LaTeX (pronounced “LAY-tekh”) is a document preparation system used to create high-quality, professionally formatted documents. It’s especially popular in fields like mathematics, computer science, engineering, and the sciences, where documents often contain formulas, references, tables, and figures. Unlike word processors (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs), LaTeX works more like coding: you write your content in plain text and use commands to format it. The final document is compiled into a polished PDF or other format.
BibTeX is a reference management tool used with LaTeX to automatically format citations and bibliographies in academic documents.
Instead of manually typing out references in your LaTeX document, you store them in a separate .bib file (a BibTeX bibliography file) that contains all your citation data. Then, when writing your LaTeX paper, you cite sources using simple commands like \cite{citationKey}, and BibTeX takes care of the formatting based on the citation style you choose.
JabRef is an open source reference management tool tailored for BibTeX — the bibliography systems used in LaTeX. It provides a user-friendly interface for managing .bib files, so you don’t have to manually edit citation entries in plain text. You can use it with Zotero by exporting references as .bibfiles
You can download JabRef from https://www.jabref.org. For additional help, please see their extensive documentation section or consult McGill's Quick Guide:
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