How to add extra field to biblatex?

Question

Using biblatex

\usepackage[style=ieee, backend=bibtex]{biblatex}

And I am trying to add publisher to the phd type but it does not add it.

@phdthesis{phd,
  author = "Me",
  title = "My Title",
  school = "My University",
  year = 2020,
  publisher= "Fubar",
  type     = {PHD}
 }

How do I add publisher to my reference?

Answer 1

In the BibTeX and biblatex tradition theses (@phthesis, @thesis, ...) don't have a publisher. Instead they have a institution or school. Most dissertations can probably be found without giving the publisher (if they are published by a known publishing house at all).

That all said, it is certainly not impossible to add a publisher to theses. You just need to find a good place to hook in to. The bibliography output of the ieee style is based on the standard biblatex style standard.bbx, where the institution of a @thesis is printed in institution+location+date. You can modify that macro to also print a publisher.

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[style=ieee]{biblatex}

\renewbibmacro*{institution+location+date}{%
  \ifentrytype{thesis}
    {\printlist{publisher}%
     \setunit{\addcomma\space}}
    {}%
  \printlist{location}%
  \iflistundef{institution}
    {\setunit*{\addcomma\space}}
    {\setunit*{\addcolon\space}}%
  \printlist{institution}%
  \setunit*{\addcomma\space}%
  \usebibmacro{date}%
  \newunit}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@phdthesis{phd,
  author    = {Me},
  title     = {My Title},
  school    = {My University},
  year      = 2020,
  publisher = {Fubar},
}
\end{filecontents}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}
Lorem \cite{phd}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Answer 2

I wouldn't use @phdthesis and choose @thesis instead (but for this example I'm going to use @phdthesis). Also I would recommend dropping bibtex as backend and instead employ biber.

Your problem can be solved by assigning a type and a note to the thesis-entry:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\begin{filecontents}[overwrite]{demo-phd.bib}
@phdthesis{phd,
  author = {Lastname, Firstname},
  title = {Awesome Title},
  school = {Some University},
  year = {2020},
  publisher= {Fubar},
  type = {Published by Fubar},
  note = {Ph.D. dissertation}
 }
\end{filecontents}

\usepackage[style=ieee, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{demo-phd.bib}

\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}

There is this great thesis I'd really like to quote: \autocite{phd}

\printbibliography
\end{document}
\end{document}