Is use of bibtex more time consuming than old fashioned way?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the comparative efficiency of using BibTeX versus traditional bibliography methods in LaTeX documents. While initial setup of a .bib file may seem time-consuming, the long-term benefits of BibTeX become apparent when managing multiple papers, as it allows for easy reuse of references. Tools like Google Scholar and JabRef facilitate the creation and management of BibTeX entries, making the process more streamlined. Ultimately, BibTeX is advantageous for researchers who frequently cite similar references across multiple documents.

PREREQUISITES
  • Familiarity with LaTeX document preparation
  • Understanding of BibTeX citation management
  • Basic knowledge of reference management tools like JabRef
  • Experience using Google Scholar for citation retrieval
NEXT STEPS
  • Explore advanced features of JabRef for bibliography management
  • Learn how to automate BibTeX entry creation using online databases
  • Investigate citation management tools like Citeseer and ADS for additional resources
  • Study LaTeX templates that integrate BibTeX for efficient document formatting
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Researchers, academic writers, and students who frequently produce scholarly papers and need efficient bibliography management solutions.

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I am trying to learn application of bibtex. I do not understand why people claim that use of bibtex simplifies creation of bibliography in a latex document. In order to cite references from a bibliography database, I first need to create the required file (with .bib extension) and then call it in the latex file. But creation of the bibliography database seems to be a time consuming job. For example, one particular item in a .bib file may be like:

@ARTICLE{epr,
author = "A. Einstein and {\relax Yu} Podolsky and N. Rosen",
collaboration = "EPR",
year = "1935",
journal = "Phys.\ Rev.",
volume = "47",
pages = "777",
}

Now do you not think, creating such one item in the database will take more time than adding the references in the latex file in the old fashioned way (one bibitem for each entry)? There would be many such entries in a particular paper. I am confused what advantage bibtex actually offers. If comprehensive subjectwise bibliography dabases were avilable (e.g., in theoretical high energy physics) then of course bibtex would be advantageous. Are such ready-to-be-used databases available in the internet?
 
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Certainly bibtex is more advantegeous. You can refer to help document of bibtex to know more.
Many reputed journals for example IEEE provides citation of a paper in bibtex format. So I have to just download citation of a paper and add it as a bib entry.
There is no need to add each and every field of a bib entry.
It is not time consuming though it takes little time to edit bib entries to suit our needs.
If you want to download citation of a book you can get its bib format from google scholar. Go to google scholar, in preferences in bibliograpgy manager select "Show links to import citations" and set it to BibTex. Now if you search a book in google scholar, it will display "Import into BibTex". You will get the citation of that book in bib format. So easy isn't it?
One more thing. My personal advice is to use JabRef for managing bibliography entires. It is freeware and extremely powerful and user friendly in managing bib enteries.
Once you get practiced in bib you will know its usefulness.
 
n.karthick said:
n.karthick said:
If you want to download citation of a book you can get its bib format from google scholar.
Not just google scholar. Several online reference search tools do that. Citeseer, adsabs.harvard.edu, ...; The websites for many journals provide the BibTex entry for articles published in their journals. That alone is a huge advantage in using BibTeX. Ensuring that a citation is printed correctly is mostly a matter of copy and paste. That n.karthick knows this, and knows tools to help manage bibliography entries, shows that he is using BibTex where it really shines.

arroy_0205: if you are writing just one paper, yes, using BibTeX might seem to be a bit overkill. BibTeX starts paying off on the second paper you write. Your second paper is probably on a subject similar to your first; a lot of the references will be the same in both. Now suppose you write a third paper, then a fourth, and so on. Your ever-growing BibTeX database will make the bibliography a snap.
 
arroy_0205 said:
Now do you not think, creating such one item in the database will take more time than adding the references in the latex file in the old fashioned way (one bibitem for each entry)? There would be many such entries in a particular paper. I am confused what advantage bibtex actually offers. If comprehensive subjectwise bibliography dabases were avilable (e.g., in theoretical high energy physics) then of course bibtex would be advantageous. Are such ready-to-be-used databases available in the internet?

Also, some editors contain templates for bibtex-items such as books, articles, etc.