We encourage authors of books, papers and other articles which mention the LMFDB to cite it. For a list of publications citing the LMFDB see our Google Scholar profile.

If you would like to acknowledge the LMFDB, please use a citation in the following form, alphabetized under LMFDB.

[42] The LMFDB Collaboration, The L-functions and modular forms database, https://www.lmfdb.org, 2023, [Online; accessed 31 January 2023].

Of course you should change the year and date accessed to match your usage (the same comment applies to all the examples below). The BibTeX entry is:

@misc{lmfdb,
  shorthand    = {LMFDB},
  author       = {The {LMFDB Collaboration}},
  title        = {The {L}-functions and modular forms database},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.lmfdb.org}},
  year         = {2020},
  note         = {[Online; accessed 31 January 2023]},
}

Then you can cite a certain object much like quoting a specific theorem from a paper. For example, you may refer to the elliptic curve with LMFDB label 11a.2 by

\cite[\href{https://www.lmfdb.org/EllipticCurve/Q/11.a2}{Elliptic Curve 11.a2}]{lmfdb}

In order to make the \url and \href commands to work, one should use the hyperref package.


To cite a specific page in the LMFDB, such as the home page of the L-function of the first rank 4 elliptic curve/$\Q$ shown in the example below, you can cite it as

[42] The LMFDB Collaboration, The L-functions and modular forms database, home page of the L-function $L(s,E)$ for elliptic curve isogeny class $\texttt{234446.a}$, https://www.lmfdb.org/L/EllipticCurve/Q/234446.a/, 2020 , [Online; accessed 31 July 2020].

The BibTeX entry is:

@misc{lmfdb:234446.a,
  shorthand    = {LMFDB E234446.a},
  author       = {The {LMFDB Collaboration}},
  title        = {The {L}-functions and modular forms database, 
     Home page of the L-function $L(s,E)$ for elliptic curve isogeny class \texttt{234446.a}},
  howpublished = {\mbox{\url{https://www.lmfdb.org/L/EllipticCurve/Q/234446.a/}}},
  year         = {2020},
  note         = {[Online; accessed 31 January 2023]},
}