5 References and glossary
This chapter presents the bibliographic citation system (IEEE style via IEEEtran-francais.bst), the glossary and acronym system, and special front matter pages.
5.1 Bibliographic citations
5.1.1 Basic syntax
Citations are inserted with [@key]. The key corresponds to the BibTeX identifier defined in references.bib:
Output:
Computer typesetting was revolutionised by Knuth (Knuth 1984), whose system was made accessible by Lamport with (Lamport 1994). Quarto (Allaire et al. 2022) unifies these tools in a modern publishing environment.
5.1.2 Multiple references
Output:
Python visualisation tools (Hunter 2007) and typographic reference works (Bringhurst 2004; Mittelbach et Fischer 2023) complement the author’s toolkit.
[@key] with brackets
The IEEEtran-francais.bst style uses natbib. The @key syntax without brackets calls \citet{} which is broken with IEEEtran — it produces the author name followed by [?]. Always use [@key] to obtain [N] (IEEE numbering).
5.1.3 The references.bib file
The references.bib file must be located at the project root. Pandoc in natbib mode generates \bibliography{references} (without a path), and BibTeX looks for the file in the current directory. A file in content_en/references.bib will not be found.
Zotero (with the Better BibTeX connector), JabRef, or Mendeley export directly to .bib format. The @IEEEtranBSTCTL entry at the top of the file configures the IEEEtran style (number of authors before “et al.”, etc.) — do not remove it.
5.2 Glossary and acronyms
5.2.1 Declaring entries in glossaire-entries.qmd
All entries are declared in content_en/frontmatter/glossaire-entries.qmd via two shortcodes:
The shortcodes automatically write _glossaire-entries.tex (read by LaTeX) and populate the HTML tables. Labels must be unique.
5.2.2 Using acronyms in the text
Four shortcodes allow referencing an acronym in the desired form:
| Shortcode | PDF output | HTML output |
|---|---|---|
{{< gls cnam >}} |
short form (1st use: long) | short form |
{{< acrs cnam >}} |
always short form | always short form |
{{< acrl cnam >}} |
always long form | always long form |
{{< acrf cnam >}} |
long (short) | long (short) |
Examples in context:
Output:
The cnam (cnam) was founded in 1794. The qmd format is Quarto’s native format.
In PDF, {{< gls label >}} expands on the first occurrence (long form + abbreviation in parentheses) then uses the short form. In HTML, this first-occurrence logic is not handled by the shortcode — it always produces the short form. For consistency, prefer {{< acrf label >}} on the first occurrence in the text, and {{< acrs label >}} thereafter.
5.3 Special front matter pages
5.3.1 Résumé and abstract
The resume.qmd and abstract.qmd pages use CSS classes that add a left border in HTML:
Even for a thesis written in English, a French résumé is mandatory according to the abes rules for deposit on theses.fr. This is the role of the file content_en/frontmatter/resume.qmd in the English profile.
5.3.2 The Individual Monitoring Committee (csi)
The csi has been mandatory since 2016 for all doctoral students in France. It meets at least once a year, independently of the thesis supervisor, to verify progress, working conditions, and adherence to the schedule. The minutes of the csi meeting must be included in the defence dossier.
The HTML version of this thesis template is particularly well suited for csi meetings: it allows sharing a link to the online version, which is easier to navigate than a 200-page PDF.