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BibTeX @misc: arXiv, Software, Datasets

@misc is the fallback entry type for everything the other types don't cover: preprints, software, datasets, websites. It has no required fields.

On this page
  1. When to use @misc
  2. Examples
  3. Fields
  4. How it is typeset
  5. arXiv preprints
  6. Software
  7. Datasets
  8. @unpublished and @booklet
  9. Common mistakes
  10. biblatex
  11. Related types

When to use @misc

Use @misc when no other standard type fits. Typical cases are arXiv preprints, software, datasets, websites, talks and slides. Check the specific types first, because they give better output: a report issued by an institution is a @techreport, a thesis is a @phdthesis or @mastersthesis, and a preprint that has since been published should be cited as the @article or @inproceedings it became.

Classic BibTeX styles also fall back to @misc formatting for entry types they don’t know, such as @online or @software, after printing a warning.

Examples

@misc has no required fields, so a minimal entry is whatever identifies the source:

@misc{nakamoto2008,
  author = {Nakamoto, Satoshi},
  title  = {Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System},
  year   = {2008}
}

A complete entry uses howpublished to say where the work can be found:

@misc{nakamoto2008bitcoin,
  author       = {Nakamoto, Satoshi},
  title        = {Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System},
  howpublished = {\url{https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf}},
  year         = {2008},
  note         = {Accessed: 2026-10-01}
}

\url requires the url or hyperref package.

Fields

Field Required Meaning
author no Author; an organization or team goes in double braces
title no Title of the work
howpublished no How or where it was published: a URL, a repository, an archive
month no Month, e.g. feb
year no Year
note no Anything else, printed at the end
key no Used for sorting and labels when there is no author

url, doi, eprint, archivePrefix, primaryClass, version and publisher are not standard fields of @misc. plain, abbrv, alpha and unsrt ignore them without a warning.

How it is typeset

The plain style prints the two examples as:

Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system, 2008.

Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf, 2008. Accessed: 2026-10-01.

The title is converted to sentence case; howpublished and note are printed as typed.

arXiv preprints

arXiv’s own BibTeX export uses @misc with the non-standard fields eprint, archivePrefix and primaryClass:

@misc{kingma2014adam,
  author        = {Kingma, Diederik P. and Ba, Jimmy},
  title         = {Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization},
  year          = {2014},
  eprint        = {1412.6980},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  primaryClass  = {cs.LG}
}

eprint is the arXiv identifier, archivePrefix names the archive and primaryClass is the subject class. biblatex prints them as “arXiv: 1412.6980 [cs.LG]”, and some BibTeX styles, for example REVTeX’s apsrev4-2 and ACM-Reference-Format, print the identifier too. The standard styles, and natbib’s plainnat, do not: the reference ends after the year and the reader can’t find the paper. For those styles, repeat the identifier in a standard field:

  howpublished = {arXiv:1412.6980 [cs.LG]},

Diederik P. Kingma and Jimmy Ba. Adam: A method for stochastic optimization. arXiv:1412.6980 [cs.LG], 2014.

Use one of the two forms, not both; biblatex would print the identifier twice. The arXiv to BibTeX converter generates the entry from an arXiv ID. Before citing a preprint, check whether the paper has been published in the meantime and cite that version if it is the one you read.

Software

Many projects state how they want to be cited, in their documentation or in a CITATION file. Follow that where it exists. Otherwise @misc works:

@misc{pandas2020,
  author       = {{The pandas development team}},
  title        = {pandas-dev/pandas: Pandas},
  howpublished = {Zenodo},
  month        = feb,
  year         = {2020},
  note         = {\url{https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3509134}}
}

The pandas development team. pandas-dev/pandas: Pandas. Zenodo, February 2020. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3509134.

Give the version you used in note or after the title, since results can depend on it. Software that comes with a reference manual, like R, is usually cited as @manual.

Datasets

Cite a dataset with its creator, title, the repository in howpublished, and the DOI or URL:

@misc{fisher1936iris,
  author       = {Fisher, R. A.},
  title        = {Iris},
  howpublished = {UCI Machine Learning Repository},
  year         = {1936},
  note         = {Dataset. \url{https://doi.org/10.24432/C56C76}}
}

R. A. Fisher. Iris. UCI Machine Learning Repository, 1936. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.24432/C56C76.

@unpublished and @booklet

Two neighbouring types cover special cases:

Type Use for Required Optional
@unpublished A manuscript or draft that has an author and a title but isn’t published author, title, note month, year
@booklet A printed and bound work without a named publisher or institution title author, howpublished, address, month, year, note

In @unpublished, the required note describes the status, e.g. note = {Manuscript submitted for publication}. A preprint on arXiv is publicly available and better served by @misc.

Common mistakes

  • No author and no key. BibTeX warns to sort, need author or key. Add key = {...} with the word to sort by.
  • Relying on url, doi or eprint with a standard style. They are dropped silently. Use howpublished or note.
  • A URL without \url. Characters like _, % and # cause errors.
  • A team name without double braces. {The pandas development team} is parsed as a person; write {{The pandas development team}}.
  • Lost capitals. Protect names and acronyms in the title: {Python}, {GPU}. See protecting capital letters.
  • @misc out of convenience. If a specific type fits, use it; the bibliography will be more complete.

biblatex

biblatex has @misc too, and adds types for most of its classic uses: @online for websites, @software (formatted like @misc, with a version field) and @dataset. It prints url, doi and eprint for every type. The native names of the arXiv fields are eprinttype and eprintclass; archivePrefix and primaryClass are accepted as aliases. In biblatex, @unpublished doesn’t require a note.