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A Guide to Writing Your Thesis Using LATEX

The Bibliography and List of References

The Graduate School requires a Bibliography which includes all the literature cited for the complete thesis or dissertation. Quoting from the Graduate School's Definitions/Physical Specifications for a Thesis/Disseration:

“Every thesis must contain a bibliography which lists all the sources used or consulted in writing the entire thesis and is placed at the very end of the work. The complete citations are arranged alphabetically by last name of the author. Individual citations are not numbered. No abbreviations in titles of published works will be accepted. The full title of a book, journal, website, proceedings, or any other published work must be italicized or underlined. Citations must follow standards set by the Style Manual that the candidate is using. The bibliography for URI theses is not broken into categories.”

The List of References is not required by the Graduate School, but is the style commonly used in Engineering, Mathematics, and many of the Sciences. It consists of a numbered list of the sources used or consulted in writing the thesis in the order that they are referenced in the text. There can be either one List of References for the entire thesis, or a List of References at the end of each chapter.

Both the Bibliography and the List of References will be generated by the urithesis LATEX class. All you need to do is add information about your sources to the references.bib file, which is a database containing all of the necessary information about the references, then cite the reference in your thesis using the \cite{} command.

How to Add a Bibliography Entry

When we want to refer to a source in the thesis, we place an entry for that source in the file references.bib, then cite the source in the thesis with the \cite{LABEL} command. The syntax for an entry in the references.bib file is of the form:

@ENTRYTYPE{ LABEL,
  FIELDNAME1 = "some data",
  FIELDNAME2 = "some data",
  FIELDNAME3 = "some data",
}

ENTRYTYPE is the type of bibliographic entry such as Book, Article, or TechReport, that this entry describes. At the end of this page is a list of all possible entry types.

LABEL is a unique string that is used to refer to this entry in the body of the thesis when using the \cite{LABEL} command.

The FIELDNAMEn entries are the fields that describe this entry, (ie. author, title, pages, year, etc.). Each entry type has certain required fields and optional fields. See the list of all entry types for a description of the available fields.

As an example, suppose we have a paper from a conference proceedings that we want to cite. First we make an entry in the our references.bib file of the form:

@InProceedings{ re:toolan:as03,
  author    = "Timothy M. Toolan and Donald W. Tufts",
  title     = "Detection and estimation in non-stationary environments",
  booktitle = "Proceedings {IEEE} Asilomar Conference on Signals, 
               Systems \& Computers",
  pages     = "797-801",
  month     = nov,
  year      = "2003",
}

We then cite this source in the text of our thesis with the command \cite{re:toolan:as03}. This will generate a Bibliography entry that looks something like:

Toolan, T. M. and Tufts, D. W., “Detection and estimation in non-stationary environments,” in Proceedings IEEE Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computers, Nov. 2003, pp. 797-801.

and a List of References entry that looks something like:

[1]  T. M. Toolan and D. W. Tufts, “Detection and estimation in non-stationary environments,“ in Proceedings IEEE Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computers, Nov. 2003, pp. 797-801.

Generating the Bibliography and References

The bibliography and list of references are generated by BIBTEX, but you never run bibtex directly. When you run LATEX, it will create the file genbib.bat, which will contain the appropriate BIBTEX commands. This is a script file which works on both UNIX and Windows. To run it on a Windows system, just type genbib.bat in a run window or at a command prompt. To run it on a UNIX or Linux system, type the command "sh genbib.bat" at the command prompt.

When you run this command, it creates files with .bbl extensions which are LATEX code for the bibliography and references. These files are only updated when you run genbib.bat, therefore whenever you add a citation, or edit your references.bib file, you need to run genbib.bat to update your bibliography and references.

Types of List of References

The Graduate School requires that the bibliography is always at the end of the thesis and sorted alphabetically by author, therefore there is no options that affect it. The list of references is optional, therefore there are a few different ways that it can created.

By default a separate list of references appears at the end of each chapter, and are sorted by the order that they are cited in that chapter. The option oneref (see options) will create a single list of references for the whole thesis, which due to the requirements of the Graduate School, will appear after the last chapter and before any appendices.

The option aparefs will cite references using the APA style, which is the last name of the author and year of publication, such as (Toolan, 2006), instead of the default IEEE style, which is a number, such as [1]. This option will also sort the references alphabetically by author, instead of in order of citation. The options oneref and aparefs can be used together to create a single list of references using the APA style.

Supported Bibliography Entry Types

The following is a list of all the entry types that can be used. Click on the desired type to see a detailed description of how to use that type.

