BibTex has the concept of citation styles, which is immensely important for the scientific community. Every journal wants the references supplied in another format (longer/shorter, with/without titles, only first author / all authors, etc.). The bibliography section is derived from your .bib file (your references wiht full information) and a .bst file (the citation style). If you want to do something BibTex-related, I'd advise to (eventually) follow this concept.