Latex Bibliographies

I’ve been working on a paper and needed references. My tool of choice for writing is LaTex; there is a steep learning curve but once the text markup is working, it stays working. Unlike the precarious state of WYSIWYG wordprocessors (MS word in particular). But, finding out how bibliographies worked seem like an excursion through byzantine instructions.

My eventual solution was:

1. Write references in BibTex using BibDesk or JabRef
2. Save the BibTex file in the same directory as the source LaTex file

3. Include in the Latex file:

   \bibliographystyle{plain}

   \bibliography{name of bibtex file without extension}

   \end{document}

4. Using TeXShop:
   1) compile the Latex file using the Latex option
   2) compile the Latex file using BibTex(option in TexShop)
   3) compile the Latex file again using Latex option

That’s it.