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I currently writing a paper using LaTeX, more specifically XeLaTeX and biblatex with Biber because the paper is written in Arabic.

The bibliography and citation style of the journal in which I am going to publish in is not available for LaTeX and I have to create it from the ground up.

How can I create bibliography and citation styles for biblatex?

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  • I edited your question a bit to make it a bit more 'correct': biblatex is the bibliography package and the 'language'/environment in which you define the style. Biber is just the 'backend' that reads the data from the .bib file. Biber is not directly involved in most style decisions.
    – moewe
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:09
  • Note that many publishers do not and cannot accept biblatex submissions. (tex.stackexchange.com/q/12175/35864). So before you start writing a full blown biblatex style for a journal submission, double check with the editor or other journal staff that they can accept biblatex-generated bibliographies in LaTeX submissions.
    – moewe
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:10
  • Don't worry, i will convert to docx before submitting, as they don't know what is latex in my university Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:12

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This is a question that comes up from time to time, but I'm afraid there is no comprehensive tutorial for writing biblatex styles at this point.

Some of the introductory materials at biblatex in a nutshell (for beginners) mention a few things that could be interesting to style developers, but there is nothing comprehensive in English. There is a series of two German articles from 2008 by Dominik Waßenhoven in Die TeXnische Komödie about his biblatex style (https://archiv.dante.de/DTK/PDF/komoedie_2008_2.pdf, https://archiv.dante.de/DTK/PDF/komoedie_2008_4.pdf). (Note that the articles are more than 10 years old now, many details have changed since then. The overall approach is still the same, but I expect that there will be new, more elegant interfaces for a few things.) See also the discussion at the end of my answer to Customize biblatex citation style.

If you want to code your own style, the best way to start is to look at the code of the standard styles in

and a base style you like, say,

See What is the location of the biblatex citation style files? and Editing a citation style (verbose-ibid) for more details on where to find the style file. See also the first part of Customize verbose citation style.

You can also look at some of the styles on CTAN, but keep in mind that styles implementing more complex guidelines (like APA or Chicago style) may have to be quite complex to implement the rules to the letter.

The manual documents all commands defined by the biblatex core, but it does not document all style decisions and style-level (bibmacro) definitions. Because of its length and structure it is often more useful as a reference to look up what exactly a certain command or option does rather than as a guideline to help you write a style.

A great way to get started is Guidelines for customizing biblatex styles and you will find countless questions and answers about modifying biblatex styles on this site already.

If you get stuck, just ask a new question about the problem you are facing. Please try to make your question about specific one particular bit of the style and include a concise example document as well as clear descriptions of the desired output.

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  • Turns out it is a bit more complex than csl Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:10
  • @OssamaNasser I don't know a lot about CSL, but from what I have seen of it I would tend to agree with that statement. CSL styles seem to be a bit more compact. Plus there are many CSL styles out there and documentation seems to be good as well.
    – moewe
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:12
  • Actually there is a web UI that allows the creation of csl styles without writing a single xml letter Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:13
  • @OssamaNasser Depending on your conversion route from LaTeX to .docx you may actually be able to use CSL. Pandoc has CSL support with pandoc-citeproc. (That's all hearsay, I have never used Pandoc or pandoc-citeproc.)
    – moewe
    Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:15
  • I tried and it sux Commented Jul 22, 2020 at 17:16

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