LaTeX-References.md

Introduction to scientific working

References and citation in LaTeX

LaTeX differentiates between references to literature or papers and parts, sections objects of the document itself.

Referencing parts of the document.

In LaTeX the numbering of parts is not exactly specified on writing. It is done by LaTeX compiler. This confronts the writer of a document with the problem to mention a specific part in the text.

To accommodate this problem LaTeX provides a command to define anchors to parts of interest.

\label{MARKER}

These marker then can be referenced with two commands in the text:

\ref{MARKER} % Reference a specified marker

\pageref{MARKER} % Print the page number the labeled MARKER is on.

The label instruction has to come after or inside a \caption if it is desired to anchor on a figure, table or other with a caption. If it is defined before the caption, the label will pick up the chapter, section or other as anchor.

Best Practices

After defining a lot of anchors, that possibly also have similar topics and similar markers, an author can loose track of which marker is to use for a reference.

Therefore it is a best practice among LaTeX authors to define the anchors according some patterns, example:

• chap:MARKER ↣ Anchor for chapters
• sec:MARKER ↣ Anchor for sections
• subsec:MARKER ↣ Anchor for sub sections
• fig:MARKER ↣ Anchor for a figure
• tab:MARKER ↣ Anchor for a table
• eq:MARKER ↣ Anchor for equation
• lst:MARKER ↣ Anchor for a code listing
• itm:MARKER ↣ Anchor for an enumeration list
• app:MARKER ↣ Anchor for an appendix subsection

But these is not enforced an authors are free to choose what suits them best.

Enhancing \ref

Often it is cumbersome to write:

See figure \ref{fig:birds} on page \pageref{fig:birds} to see an example of the
new found species.

To accommodate this there are additional packages:

• varioref
• hyperref
• cleveref

Next:

LaTeX Citations