BibTeX

New bibliography databases and new styles

Unix systems

1. Create a directory for the bibliography databases (*.bib files), e.g. /home/voytek/share/bib).

2. Set an environment variable:

   # export BIBINPUTS=.:$HOME/share/bib//
   

   The double slash at the end means that all subdirectories will be also scanned.

3. Test the configuration:

   # kpsewhich test.bib
   /home/voytek/share/bib/test.bib
   

4. For new bibliography styles use BSTINPUTS variable.

Windows systems

1. Follow instructions concerning creation of local TeX directory structure.

2. Copy the bibliography database files into bibtex/bib directory, and BibTeX style files into bibtex/bst directory.

3. Run MiKTeX –> Maintenance –> Settings program, go to the General tab, click Refresh FNDB and press OK.

4. Test the configuration:

   • Start cmd.exe and run:

     C:\> "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\kpsewhich.exe" test.bib
     C:/Home/Voytek/texmf/bibtex/bib/test.bib
     
     C:\> "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\kpsewhich.exe" test.bst
     C:/Home/Voytek/texmf/bibtex/bst/test.bst
     

Key generation algorithm

1. If there is only one author: take the first three letters out of his name and join it with the year number (two digits), e.g. Sch90.

2. If there are more than one author but less than four: take first letters of their names and join it with the year number (two digits), AB90.

3. If there are more than four authors: take first characters of the first three of them, a plus character, and two digits of the year, e.g. ABC+99.

4. If there are conflicts: attach single letters a, b and so on to the keys generated, e.g. AB90a.