Collecting Citations from Text
Rebecca Hedreen
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Abstract
Basic steps and scripts used for translating text citations to bibtex files suitable for loading into citation management software or citation analysis scripts. 4 publically available webpage mounted scripts are suggested, that require no programming.
Updated in April 2023 to include a ChatGPT option
Steps
Preparing text file
Copy citations from the source document(s) into a text (.txt) document.
Edit the text document so that each citation is on a separate line with one blank line between each citation. Not all the scripts require a blank line between citations, but it does improve readability and importing.
Processing citations
I've found 4 web-mounted scripts that will do text file to bibtex file translation. Only one is needed to produce a bib file - different text citation formats may work better in different systems, however.
Anystyle.io can be used on the web, or as a Ruby script. This is the most flexible script and it allows detailed editing before the final file export. The website is privately hosted, so it's not always been available. https://anystyle.io/
Software
| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| Anystyle.io | NAME |
| https://github.com/inukshuk/anystyle | REPOSITORY |
| Sylvester Keil, inukshuk on github | DEVELOPER |
| https://anystyle.io/ | LINK |
This PERL script is mounted on a website and will do basic translation. No support, but it's quite good. http://www.snowelm.com/~t/doc/tips/makebib.perl.cgi
Software
| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| makebib.perl script | NAME |
| Makino Takaki | DEVELOPER |
| http://www.snowelm.com/~t/doc/tips/makebib.en.html | LINK |
Hosted by the University of Toronto. Requires registration. Basic editing and checking in Google Scholar is available. Accurate and reliable. https://text2bib.economics.utoronto.ca/
Software
| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| Text2Bib | NAME |
| J. O. Martin and Fabian Qifei Bai | DEVELOPER |
| https://text2bib.economics.utoronto.ca/ | LINK |
ChatGPT can take text citations, even with errors or in non-standard formats, and format them as bibtex with high accuracy. While it is not required to process the text as much as for the other services, it may make it easier to be sure you are getting the correct number of fully formatted citations. The following prompt has worked well, but variations should work as well.
#ChatGPT Produce bibtex
"Generate bibtex formatting for the following citations. Put all the bibtex in one place for easier copying." Paste the citations following the prompt.
Software
| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | NAME |
| https://chat.open.ai | REPOSITORY |
| OpenAI | DEVELOPER |
| 3.5 | VERSION |
Export
Once the script has exported a .bib file, load it into your citation manager of choice. Zotero has been the most reliable for importing. Zotero also has an option to "Import from Clipboard" if the output is available for copy & paste.
Software
| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| Zotero | NAME |
| Zotero | DEVELOPER |
| http://www.zotero.org | LINK |
