How to Format ACM References with BibLaTeX (with Examples)

BibTeX vs BibLaTeX – Quick Comparison

📌 In short: use BibLaTeX + Biber for modern documents.

1. Setting Up BibLaTeX for ACM Style

BibLaTeX doesn’t include an official ACM style, but it can be configured using the acmnumeric or acmauthoryear styles.

1.1 Prerequisites

• Compiler: pdflatex + biber

• Packages: biblatex, biblatex-acm (or custom settings)

1.2 Basic Code Example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=acmnumeric, backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

\begin{document}

Example citation: \cite{park2023ai}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

2. Sample .bib Entry

@article{park2023ai,
  author    = {Jiwon Park and Minho Kim},
  title     = {Artificial Intelligence in Education},
  journal   = {ACM Transactions on Learning Technologies},
  year      = {2023},
  volume    = {18},
  number    = {2},
  pages     = {1--25},
  doi       = {10.1145/1234567}
}

3. Switching to Author-Year Style

\usepackage[style=acmauthoryear, backend=biber]{biblatex}

This will display citations like:

• In-text: Park and Kim (2023)

• References: Sorted by author name

4. Output Example

In-text citation:

According to Park and Kim (2023)...

Bibliography:

[1] Jiwon Park and Minho Kim. 2023. Artificial Intelligence in Education. ACM Transactions on Learning Technologies, 18(2), 1–25.

5. Pro Tips

• Always run biber, not just pdflatex, or your bibliography won’t appear.

• In Overleaf, set the compiler to pdflatex and the bibliography tool to biber.

• For non-English names, configure langid or use proper encoding settings.

Final Thoughts

Manual ACM reference formatting is slow and error-prone. With BibLaTeX, you can generate clean, professional citations with minimal effort — saving you time and hassle.

If you’re submitting to ACM conferences or journals, BibLaTeX is a must-have tool.