How to Number a Bibliography but Keep Author–Year Citations in biblatex

If you want citations in the text to show an author and year, but want each bibliography entry to have a number, configure the citation and bibliography styles separately. In biblatex, use citestyle=authoryear for citations and bibstyle=numeric for the numbered list.

This setup numbers the entries in the bibliography; it does not turn in-text citations into numbers. The example below uses author–year citations and sorts the bibliography by name, year, and title.

Set the citation and bibliography styles separately

A style option is shorthand for a bundled citation style and bibliography style. For this combination, specify each one explicitly:

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  citestyle=authoryear,
  bibstyle=numeric,
  sorting=nyt,
  defernumbers=true
]{biblatex}

Here, citestyle=authoryear controls commands such as \textcite and \parencite. bibstyle=numeric formats bibliography entries with numeric labels. sorting=nyt sorts entries by name, year, and title. defernumbers=true defers assigning the numbers until the bibliography is printed, so the labels follow that sorted order. If you prefer another order, select a different biblatex sorting scheme.

Minimal working example

Save this LaTeX document as main.tex and the bibliography data as references.bib in the same folder.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[
  backend=biber,
  citestyle=authoryear,
  bibstyle=numeric,
  sorting=nyt,
  defernumbers=true
]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{references.bib}

\begin{document}

\textcite{knuth1984} and \parencite{lamport1994} are examples
of author--year citations.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

Put these entries in references.bib:

@book{knuth1984,
  author    = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title     = {The TeXbook},
  year      = {1984},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley}
}

@book{lamport1994,
  author    = {Lamport, Leslie},
  title     = {LaTeX: A Document Preparation System},
  edition   = {2},
  year      = {1994},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley Professional}
}

The citations in the text use the author–year format: \textcite typically puts the author in the sentence and the year in parentheses, while \parencite puts both in a parenthetical citation. The bibliography uses numeric labels, such as [1] and [2], alongside the authors, titles, and publication details. With sorting=nyt and defernumbers=true, Knuth’s entry comes before Lamport’s because the bibliography is sorted by author name, and the labels follow that order.

Compile with Biber

Because the example specifies backend=biber, run the Biber backend as part of compilation. For a document named main.tex, the command-line sequence is:

pdflatex main
biber main
pdflatex main

Run LaTeX again if it reports that references need another update. In an editor, choose Biber as the bibliography processor rather than BibTeX. Biber reads the citation data and writes the information biblatex needs to produce the citations and bibliography labels.

Control the numbering order

The bibliography numbers are assigned according to the selected bibliography order. The example’s sorting=nyt arranges entries by author name, year, and title; with defernumbers=true, the labels follow that order. If you want entries ordered by when they are first cited, use sorting=none instead. The order affects which reference receives [1], [2], and so on; it does not change the author–year format of citations in the text.

If a publisher requires a particular order or label format, check its instructions. A style file or class may set its own biblatex options, so you may need to adjust those settings rather than only changing the preamble.

Common mistakes

• Using style=numeric: This selects numeric citations as well as a numeric bibliography. Use separate citestyle and bibstyle options when you want the two formats to differ.
• Using only style=authoryear: This gives author–year citations and an author–year bibliography style, not the numbered bibliography requested here.
• Changing the bibliography order unintentionally: The selected sorting scheme determines the entry order and, with defernumbers=true, the numbering. Choose it deliberately.
• Skipping Biber or compiling in the wrong sequence: Citations or labels may appear as question marks or remain out of date until you run the configured backend and LaTeX again.

If you mean numeric citations in the text rather than numbered bibliography entries, that is a different requirement: the citation style must be numeric. The configuration above is for author–year citations with a numbered bibliography.