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### 8.5 Creating Citations

— User Option: reftex-bibliography-commands

> LaTeX commands which specify the BibTeX databases to use with the document.

— User Option: reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps

> List of regular expressions to exclude files in `\\bibliography{..}`. File names matched by any of these regexps will not be parsed. Intended for files which contain only `@string` macro definitions and the like, which are ignored by RefTeX anyway.

— User Option: reftex-default-bibliography

> List of BibTeX database files which should be used if none are specified. When `reftex-citation` is called from a document with neither a ‘`\bibliography{...}`’ statement nor a `thebibliography` environment, RefTeX will scan these files instead. Intended for using `reftex-citation` in non-LaTeX files. The files will be searched along the BIBINPUTS or TEXBIB path.

— User Option: reftex-sort-bibtex-matches

> Sorting of the entries found in BibTeX databases by reftex-citation. Possible values:

>               nil          Do not sort entries.
>               author       Sort entries by author name.
>               year         Sort entries by increasing year.
>               reverse-year Sort entries by decreasing year.

— User Option: reftex-cite-format

> The format of citations to be inserted into the buffer. It can be a string, an alist or a symbol. In the simplest case this is just the string ‘`\cite{%l}`’, which is also the default. See the definition of `reftex-cite-format-builtin` for more complex examples.

> If `reftex-cite-format` is a string, it will be used as the format. In the format, the following percent escapes will be expanded.

> `%l`
>   The BibTeX label of the citation.
> `%a`
>   List of author names, see also `reftex-cite-punctuation`.
> `%2a`
>   Like %a, but abbreviate more than 2 authors like Jones et al.
> `%A`
>   First author name only.
> `%e`
>   Works like ‘`%a`’, but on list of editor names. (‘`%2e`’ and ‘`%E`’ work a well).

> It is also possible to access all other BibTeX database fields:

>               %b booktitle     %c chapter        %d edition    %h howpublished
>               %i institution   %j journal        %k key        %m month
>               %n number        %o organization   %p pages      %P first page
>               %r address       %s school         %u publisher  %t title
>               %v volume        %y year
>               %B booktitle, abbreviated          %T title, abbreviated

> Usually, only ‘`%l`’ is needed. The other stuff is mainly for the echo area display, and for `(setq reftex-comment-citations t)`.

> ‘`%<`’ as a special operator kills punctuation and space around it after the string has been formatted.

> A pair of square brackets indicates an optional argument, and RefTeX will prompt for the values of these arguments.

> Beware that all this only works with BibTeX database files. When citations are made from the `\bibitems` in an explicit `thebibliography` environment, only ‘`%l`’ is available.

> If `reftex-cite-format` is an alist of characters and strings, the user will be prompted for a character to select one of the possible format strings.

> In order to configure this variable, you can either set `reftex-cite-format` directly yourself or set it to the symbol of one of the predefined styles. The predefined symbols are those which have an association in the constant `reftex-cite-format-builtin`) E.g.: `(setq reftex-cite-format 'natbib)`.

— Hook: reftex-format-cite-function

> If non-`nil`, should be a function which produces the string to insert as a citation. Note that the citation format can also be changed with the variable `reftex-cite-format`. The function will be called with two arguments, the citation-key and the default-format (taken from `reftex-cite-format`). It should return the string to insert into the buffer.

— User Option: reftex-cite-prompt-optional-args

> Non-`nil` means, prompt for empty optional arguments in cite macros. When an entry in `reftex-cite-format` ist given with square brackets to indicate optional arguments (for example ‘`\\cite[][]{%l}`’), RefTeX can prompt for values. Possible values are:

>               nil     Never prompt for optional arguments
>               t       Always prompt
>               maybe   Prompt only if reftex-citation was called with C-u prefix arg

> Unnecessary empty optional arguments are removed before insertion into the buffer. See `reftex-cite-cleanup-optional-args`.

— User Option: reftex-cite-cleanup-optional-args

> Non-`nil` means, remove empty optional arguments from cite macros if possible.

— User Option: reftex-comment-citations

> Non-`nil` means add a comment for each citation describing the full entry. The comment is formatted according to `reftex-cite-comment-format`.

— User Option: reftex-cite-comment-format

> Citation format used for commented citations. Must not contain ‘`%l`’. See the variable `reftex-cite-format` for possible percent escapes.

— User Option: reftex-cite-punctuation

> Punctuation for formatting of name lists in citations. This is a list of 3 strings.

> 1. normal names separator, like ‘`,` ’ in Jones, Brown and Miller
> 2. final names separator, like ‘ `and` ’ in Jones, Brown and Miller
> 3. The ‘`et al.`’ string, like ‘ `{\it et al.}`’ in Jones {\it et al.}

— Normal Hook: reftex-select-bib-mode-hook

> Normal hook which is run when a selection buffer enters `reftex-select-bib-mode`.

— Keymap: reftex-select-bib-map

> The keymap which is active in the citation-key selection process (see Creating Citations).