Adding works from a BIBTEX file

First: Definitions

A bib file is a plain text document that contains the metadata for the sources you cite in your academic writing.

A plain text document means a document that includes letters, characters, and numbers with no formatting, so you can't do bold & italics for example.

Metadata is the characteristics of a given source or document, ex: if we're talking about a book, the metadata could be: the author, the title, the year of publication, and such sort of details…

Bib files were originally designed to work with a program called LATEX.

LATEX is a program which is halfway between a word processor and a complex programming language, it's used a lot in math, sciences, social sciences…etc.

You can think of LATEX in the following way; if HTML is the language you use to build complex & beautiful websites, LATEX is the programing language you use to design beautiful & complicated PDFs for academic publishing, because LATEX has been used traditionally for academic publishing, programmers of LATEX have also needed a way to organize & automate their citations, so what they've done is the use of a program called BIBTEX

BIBTEX is simply a program that works with LATEX to generate citations, so when we're talking about a bib file we're actually talking about a file that's originally designed to work with BIBTEX, and this where bib files come from.

Second: How to add works from a BIBTEX file?

To add works from a BIBTEX file, do the following:

1. Go to the works tab in your profile, and click on the add works button "+":
2. Select "add BIBTEX" from the menu that opens.
3. Select a bib file from your device in the window that shows:

   **please note that only files with the extension ".bib" are accepted

4. Select the works you want to add:

   You can select the number you want or select them all.

5. Click on "Import works" button to add the works you selected to your record
6. Once you click on "Import works":
   • a message will show to you telling you that the works you imported are added successfully to your works record
   • You'll see the works you added on the top of the works record.