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

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the use of BibTeX for managing bibliographies in LaTeX documents, comparing it to traditional methods of manually entering references. Participants explore the perceived advantages and disadvantages of using BibTeX, particularly in terms of time consumption and ease of use.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses confusion about the advantages of BibTeX, arguing that creating a .bib file can be time-consuming compared to manually adding references in LaTeX.
  • Another participant counters that BibTeX is advantageous because many journals provide citations in BibTeX format, allowing for easy integration without needing to fill in every field manually.
  • It is suggested that using tools like Google Scholar and other online reference search tools can simplify the process of obtaining BibTeX entries, highlighting the ease of copying and pasting citations.
  • A participant mentions that while BibTeX may seem excessive for a single paper, it becomes beneficial when writing multiple papers, as a growing BibTeX database can streamline the citation process.
  • Some participants inquire about the availability of comprehensive subject-wise bibliography databases that could enhance the utility of BibTeX.
  • There is mention of editors that provide templates for BibTeX items, which could aid in the creation of .bib entries.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the efficiency of BibTeX versus traditional methods. While some argue that BibTeX simplifies the citation process, others maintain that the initial setup can be more time-consuming. No consensus is reached on the overall time efficiency of using BibTeX.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the dependency on external tools and databases for obtaining BibTeX entries, as well as the potential learning curve associated with using BibTeX effectively.

arroy_0205
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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.