LaTeX for Publications: Basic Bibliography

Basic Bibliography

Although this is the "simple" approach, it may not be the best choice for some users. This bibliography must be created completely by hand, within the text of the .tex file. Everything is done by hand, including the sorting, italicizing text where appropriate, etc. If you have only a few references, this is the simplest way to go.

If you have a long list of references—and if you may be writing more than one paper or article on this topic, you will save time with a bibliography that uses references stored in a separate file. It also gives the author more choices regarding the appearance of the bibliography.

To create a basic bibliography, we do not need to add any packages . We will use the thebibliography environment:
 
Note that every entry begins with the command \bibitem{cite_key}. The cite_key is a unique identifier for each reference. A common practice is to use the surname of the first author, followed by the last two digits of the year of publication—such as Harris19. This cite_key is then used in citations within the LaTeX document.

For More Information

A very good explanation of the basic bibliography is available, entitled "LaTeX Bibliography Management". This chapter covers the options with a basic bibliography, as well as in-document citations.  It's part of the wikibook: LaTeX.

It's easy to create citations within the text of a LaTeX document, using the \cite command and the unique cite_key that you assigned to each item in your bibliography. It's also possible to refer to a specific page in a citation, by adding the argument in the following example: The above commands would appear like this in the document:

Pros

Simplicity
A basic bibliography is part of the document. No separate file is needed. No package is needed to enable the bibliography. This keeps things simple, especially with a short list of references.

Control over the Entries
Every aspect of each entry is up to the author—spacing, bold or italic text, how author names are presented, the order of the entries, etc. This is especially useful if an uncommon citation style is being used—perhaps one that is not covered by a LaTeX package.

References are Visible in the LaTeX Document
Because the references are contained within the LaTeX document, they are visible to the author at all times. This simplifies editing and proofreading/error correction, as the document is being prepared for publication.

Additionally, every reference included in the bibliography will be visible to the reader. This is not the case when using BibTeX. Items from a linked BibTeX document only appear in the list of references if cited within the document.

Cons

Everything Must Be Created by Hand
The bibliography entries must be entered by hand. Even if text copied and pasted, character formatting—bold, italics, etc.—will likely have to be applied by the author.

Only Applies to One Document
The bibliographic entries in a basic bibliography are part of the document. They are not easily available for use in another document. By contrast, bibliographies created in BibTeX format can contain a large number of entries—one, several, many, or all can be used in any document the author creates in LaTeX. This is very useful with a research project that involves a large number of references or which may result in multiple publications.

References Are Numbered (by default)
A possible drawback to a simple bibliography is that the references are numbered—by default—when they appear in the final document.