Using bibtool to fix your BibTeX databases.

2014-03-04

Downloading BibTeX citations from review sites (e.g. MathSciNet, WebOfKnowledge) doesn’t always get you consistent results. Sometimes the case is messed up, there are extra braces, etc. Or there is a note field showing the number of citations (which shows up in your final PDF output). Moreover the citation keys are often of the form MR673830, which is useless unless you’re a computer. Here’s an easy way to fix most of these problems using BibTool.

Here’s how you use it:

1. Create a ~/.bibtoolrsc file with your preferences. You can edit my preferences to suit your taste if you like.

2. Filter your bibliography through bibtool:

   bibtool < downloaded_refs.bib > cleaned_up_refs.bib
   

   Or, if you use vim you can just do

   :1,$!bibtool
   

   when editing your bibliography file.

3. That’s it. You might have to fix the case of a few words in the title here and there (e.g. writing {G}alton-{W}atson instead of Galton-Watson, etc.).

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