Tell me more ×
TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt, and related typesetting systems. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 8 down vote favorite
4

I'm really new to BibTex, I just wonder what is going wrong when I have this kind of error when I try to compile my bibliography file.

I found no \citation commands---while reading file masterthesis.aux

I have put this \bibliographystyle{plain} and bibliography{masterthesis} somewhere in my document, but I don't know what to do here...

share|improve this question
1  
It can't find any \cite commands in your document. – Martin Scharrer♦ May 12 '11 at 10:24
4  
put \nocite{*} before the bibliography command – Herbert May 12 '11 at 10:31
6  
You have not cited any of your bibliography entries. By default bibtex insert in the bibliography only the cited entries, so if you want to include all of your records in the bibliographi use the \nocite{*} command before \printbibliography – Spike May 12 '11 at 10:34
@Martin @Herbert @Spike: thanks! – zfm May 12 '11 at 10:58
@zfm "problem with compiling bibtex" is not a particularly descriptive title... – Seamus May 12 '11 at 11:43

3 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

As explained on the second page of the BIBTeX manual the new command \nocite{*} allows, since version 0.99b, to

include in the reference list every entry in the database files, without having to explicitly \cite or \nocite each entry. Giving this command, in essence, \nocites all the enties in the database, in database order, at the very spot in your document where you give the command.

This is useful since BIBTeX, by default, do not consider uncited entries of the database. This behaviour can look strange but is the right way to proceed: if you don't cite anything, it means that you haven't used any information from the entries in the database in your document! So the best way to proceed is to find a place to cite every entry.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

I noticed this problem when I used biblatex without having specified the backend=bibtex package option. Adding the option fixed it.

share|improve this answer
The most recent version of biblatex assumes the usage of Biber rather than BibTeX for processing the bibliography. Thus biber filename rather than bibtex filename is required, unless you specify backend=bibtex that, on the other hand, will put biblatex in a sort of "compatibility mode" and make it impossible to benefit from the new features of version 2. – egreg Sep 17 '12 at 7:47
Ah, didn't know that. Thanks! – gablin Sep 17 '12 at 8:37
up vote -1 down vote

I know this is kind of an old thread but I had exactly the same problem and this solution was not helpful.

Make sure that your LaTeX document is structured correctly. I spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure out why BibTex couldn't find any \citation commands when the problem was actually that I hadn't closed a \section{} properly. I guess as you become used to error messages regarding references on the first LaTeX run you can miss the details.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.