betterbib

BibTeX files are typically manually maintained and thus often contain inconsistencies, mistakes, or are missing information. betterbib helps maintaining your BibTeX files by comparing them with online sources and correcting whatever entries are found faulty.

Simply run

betterbib in.bib out.bib

to improve your BibTeX file with default settings. For example, the input BibTeX

@article {krylov,
  author = {Liesen and Gaul and Nabben},
  title = {Framework Deflation Krylov Augmented}
}

is converted into

@article{krylov,
 author = {Gaul, André and Gutknecht, Martin H. and Liesen, Jörg and Nabben, Reinhard},
 title = {A Framework for Deflated and Augmented {Krylov} Subspace Methods},
 doi = {10.1137/110820713},
 number = {2},
 pages = {495-518},
 source = {Crossref},
 url = {https://doi.org/10.1137/110820713},
 volume = {34},
 journal = {SIAM J. Matrix Anal. & Appl.},
 publisher = {Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics (SIAM)},
 issn = {0895-4798, 1095-7162},
 year = {2013},
 month = jan,
}

Tools

All of the following tools can read from standard input and write to standard output, so you can concatenate them to get exactly what you want. For example, the above betterbib command is short for

betterbib-sync in.bib | betterbib-journal-abbrev | betterbib-format -b - out.bib

Sync

betterbib fetches data from

• Crossref (default) or
• DBLP (--source dblp).

All betterbib command-line options are explained in betterbib -h.

Format

The tool

betterbib-format in.bib out.bib

allows you to apply consistent formatting to you BibTeX file. See -h/--help for options.

(Un)abbreviate journal names

The tool

betterbib-journal-abbrev in.bib out.bib

allows you to apply consistent abbreviation of journal names. See -h/--help for options.

Installation

Python Package Index

betterbib is available from the Python Package Index, so simply type

pip install -U betterbib

to install or upgrade. Use sudo -H to install as root or the --user option of pip to install in $HOME.

Requirements

betterbib requires

• enchant and
• pandoc

to be installed.

Testing

To run the betterbib unit tests, check out this repository and type

pytest

Distribution

To create a new release

1. bump the __version__ number,

2. publish to PyPi and tag on GitHub:

   $ make publish
   

License

betterbib is published under the MIT license.