  • Article - An article from a journal or magazine
  • Book - A book with an explicit publisher
  • InBook - A part of a book, such as a chapter or selected page(s)
  • InCollection - A part of a book having its own title
  • Booklet - Printed and bound works that are not formally published
  • Manual - Technical documentation
  • InProceedings - An article in a conference proceedings
  • Proceedings - The entire proceedings of a conference
  • MastersThesis - A Master's thesis
  • PhDThesis - A Ph.D. dissertation
  • TechReport - A report published by a school or other institution
  • Unpublished - A document that has not been formally published
  • Electronic - An internet reference like a web page
  • Patent - A patent or patent application
  • Periodical - A magazine or journal
  • Standard - Formally published standard
  • Misc - For use when nothing else fits

Article
An article from a journal or magazine.
Required fields:  author, title, journal, year
Optional fields:  volume, number, pages, month, note, url
Articles that have not yet been published can be handled as a misc type with a note. Sometimes it is desirable to put extra information into the month field such as the day, or additional months. This is accomplished by using the BIBTEX concatenation operator “#“: 
   month = sep # "/" # oct,
Example .bib using this type: 
@Article{ re:bunch:rankone,
  author    = "James R. Bunch and Christopher P. Nielsen and 
               Danny C. Sorensen",
  title     = "Rank-One Modification of the Symmetric Eigenproblem",
  journal   = "Numerische Mathematik",
  volume    = "31", 
  pages     = "31-48",
  year      = "1978",
}
Book
A book with an explicit publisher.
Required fields:  author and/or editor, title, publisher, year
Optional fields:  volume, series, address, edition, month, note, key, pages
Books may have authors, editors or both.

Example .bib using this type: 
@Book{ turabian87,
  author    = "K. L. Turabian",
  title     = "A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
               Dissertations, 6th. edn.",
  address   = "Chicago, Illinois, United States of America",
  publisher = "University of Chicago Press",
  year      = "1987",
}
InBook
A part of a book, such as a chapter or selected page(s).
Required fields:  author and/or editor, title, publisher, year
Optional fields:  edition, series, address, month, volume, number, chapter, type, pages, note, url
Inbook is used to reference a part of a book, such as a chapter or selected page(s). The type field can be used to override the word chapter (for which IEEE uses the abbreviation “ch.”) when the book uses parts, sections, etc., instead of chapters 
   type = "sec.",
InCollection
A part of a book having its own title.
Required fields:  author, title, booktitle, year
Optional fields:  edition, series, editor, address, publisher, month, volume, number, chapter, type, pages, note, url
Incollection is used to reference part of a book having its own title. Like book, incollection supports the series, chapter and pages fields. Also, the type field can be used to override the word chapter.
Booklet
Printed and bound works that are not formally published.
Required fields:  title
Optional fields:  author, howpublished, organization, address, month, year, note, url
Booklet is used for printed and bound works that are not formally published. A primary difference between booklet and unpublished is that the former is/was distributed by some means. Booklet is rarely used in bibliographies.
Manual
Technical documentation.
Required fields:  title
Optional fields:  author, edition, howpublished, organization, address, month, year, note, url
Technical documentation is handled by the manual entry type.
InProceedings / Conference
An article in a conference proceedings.
Required fields:  author, title, booktitle, year
Optional fields:  intype, series, editor, volume, number, organization, address, publisher, month, paper, type, pages, note, url
References of papers in conference proceedings are handled by the inproceedings or conference entry type. These two types are functionally identical and can be used interchangeably.

Example .bib using this type: 
@InProceedings{ re:toolan:as03,
  author    = "Timothy M. Toolan and Donald W. Tufts",
  title     = "Detection and estimation in non-stationary environments",
  booktitle = "Proceedings {IEEE} Asilomar Conference on Signals, 
               Systems \& Computers",
  pages     = "797-801",
  month     = nov,
  year      = "2003",
}
Proceedings
The entire proceedings of a conference.
Required fields:  title, year
Optional fields:  editor, series, volume, number, organization, address, publisher, month, note, url
It is rare to need to reference an entire conference proceedings, but, if necessary, the proceedings entry type can be used to do so.
MastersThesis
A Master's thesis.
Required fields:  author, title, school, year
Optional fields:  type, address, month, note, url
Master's (or minor) theses can be handled with the mastersthesis entry type. The optional type field can be used to override the words “Master's thesis” if a different designation is desired: 
   type = "M. Eng. thesis",
PhDThesis
A Ph.D. dissertation.
Required fields:  author, title, school, year
Optional fields:  type, address, month, note, url
The phdthesis entry type is used for Ph.D. dissertations (major theses). Like mastersthesis, the type field can be used to override the default designation.

