The content of a citation is assumed to be a reference string, perhaps identical to an abbreviation in an entry in a bibliography.

citebiblioid, citerefentry, citetitle

<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook' version='5.0'>
<title>Example citation</title>

<para>Consult <citation>AhoSethiUllman96</citation> for more details on
abstract syntax tree construction.
</para>

<para>…</para>

<bibliolist>
<title>Bibliography</title>

<biblioentry>
  <abbrev>AhoSethiUllman96</abbrev>
  <authorgroup>
    <author><personname>
      <firstname>Alfred V.</firstname><surname>Aho</surname>
    </personname></author>
    <author><personname>
      <firstname>Ravi</firstname><surname>Sethi</surname>
    </personname></author>
    <author><personname>
      <firstname>Jeffrey D.</firstname><surname>Ullman</surname>
    </personname></author>
  </authorgroup>
  <copyright><year>1996</year>
             <holder>Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.</holder></copyright>
  <editor>
    <personname>
      <firstname>James T.</firstname><surname>DeWolf</surname>
    </personname>
  </editor>
  <biblioid class="isbn">0-201-10088-6</biblioid>
  <publisher>
    <publishername>Addison-Wesley Publishing Company</publishername>
  </publisher>
  <citetitle>Compilers, Principles, Techniques, and Tools</citetitle>
</biblioentry>
</bibliolist>

</article>