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LaTeX: Citing

This page was translated from German with AI. It has not been checked by a native speaker. Original page in German

The sources are in a file of their own, in the text you give references with one command, and LaTeX builds the bibliography itself – exactly from the sources you actually cite.
📄 Open worksheet (PDF, German) 📝 Übungsdatei (.tex) 🖼 Bild zum Einbinden (.png) 📚 Quellen-Datei (.bib)

The video

In the video you see TeXstudio under Linux. The orange frame always shows the spot in question. Under Windows and macOS TeXstudio looks exactly the same. The practice file above is the state at the start of the video – so you can follow along with each part separately. The rules for citing are explained in the video “Citing correctly” from the series “Writing a Facharbeit”.

Subtitles are available in ten languages. Choose them at the bottom right of the video.

Contents of the video

  1. 0:00 What it is about
  2. 0:26 The source file
  3. 1:01 References in the text
  4. 1:41 Setting up Biber
  5. 1:57 References with Biber
  6. 2:06 Block quotation and footnote
  7. 2:27 Bibliography
  8. 2:40 Result
  9. 2:59 Other ways
  10. 3:20 Summary

The most important points

Sources, references, bibliography

Sources in literatur.bib, e.g. @book{beispiel2019, author = {Beispiel, Bernd}, year = {2019}, …}. Preamble: \usepackage[style=authoryear]{biblatex} and \addbibresource{literatur.bib}. In the text: \parencite[vgl.][112]{beispiel2019} → “(vgl. Beispiel 2019, S. 112)”. At the end: \printbibliography[heading=bibintoc,title=Literaturverzeichnis].

The source file literatur.bib with a book and a journal article.
The source file literatur.bib with a book and a journal article.

Important in TeXstudio: By default TeXstudio starts the program BibTeX for the references. Then only the keys appear in the PDF. Once under Options › Configure TeXstudio › Build set the default bibliography program to Biber.

With BibTeX instead of Biber: only the key appears in the PDF.
With BibTeX instead of Biber: only the key appears in the PDF.
With Biber: vgl., name, year and page.
With Biber: vgl., name, year and page.

Long literal quotations go in \begin{displayquote} … \end{displayquote}, introduced with \textcite{beispiel2019} → “Beispiel (2019)”. Remarks go into a footnote with \footnote{…}. Citing with footnotes: \footcite. The older way with BibTeX uses the same .bib file; Zotero can create it.

The bibliography: alphabetical, only cited sources.
The bibliography: alphabetical, only cited sources.

The worksheet

Here you can see the worksheet for the video (in German). You download the practice files above and work in your own editor. The hints are printed upside down – turn the sheet only when you cannot get on by yourself. You can also open it as a PDF.

📄 Open worksheet (PDF, German)

The worksheet – Page 1
Page 1/4
The worksheet – Page 2
Page 2/4
The worksheet – Page 3
Page 3/4
Show the worksheet solutions
The worksheet – Page 4
Page 4/4

Try it yourself

Task

You entered a source in literatur.bib but never cited it in the text. Is it in the bibliography?

Show solution

No. \printbibliography contains only cited sources – exactly as the rules require. (With \nocite{schlüssel} it could still be included.)

Keep learning with a language model

Here is a source reference from my research: [insert reference, e.g. from the library catalogue]. Help me turn it into an entry for my .bib file: ask me for missing details and explain each field. Do not invent any details.

How this was made: The idea and the choice of topics are mine. A language model (LLM) drafted the script, the sample paper, the tasks and this page following my instructions. The screen recordings were made automatically by a script in TeXstudio under Linux, which checked the finished PDF after every step: are margins, font, numbers and references right, are there warnings? The voice was generated with Qwen3-TTS, modelled on my own voice.

The sample paper about the thread pendulum is invented, and so are the person “Alex Beispiel” and the two sources in the bibliography.

The videos, worksheets, practice files, texts and prompts in this series are licensed under CC BY 4.0: you may use, change and share them if you name the source.