Overleaf: How to Cite Papers with Biblatex

This article shows you how to cite papers with biblatex in Overleaf.

Example

The overall code is:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{natbib}

\title{Example of citation}
\date{}

\maketitle
\begin{document}
\cite{acemoglu2001colonial} presents a long-term effect of institution. 
Study \citep{acemoglu2001colonial} shows that there is long-term effect of institution. 
Many other works \citep{glaeser2004institutions, rodrik2004institutions} cited \citeauthor{acemoglu2001colonial}'s (\citeyear{acemoglu2001colonial}) work.

\bibliographystyle{jpe}
\bibliography{example}
\end{document}

which compiles

---

Steps

1. In your Overleaf project, create a new file, name it as example.bib
2. Find the papers on Google Scholar and click Cite, at the bottom of the page, click BibTex, and copy the text. The text has the following format:

@article{key,
  title={Title},
  author={Author},
  journal={Journal},
  volume={vol},
  number={number},
  pages={pp},
  year={year}
}

3. Go back to Overleaf, paste the text in example.bib, change the key of the cited article if you want.
4. In your main.tex, before \begin{document}, type \usepackage{natbib}
5. At the end of the document, include

\bibliographystyle{jpe}  % the natbib style you use, apa, jpe, etc.
\bibliography{example}   % include the bib file you created

6. In the body of your document, you could use \cite{key}, \citep{key}, etc. to cite papers now.
7. Further reading: Natbib citation styles

---

Originally published in Chinese at 简书 on Apr. 20, 2021.