
- Footnotes
- Margin notes
Fonts
Presentations
Commands
Field specific
- Theorems and proofs
- Chemistry formulae
- Feynman diagrams
- Molecular orbital diagrams
- Chess notation
- Knitting patterns
- CircuiTikz package
- Pgfplots package
- Typing exams in LaTeX
- Knitr
- Attribute Value Matrices
Class files
- Understanding packages and class files
- List of packages and class files
- Writing your own package
- Writing your own class
- Tips