Example .bib using this type: 
@Phdthesis{ re:toolan:phd,
  author    = "Timothy M. Toolan",
  title     = "Advances in Sliding Window Subspace Tracking",
  school    = "University of Rhode Island",
  year      = "2005",
}
TechReport
A report published by a school or other institution.
Required fields:  author, title, institution, year
Optional fields:  howpublished, address, number, type, month, note, url
Techreport is used for technical reports. The optional type field can be used to override the default designation “Tech. Rep.”

Example .bib using this type: 
@TechReport{ re:gu:stablefast,
  author    = "Ming Gu and Stanley C. Eisenstat",
  title     = "A Stable and Fast Algorithm for Updating the 
               Singular Value Decomposition",
  address   = "New Haven, CT",
  number    = "YALEU/DCS/RR-966",
  institution = "Dept. of Computer Science, Yale University",
  month     = jun,
  year      = "1993",
}
Unpublished
A document that has not been formally published.
Required fields:  author, title, note
Optional fields:  month, year, url
The unpublished entry type is used for documents that have not been formally published. IEEE typically just uses “unpublished” for the required note field.
Electronic (IEEE extension)
An internet reference like a web page.
Required fields:  none
Optional fields:  author, month, year, title, howpublished, organization, address, note, url
The electronic entry type is for internet references. IEEE formats electronic references differently by not using italics or quotes and separating fields with periods rather than commas. Also, the date is enclosed within parentheses and is placed closer to the title. This is probably done to emphasize that electronic references may not remain valid on the rapidly changing internet. Note also the liberal use of the howpublished field to describe the form or category of the entries. The organization and address fields may also be used.

Example .bib using this type: 
@Electronic{ re:thesisguide,
  organization = "University of Rhode Island",
  author    = "Timothy M. Toolan",
  title     = "A Guide to Producing Your Thesis with LaTeX",
  url       = "http://www.ele.uri.edu/info/thesis/guide",
  month     = jun,
  year      = "2008",
  key       = "University of Rhode Island",
}
Patent (IEEE extension)
A patent or patent application.
Required fields:  nationality, number, year or yearfiled
Optional fields:  author, title, assignee, address, type, day, dayfiled, month, monthfiled, note, url
The nationality field provides a means to handle patents from different countries 
   nationality = "United States",
The nationality should be capitalized. The assignee and address (of the assignee) fields are not used, however, they are provided. The type field provides a way to override the “patent” description with other patent related descriptions such as “patent application” or “patent request”: 
   type = "Patent Request",
Periodical (IEEE extension)
A magazine or journal.
Required fields:  title, year
Optional fields:  editor, series, volume, number, organization, month, note, url
The periodical entry type is used for journals and magazines.
Standard (IEEE extension)
Formally published standard.
Required fields:  title, organization or institution
Optional fields:  author, howpublished, type, number, revision, address, month, year, note, url
The standard entry type is used for formally published standards. Alternatively, the misc entry type, along with its howpublished field, can be used to create references of standards.
Misc
For use when nothing else fits.
Required fields:  none
Optional fields:  author, title, howpublished, organization, address, pages, month, year, note, url
Misc is the most flexible type and can be used when none of the other entry types are applicable. The howpublished field can be used to describe what exactly (or in what form) the reference is (or appears as). Possible applications include technical-report-like entries that lack an institution, white papers and data sheets.

Additional Comments

Because we are effectively creating multiple bibliographies, (one for the actual bibliography, and one for each list of references), the two LATEX commands \bibliographystyle{} and \bibliography{} are not used. They have been redefined to do nothing, and the equivalent of these commands are done automatically when necessary.

When there is a reference that should be included in the bibliography, but does not need to be explicitly referenced in the thesis, use the \nocite{} command. This command works like the \cite{} command, except it does not put the citation in the list of references, only in the bibliography. The \nocite{} command must appear after the first \newchapter{} command, or it will be ignored.

When using the option aparefs, and a citation does not have an author, (such as often occurs with a web page), the key field can be used to specify what to use in the citation instead of the author's name.

About the Bibliography Format

The bibliography format used by the urithesis class is based on the IEEE format. See the article “How to Use the IEEEtran BIBTEX Style” by Michael Shell for more details.