Bibliographic Conversion Tools

Introduction

This document is a list of programs that convert files between bibliography formats. It is part of a larger survey of bibliographic tools. I am trying to maintain this list, so if you see any errors or omissions, please send me mail at dana@acm.org. If any of the links don't work, please tell me at once, so I can find out why, and point it to an a different source if that one has disappeared.

The link associated with each entry is, in order of preference:

I no longer have a site available to me to archive large documents on, so I am only archiving the smaller scripts. If you need something mailed to you, I can do that also. The annotation field contains my comments on the packages. If there are multiple converters between formats and I have tried them out, this often contains my opinion as to which does the best job. Your mileage may vary.

Contents by material source

bp
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/bp/index.html

Author:
Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)
Version:
Alpha testing
Language:
Perl
Description:
A generic Perl library to handle bibliographies.
Maintained:
by author as of 21 Jan 95
Annotation:
Still in Alpha testing. Reads: BibTeX, Refer, Medline, Powells, IEEE. Writes: BibTeX, Refer.
ICA: Integrated Chameleon Architecture
http://www.sil.org/sgml/ica2.html

Author:
Sandra Mamrak, Conleth S. O'Connell, and Julie Barnes (I think)
Version:
1.6, February 1994
Language:
C?
Description:
A toolset for generating data translators. Includes samples for translating a SGML bibliography DTD to/from BibTeX and refer.
Maintained:
by authors and on mailing list as of 24 Feb 1994
Annotation:
I haven't looked at this. Also look at ICA announcement and FTP from archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/chameleon/.
BibDB
ftp://ftp.shsu.edu/tex-archive/biblio/bibtex/utils/bibdb/
or 1.5 Beta 4: ftp://ftp.tcisoft.com/tcisoft/BibDB/beta/bbdb15b4.zip

Author:
Eyal Doron (doron@mickey.mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Version:
1.5b2
Language:
DOS binary (Turbo Pascal)
Description:
Bibliography management program. Imports and exports BibTeX, Refer, Tib, Comma delimited, and ASCII.
Maintained:
by author as of 20 Jan 95
Annotation:
The version that supports multiple formats is still in Beta testing. The FTP site only contains version 1.4e (23 Aug 94).
r2b
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/index.html

Author:
Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)
Version:
0.9.3 (23 Dec 94)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts refer and tib to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 21 Jan 95
Annotation:
I believe this is the best converter for refer or tib to BibTeX, although it is not the fastest.
ref2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/bowen.tar.gz

Author:
Jonathan Bowen (Jonathan.Bowen@comlab.ox.ac.uk)
Version:
1.1 (Oct 88)
Language:
AWK/sed
Description:
Convert refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Pretty minimal. Peter King's updated version is better.
ref2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/king.tar.gz

Author:
Peter King, Heriot-Watt University
Version:
King (September 1992?)
Language:
AWK/sed
Description:
Converts refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
A pretty good converter. slightly different (older) version is also available.
refer-to-bibtex.el
ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/refer-to-bibtex/refer-to-bibtex.el

Author:
Henry Kautz (kautz%allegra.att.com@research.att.com)
Version:
12 Jan 89
Language:
emacs lisp
Description:
Converts refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Handy for emacs users, but very slow.
ttb
ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/refer-to-bibtex/tib-to-bibtex.shar

Author:
Ulrich Fastenrath
Version:
1.3 (15 Feb 90)
Language:
C
Description:
Converts tib to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Written in C, and very fast, but not very smart and makes bad citekeys.
refconvert
ftp://cs.arizona.edu/bib/bib-cite.tar.Z

Author:
John S. Rhoades
Version:
August 1988
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Don't bother. The output is not correct. This is part of a 2.4 megabyte package that includes bibliographies.
r2bib
ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/pu/r2bib/r2bib.trz

Author:
Rusty Wright, UCSD
Version:
28 September 86
Language:
C
Description:
Converts refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
no
Annotation:
Very fast, but poor conversion. An updated version by Rod Oldehoeft (rro@lll-crg.ARPA) and David Kotz (dfk@cs.duke.edu) is also available.
ref2bib.p
ftp://lth.se/pub/references/sources/ref2bib.p

Author:
Tom Schneider
Version:
1.46 (19 Jan 88)
Language:
Pascal
Description:
Converts refer to BibTeX.
Maintained:
no
Annotation:
Don't bother. It dies unless given minimal and perfectly standard refer files.
bibtex2refer
http://www.ira.uka.de/ftp/ira/bibliography/tools/bibtex2refer

Author:
Alf-Christian Achilles (achilles@ira.uka.de)
Version:
0.3 (25 Nov 94)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts BibTeX to refer.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
The best of the BibTeX to refer converters.
refer.bst
ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/refer-to-bibtex/refer.bst

Author:
Ciaran McHale (cjmchale@cs.tcd.ie)
Version:
4 Aug 90
Language:
BibTeX style file
Description:
Converts BibTeX to refer.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Not as nice as the more specific converters like bibtex2refer.
tex2refer
ftp://ftp.ai.mit.edu/pub/refer-to-bibtex/tex2refer

