What is the Bibtex crossref field used for?

Question

The main questions sort of sums it up. I understand what cross-referencing is, but I don't see how one would go about it in a bibtex field. I don't know if this is something that comes up in different academic disciplines more, or if I just don't understand the purpose of the bibtex field. Perhaps some sore of minimal example would be helpful.

Answer 1

crossref can be used if you have multiple entries referring to the same proceeding, book or similar. The advantage is that things which are common to all entries only have to specified once, for example if Duck and Mouse both wrote proceedings for the same conference, the year or title of this conference only have to be given once.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[mincrossrefs=99]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{\jobname.bib}
@inproceedings{duck2015,
    author = {Duck, D.},
    title = {Duck tales},
    crossref = {ICRC2015},
}

@inproceedings{mouse2015,
    author = {Mouse, M.},
    title = {Mouse stories},
    crossref = {ICRC2015},
}

@proceedings{ICRC2015,
    title = "{Proceedings of the 34\textsuperscript{th} International Cosmic Ray Conference}",
    year = "2015",
    month = aug,
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
\cite{duck2015}
\cite{mouse2015}

\printbibliography
\end{document}