LaTeX

You can use LaTeX to add and format citations in your writing projects. To do so, you will need to create a reference database for your project. A reference database, or BibTeX file, contains entries for each of the sources you are citing in your document. These entries contain typical information found in a standard citation (see photo for example).

• Entry Type - The entry begins by declaring the format of the reference. In the example above, the reference is an "article." You can find a list of the other entry types and descriptions here: BibTeX Entry Types.
• Citation Key - The cite key is the short-hand ID you will use in your LaTeX source code. One common convention for naming a key is to use the author's name and the publication year (in the example above, "Mullins" and "2024"). However, you can name the key anything you choose!

When naming your BibTeX file, make sure not to include any spaces in the name! For example, if you have a BibTeX file on Electrical Circuits, name the file something like Ele_Circ.bib to prevent issues with its use in LaTeX (see Citing References Using natbib section).

Zotero is a popular citation management tool (see UMass Zotero LibGuide here!). Zotero can be used to generate a BibTeX file that can be used in your LaTeX document. Simply select the file(s) you are interested in using in your BibTeX file. For example, you may have several documents saved in a collection. Then, right-click and select the "Export Items..." option. 

After you select the "Export Items..." option, the menu below will appear. For the format type, select "BibTeX." Click "OK." This will prompt you to choose a location to save your BibTeX file.
                                                                             

Locate and open the newly created file. You should see an entry created in proper BibTeX format for each source you included. From here, you can edit the citation key created by Zotero as desired. It is also good practice to double-check the accuracy of the entries created.