cite unpublished thesis bibtex

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  NPS Thesis Template v2.7 (rel. 3 April 2023): Code Examples (Using template version ≤  2.6? Click here:  IEEE  or  INFORMS )

The following codes are customized for NPS theses and are not intended for use with any other publisher or template. The NPS thesis LaTeX template comes prepackaged with a BibTeX tool and a bib file containing the examples below.

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• Last Updated: Nov 18, 2024 3:34 PM
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Understanding the `unpublished` Entry Type in BibTeX

BibTeX is a popular bibliographic management system that assists researchers and academics in organizing and formatting their bibliographies. It is widely used in computer science, but it is also useful in many other fields that require citation of sources. The “unpublished” entry type in BibTeX is used to cite sources that have not been officially published, such as theses, dissertations, and technical reports.

The “unpublished” entry type is a versatile entry type that allows authors to include all relevant information about an unpublished source, such as the author’s name, title, institution, and date. An example of a BibTeX entry for an unpublished source is as follows:

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The “key” field in this example is a unique identifier that is used to refer to the source in the document’s text. The “author” field contains the name(s) of the source’s author(s), the “title” field contains the title of the source, the “institution” field contains the name of the institution where the source was written, and the “year” field contains the year the source was written.

It should be noted that the “unpublished” entry type should only be used for sources that have not yet been formally published. If a source has been published, even if only online, it should be cited as a “techreport,” “mastersthesis,” or “phdthesis,” depending on the type of publication.

A complete guide to the BibTeX format

• What is BibTeX?

BibTeX is reference management software for formatting reference lists and in-text citations in combination with the typesetting system LaTeX. The reference entries are stored in BibTeX’s own special format, which is usually denoted with the file extension *.bib. Managing your references with BibTeX comes in especially handy for large documents such as a PhD thesis or a research paper. For even greater ease in reference management consider using reference manager with BibTeX support.

• BibTeX format explained

Due to its simple structure and the fact that a simple text editor is enough to generate and edit BibTeX files, BibTeX has become one of the standard formats to store and share bibliographic data.

Each BibTeX reference consist of three parts:

Part 1: the entry type

In its current version BibTeX features 14 entry types. A BibTeX entry start with the @ sign followed by the entry type name. Everything that belongs to the entry is enclosed in curly brackets.

Part 2: the citekey

The citekey is the name that is used to uniquely identify the BibTeX entry. It can be any combination of letters and digits and follows immediately after the opening bracket of the BibTeX entry.

Part 3: a list of key-value pairs storing the bibliographic data

Finally, the bibliographic data is stored by a list of predefined field types and their corresponding values.

Let's illustrate on an example. Here is a BibTeX entry for the famous "The Art of Computer Programming" by Donald E. Knuth.

• Entry types

BibTeX features 14 entry types that help your organize your references. Each entry type has its own set of required an optional fields to store the bibliographic data that is needed to format the references correctly.

Here is a complete listing of the BibTeX entry types including a short description:

• article : any article published in a periodical like a journal article or magazine article
• book : a book
• booklet : like a book but without a designated publisher
• conference : a conference paper
• inbook : a section or chapter in a book
• incollection : an article in a collection
• inproceedings : a conference paper (same as the conference entry type)
• manual : a technical manual
• masterthesis : a Masters thesis
• misc : used if nothing else fits
• phdthesis : a PhD thesis
• proceedings : the whole conference proceedings
• techreport : a technical report, government report or white paper
• unpublished : a work that has not yet been officially published

The citekey can be any combination of alphanumeric characters including the characters "-", "_", and ":". The most frequent pattern is to use the last name of the first author followed by the year. Let's illustrate the concept on the book "The Theoretical Minimum" by George Hrabovsky and Leonard Susskind originally published 2013.

It's also possible to list all authors or even the title in the citekey. The longer the citekey is the more likely it is unique by chance, but that comes at the price of more typing and the citekeys are more difficult to remember.

BibTeX comes with a list of standard fields that are supported by most citation styles. Each entry type has required fields and optional fields. Optional field store additional information that might not be present for each reference, but can still be included in the bibliography entry. Due to the flexible definition of the BibTeX format there are also many non-standard fields that are frequently used, but are only supported by selected BibTeX styles.

Standard field types

• address : address of the publisher or the institution
• annote : an annotation
• author : list of authors of the work
• booktitle : title of the book
• chapter : number of a chapter in a book
• edition : edition number of a book
• editor : list of editors of a book
• howpublished : a publication notice for unusual publications
• institution : name of the institution that published and/or sponsored the report
• journal : name of the journal or magazine the article was published in
• month : the month during the work was published
• note : notes about the reference
• number : number of the report or the issue number for a journal article
• organization : name of the institution that organized or sponsored the conference or that published the manual
• pages : page numbers or a page range
• publisher : name of the publisher
• school : name of the university or degree awarding institution
• series : name of the series or set of books
• title : title of the work
• type : type of the technical report or thesis
• volume : volume number
• year : year the work was published

Non-standard field types

These fields are frequently used, but are not supported by all BibTeX styles.

• doi : DOI number (like 10.1038/d41586-018-07848-2)
• issn : ISSN number (like 1476-4687)
• isbn : ISBN number (like 9780201896831)
• url : URL of a web page
• More about BibTeX

If you need to dive deeper into BibTeX, we recommend to have a look at these sources:

• Tame the BeaST: The B to X of BibTeX by Nicolas Markey [PDF]
• Using bibtex: a short guide by Martin J. Osborne
• BibTeXing by Oren Patashnik [PDF]