Bibliography files are notoriously hard to work with. Betterbib contains a number of easy-to-use command-line tools to help.

• betterbib convert converts between different bibliography formats, e.g.

  • BibTeX
  • BibLaTeX
  • RIS
  • CSL-JSON

• betterbib sync syncs bibliography data with a number of online sources, e.g.,

  • Crossref
  • DBLP
  • PubMed
  • arXiv
  • Zenodo

• betterbib format formats your bibliography files to your liking. Can also (un)abbreviate author and journal names.

• betterbib doi-to converts a DOI or DOI URL to a bibliography entry.

Installation

Install betterbib from PyPI with

pip install betterbib

See here for licensing information.

Convert

Sync

Simply run

betterbib sync in.bib

to sync your bibliography file with online sources. For example, the input

@article{wiles,
title={Fermat Last Theorem},
doi={10.2307/2118559},
}

is converted to

@article{wiles,
  number = {3},
  doi = {10.2307/2118559},
  pages = {443},
  source = {Crossref},
  volume = {141},
  author = {Wiles, Andrew},
  year = {1995},
  month = may,
  url = {https://doi.org/10.2307/2118559},
  issn = {0003-486X},
  journal = {The Annals of Mathematics},
  publisher = {JSTOR},
  title = {Modular Elliptic Curves and Fermat's Last Theorem},
}

See -h/--help for all options.

betterbib sync -h

Usage: betterbib sync [-h] [-i] [-c N] [-s SRC] [-m MINIMUM_SCORE] [-q] [--debug]
                      [--output-format {bibtex,biblatex,csl-json,ris}]
                      infiles [infiles ...]

Positional Arguments:
  infiles               input bibliography files

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i, --in-place        modify infile in place
  -c, --num-concurrent-requests N
                        number of concurrent HTTPS requests (default: 5)
  -s, --sources SRC     sources to try (comma-separated, with order; default:
                        crossref,dblp,pubmed)
  -m, --minimum-score MINIMUM_SCORE
                        minimum score to count as a match (default: 0.0)
  -q, --quiet           don't show progress info (default: show)
  --debug               some debug output (default: false)
  --output-format {bibtex,biblatex,csl-json,ris}
                        force output format (default: same as input)

Format

After that, you can for example run

betterbib format in.bib --sort-fields --align-values --journal-names short --abbrev-first-names

to get

@article{wiles,
  author    = {Wiles, A.},
  doi       = {10.2307/2118559},
  issn      = {0003-486X},
  journal   = {Ann. Math.},
  month     = may,
  number    = {3},
  pages     = {443},
  publisher = {JSTOR},
  source    = {Crossref},
  title     = {Modular Elliptic Curves and Fermat's Last Theorem},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.2307/2118559},
  volume    = {141},
  year      = {1995},
}

betterbib format -h

Usage: betterbib format [-h] [-i] [--drop DROP] [--journal-names {long,short,unchanged}] [--abbrev-first-names]
                        [--sort-entries] [--sort-fields] [--doi-url-type {unchanged,old,new,short}]
                        [--page-range-separator PAGE_RANGE_SEPARATOR] [--protect-title-capitalization]
                        [--indent [INDENT]] [--align-values]
                        infiles [infiles ...]

Positional Arguments:
  infiles               input BibTeX files

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i, --in-place        modify infile in place
  --drop DROP           drop fields from entries (can be passed multiple times)
  --journal-names {long,short,unchanged}
                        force full or abbreviated journal names (default: unchanged)
  --abbrev-first-names  abbreviate first names in author lists etc. (default: false)
  --sort-entries        sort entries alphabetically by BibTeX key (default: false)
  --sort-fields         sort fields alphabetically (default: false)
  --doi-url-type {unchanged,old,new,short}
                        DOI URL (new: https://doi.org/<DOI>, short: https://doi.org/abcde) (default: new)
  --page-range-separator PAGE_RANGE_SEPARATOR
                        page range separator (int or string, default: unchanged)
  --protect-title-capitalization
                        brace-protect names in titles (e.g., {Newton}; default: false)
  --indent [INDENT]     indentation (int or string; default: 1)
  --align-values        align field values (default: false)

Dereference DOIs

Given a DOI or a DOI URL, it's often useful to generate a bibliography entry for it. betterbib doi-to does just that.

betterbib doi-to ris 10.1002/andp.19053221004

TY  - JOUR
IS  - 10
DO  - 10.1002/andp.19053221004
SP  - 891
EP  - 921
DS  - Crossref
VL  - 322
AU  - Einstein, A.
DA  - 1905/01
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.19053221004
SN  - 0003-3804
SN  - 1521-3889
JF  - Annalen der Physik
JO  - Ann. Phys.
PB  - Wiley
TI  - Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper
ER  -