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I'm using MIT thesis template downloaded from here http://web.mit.edu/thesis/tex/.

However, I don't know how to use the 2 bibliography files (the main.bib and biblio.tex files). I already tried to run main file (main.tex file), but the resulting pdf file does not contain the citation and the bibliography part.

Does anyone know how to use the bibliography files of the MIT thesis template, or have the LaTeX manual from MIT? It is indicated here in the MIT thesis template that there is a LaTeX manual showing how to use and change the thesis, but I cannot find it.

CarLaTeX
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thuanvu
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    Welcome to TeX.SE! Please add a MWE to your post. It will help us understand your problem and own approaches. – TeXnician Feb 06 '17 at 17:07
  • MIT is a very good institution, but unfortunately, their LaTeX template isn't. If you don't have to use it, i wouldn't use it if i were you. – Johannes_B Feb 06 '17 at 17:11
  • See if http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/63852/question-mark-or-bold-citation-key-instead-of-citation-number helps you. – Johannes_B Feb 06 '17 at 17:11
  • The document class uses the standard-LaTeX \cite commands and the standard-BibTeX plain bibliography style. Just write \cite{abc}, where abc should be a "key" to an entry in the bib file. – Mico Feb 06 '17 at 17:30

3 Answers3

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If you want to use a bibliography database and to generate the bibliography from there (recommended), put your references into main.bib. There are already some entries there which you probably will note need (can be removed, but they do no harm). Unfortunately main.bib does not contain the entries referenced in the sample chapters, so when LaTeXing the sample thesis the bibliography section will remain empty, and the references will appear as [?].

For demonstration purposes, add the following lines at the end of main.bib. They provide dummy entries for the sources cited in the sample thesis.

@misc{patterson:risc,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{rad83,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{ellis:bulldog,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{pet87,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{coutant:precision-compilers,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{gib86,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{thornton:cdc6600,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{magenheimer:precision,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{byte:i860,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

@misc{colwell:vliw,
   author = {Some Author},
   title  = {Some title}
   }

To typeset the sample thesis, enter

pdflatex main

and answer all at the prompt \files=. Then run

bibtex main

Then run pdflatex main another two times (answering all at each run) to propagate the bibliographic information and to get all cross-references right.

You don't have to touch biblio.tex. It is included by main.tex and contains the information that the bibliographic database main.bib should be used.

Here is the output of the document, 25 pages in total with the bibliography on the last page.

enter image description here

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enter image description here

gernot
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  • @Mico A tempplate using typein? I guess we all know by now that i am against templates, but typein? Least effective way to get stuff done. – Johannes_B Feb 06 '17 at 17:57
  • @gernot -- I stand corrected! For some reason, when I ran the template (with "all"), no citation commands were found. I must have done something wrong -- or simply not understood the \typein business... – Mico Feb 06 '17 at 18:16
  • I still cannot follow. Where do we enter 'pdflatex main' and answer at the prompt 'files'. – thuanvu Feb 07 '17 at 03:22
  • @thuanvu My answer assumes that you run LaTeX from the command line. If you use some TeX editor, you can probably run the commands just by clicking a button. Which button depends on the editor. Which operating system do you use, which TeX distribution did you install, and which TeX editor? Do you know how to compile a simple LaTeX document to PDF? – gernot Feb 07 '17 at 08:21
  • @gernot. I use Texmaker editor and MikTex distribution. I know how to compile a simple LaTeX document to PDF. :) – thuanvu Feb 07 '17 at 13:30
  • @thuanvu Ok, this sounds good :-). Open main.tex and remove (or comment out) the whole paragraph starting with \typein [\files] and ending with \includeonly{\files} \fi (this is the paragraph before \begin{document}. Then click on the button that usually does the compilation cycle (pdflatex+bibtex+pdflatex+pdflatex). – gernot Feb 07 '17 at 13:37
  • Thank you so much. I have tried it again and it finally works. – thuanvu Feb 07 '17 at 16:07
  • If you are using TeXworks, you have to run "pdfLaTeX" alone, not "pdfLaTeX+MakeIndex+BibTex". This confused me for a while. – Garrett Sep 07 '18 at 18:21
0

I ran into the same problem, but solved it by copying the content of the biblio.tex file into the main.tex. So, my final main.tex file looks something like:

[...]

\begin{document}


\include{cover}
% Some departments (e.g. 5) require an additional signature page.  See
% signature.tex for more information and uncomment the following line if
% applicable.
% \include{signature}
\pagestyle{plain}
\include{contents}
\include{chap1}
\include{chap2}
\appendix
\include{appa}
\include{appb}


\begin{singlespace}
\bibliography{main}
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\end{singlespace}


\end{document}

That was enough to get the citations and references to work for me. By the way, I am compiling with TeXworks (PdfLaTeX+MakeIndex+BibTeX). I hope it's helpful for you as well :)

orhinot
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A newer latex template for an MIT thesis was released in 2023, here: https://ctan.org/pkg/mitthesis. The new template uses biblatex (or if you prefer bibtex), with a separate .bib file for your references. As a result, bibliography creation is the same as for any other latex document.

Also, the new template does not involve \typein and incorporates the necessary bibliography commands. Once you have made your .bib file, just run latex on the root file, then run biber or bibtex, and then run latex again (twice again for bibtex).

A short intro to biber is in this post.

John
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