Guides

Citations without the .bib wrestling

A paper's bibliography should be assembled, not typed. Here is how to bring references in from the tools you already use, cite as you write, and end up with a clean BibTeX bibliography in your exported LaTeX.

Three ways to get references in

  1. 1

    Sync from Mendeley

    Connect your Mendeley account once, then browse your library and folders from inside the document and import entries directly — no manual export/import round-trips.
  2. 2

    Search Semantic Scholar

    Look papers up by title or author and add them with metadata and DOI already filled in. Good for the reference you remember but never saved.
  3. 3

    Import a BibTeX file

    Already have a curated .bib file from Zotero, JabRef, or a previous paper? Import it wholesale — entries land in the document's bibliography, ready to cite.

Cite as you write

Place the cursor, open the citation picker from the toolbar, and search your bibliography. Citations are numbered automatically and the reference list stays in sync — reorder or delete citations and the numbering follows. References render with full metadata and clickable DOI links.

What the export looks like

When you export a LaTeX project, citations become proper \cite commands backed by a generated BibTeX file, so the journal's production system — or your co-author's local toolchain — rebuilds the bibliography natively. Nothing is hard-coded as text.

Coming from a Word manuscript where citations are plain text? See converting Word to LaTeX for the recommended cleanup path.

Bring your references with you

Mendeley, Semantic Scholar, and BibTeX import on every plan.

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