Help On LaTeX thebibliography

# Hypertext Help with LaTeX
thebibliography

     \begin{thebibliography}{widest-label}
     \bibitem[label]{cite_key}
     literature citation ...
     ....
     \end{thebibliography}

The `thebibliography` environment produces a bibliography or reference list. In the article style, this reference list is labeled "References"; in the report style, it is labeled "Bibliography".

`widest-label` is text that, when printed, is approximately as wide as the widest item label produced by the `\bibitem` command.

The `thebibliography` environment is similar to the `enumerate` environment, except that items are associated with a `\bibitem` command and can be cross-referenced with the `\cite` command.

## An example

In the text you generate a reference to the bibliographic list as follows:

        ... In the running text you might want to refer to
      Dow & Jones\cite{DandJ} and then again you
      might not ...

The `\cite` command will produce a sequence number by default, or the text from the optional `label` argument of `\bibcite`; this latter is useful if the style is to use, for example, the first three letters of the author's last name and a year, as in Dow29.

The associated item in the bibliography section at the end of the article would be generated by

      \begin{thebibliography}{99}
      ....
      \bibitem{DandJ} Dow, W. \& Jones, E.A.,
       {\it Wall Street Journal},
       March 29, 1929.
      ....
      \end{thebibliography}

Note that the `widest-label` parameter has been set assuming less than 100 numbered items in the bibliography. Also note that the key, `DandJ`, is what connects the `\cite` and `\bibitem`.

If `label` is omitted, the numbers are generated sequentially by the `\bibitem` commands. Many journals want these in order of appearance in the text, so you have to sort this list to the proper order.

## See also

- \bibitem
- \cite
- \nocite
- Enumerate environment

Return to LaTeX Table of Contents