biblatex

BibLaTeX is a modern bibliography management tool for LaTeX. It consists of the biblatex package and the Biber backend, providing advanced handling and formatting of bibliographic data. It is designed as a flexible, extensible alternative to BibTeX and is widely used in academic writing.

BibLaTeX stores bibliographic data in plain text files with a .bib extension. It supports a large and flexible set of fields (such as author, title, year, doi, url, isbn, issn, and note) and a wide range of entry types, including article, book, incollection, inproceedings, booklet, thesis, dissertation, online, and more. The system accommodates Unicode, localization, cross-referencing, and custom fields, and offers sophisticated handling of names and date formats.

The formatting and layout of citations and bibliographies are controlled by a modular style system. Styles are defined by .bbx files for bibliography output and .cbx files for in-text citations, and can be tuned for punctuation, sorting, labeling, and language-specific typography. BibLaTeX supports locale-aware formatting, advanced sorting options, and extensive customization through driver files and options.

Workflow and usage in a LaTeX document typically involve loading the biblatex package with a backend specification (biber) and declaring one or more data sources with addbibresource or similar commands. The bibliography is processed with Biber, then incorporated into the document during LaTeX runs. This workflow differs from the BibTeX approach and enables more powerful data modeling and output control.

BibLaTeX is regarded as a comprehensive, actively developed system that integrates well with modern LaTeX workflows. It offers rich features, a wide ecosystem of styles, and strong support for localization, making it a common choice for theses, articles, and books.