Author:
Bernd Fritzke (fritzke@immd2.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
Version:
August 1990
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts BibTeX to refer.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Not too bad.
bids2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/bids2bib

Author:
Rod Williams and Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk)
Version:
26 Jan 93
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts BIDS to BibTeX.
Maintained:
No.
Annotation:
BIDS is the ISI Data Service at Bath University. Does not handle references from ISTP. Some postprocessing necessary.
bids-to-bibtex
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/bids-to-bibtex

Author:
Anthony Stone (ajs1@phx.cam.ac.uk)
Version:
24 May 94
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts BIDS to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Takes BIDS B format.
embl2bibtex
ftp://umiacs.umd.edu/pub/biocomp/embl2bibtex.pl

Author:
Phillip J. Curtiss (curtiss@umiacs.umd.edu)
Version:
16 Jan 92
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts EMBL .dat files to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
EndNote to/from BibTeX
ftp://magic.ucsb.edu/pub/EndNote/import.utilities/BibTex/

Author:
Various authors
Version:
Language:
EndNote Style (Common Lisp)
Description:
Various styles for EndNote Plus that support import and export of BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
inspec.awk
ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/inspec.awk

Author:
Nelson H. F. Beebe (beebe@math.utah.edu)
Version:
1.00 (31 Aug 94)
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts INSPEC to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
Converts from IEEE INSPEC CD-ROM.
inspec2bibtex.el
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/inspec2bibtex.el

Author:
Ralph P. Sobek (ralph@laas.fr)
Version:
1.2 (1990)
Language:
Emacs lisp
Description:
Converts INSPEC to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
foc2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/index.html

Author:
Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)
Version:
0.1.1 (31 Aug 92)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts ISI Focus-On full+abstract database to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
Used on their "Focus on Global Change" databases.
marc2bibtex
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/marc2bibtex

Author:
Carl Kadie (kadie@cs.uiuc.edu)
Version:
22 April 93
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts MARC to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
This is a different MARC format than that returned by both Melvyl and Bibsys. It uses upper-case letter tags.
mathsci2bibtex
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/mathsci2bibtex

Author:
Ilya Zakharevich (ilya@math.mps.ohio-state.edu)
Version:
1.1 (19 Apr 93)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts MathSci to BibTeX.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
med2bib.pl
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/med2bib.pl

Author:
Patrick Weix (weix@netcom.com)
Version:
1.4 (10 July 94)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts Medlars Medline to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 10 July 94
Annotation:
I haven't tried it, but lots of other people have.
med2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/index.html

Author:
Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)
Version:
0.1.0 (9 Aug 92)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts BRS Medline to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
There are about 10 different "medline" formats. This program recognizes the BRS format.
medlin2bibtex
ftp://fly.bio.indiana.edu/help/medlin2bibtex.txt

Author:
John S. Garavelli (POSTMASTER@GUNBRF.BITNET)
Version:
1 May 91
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts Medline to BibTeX
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
Extremely minimal.
melvyl-to-bibtex.awk
ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/melvyl-to-bibtex.awk

Author:
Nelson H. F. Beebe (beebe@math.utah.edu)
Version:
30 Aug 94
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts a UC Melvyl search to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
Uses "long tags" format.
p2rm
no source site known

Author:
Mark Steckel (mjs@Hearth.org)
Version:
Pre-release (24 Jan 95)
Language:
C (Borland)
Description:
Converts Procite to RIS (Reference Manager).
Maintained:
by author as of 23 Jan 95
Annotation:
The author just wrote this and is interested in people to look over it. It is currently DOS only, although it should be able to be ported.
ris2bib
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/index.html

Author:
Dana Jacobsen (dana@acm.org)
Version:
0.2.2 (29 Aug 92)
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts RIS to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
RIS stands for Research Information Systems, Inc. They make the Reference Manager product.
comparch.awk
ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/comparch.awk

Author:
Nelson H. F. Beebe (beebe@math.utah.edu)
Version:
1.07 (30 Aug 94)
Language:
AWK
Description:
Converts ACM Computing Archives to BibTeX.
Maintained:
by author as of 12 Dec 94
Annotation:
Converts from the ACM Computing Archives CD-ROM.
cc2refer
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~jacobsd/bib/archives/cc2refer.pl
Author:
Dave Schweisguth (dcs@neutron.chem.yale.edu)
Version:
7 Jun 93
Language:
Perl
Description:
Converts Compact Cambridge Life Sciences (LSC) to Refer.
Maintained:
unknown
Annotation:
I don't know anything about this format. The author states that the format for the newer disks was expected to change.
There are a number of commercial packages that will do data conversion. Balboa Software provides Data Magician to "convert both to and from MARC and a variety of other formats, including ProCite,, Library Master, dBase, INMAGIC, delimited forms, tagged ASCII forms and many others."

Document Information

This document was hand generated. I used Arena 0.93x to view the document while it was being edited. Arena is an experimental browser for HTML3, and is not ready for prime-time (it has no forms support, for example). It does make very nice looking documents though -- better than XMosaic or NetScape.
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8 March 1995
Dana Jacobsen
dana@acm.org