What is a BIB file
The BIB file extension is used as a general bibliography file, however, it's most commonly associated with BibTeX. BibTeX is a formatting style used by LaTeX programs like MiKTeX or TeXworks which are used by academics and scientists to write papers, essays, articles, and more. The BIB file is a text file containing information that allows users to search through bibliographies and insert citations into documents written in a LaTeX format (e.g. TEX).
A BIB file can contain bibliographies for different academic writings, including articles, research papers, thesis, etc. They usually contain information about the single entries such as the author, title, date of publication, and more.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open BIB documents:
- Bib2x (Windows & Linux)
- BibDesk (Mac)
- JabRef (Windows, Mac & Linux)
- MacroMates TextMate (Mac)
- MiKTeX (Windows)
- Pybliographer (Linux)
- RefTeX (Linux)
- TeXnicCenter (Windows)
- TeXworks (Windows & Mac)
