Clean and sort a .bib file, or build an entry from a DOI, an arXiv ID, a PubMed ID or an ISBN.
Tip. Clean your .bib file here, then upload it directly to Overleaf via New Project → Upload Project, or paste it into your Overleaf bibliography file. The DOI, arXiv, and PubMed lookups give you correctly-formatted entries in one click.
A .bib file that has passed through a reference manager, two co-authors and a few copy-pastes from publisher sites stops being readable: three indentation styles, the same paper under two keys, abstracts that run for half a page. The cleaner parses the file and writes it back in one consistent form. Figure 2 shows the effect on a small example.
@book{lamport1994, title={{LaTeX}: A Document Preparation System},
author={Leslie Lamport}, publisher={Addison-Wesley},
year=1994, edition={2},
file={:home/me/books/lamport.pdf:pdf}}
@article{knuth1984,
author = {Donald E. Knuth},
title = {Literate Programming},
journal = {The Computer Journal},
volume = 27, number = 2, pages = {97--111},
year = {1984},
doi = {10.1093/comjnl/27.2.97},
abstract = {The author and his associates ...}
}
@article{Knuth84copy,
title={Literate programming}, author={Knuth, Donald E.},
journal={Comput. J.}, year={1984},
doi={10.1093/COMJNL/27.2.97}
}@ARTICLE{knuth1984,
author = {Knuth, Donald E.},
title = {Literate Programming},
journal = {The Computer Journal},
year = {1984},
volume = {27},
number = {2},
pages = {97--111},
doi = {10.1093/comjnl/27.2.97}
}
@BOOK{lamport1994,
author = {Lamport, Leslie},
title = {{LaTeX}: A Document Preparation System},
year = {1994},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
edition = {2}
}Whatever the options, entry types are written in capitals, fields are put in a fixed order with the equals signs aligned, and every value is wrapped in braces. Table 1 lists the four settings above the editor.
| Option | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Sort entries | By key | Orders the entries by citation key, by year (newest first) or by entry type. Don't sort keeps the order of the file. |
| Fields to strip | abstract, file, mendeley-tags | Deletes the listed fields from every entry. Reference managers add them; a bibliography style never prints them. |
| Remove duplicates | On | Two entries with the same DOI are one reference. Without a DOI, the titles are compared, ignoring case and punctuation. The first entry is kept and each removal is reported. |
| Normalize authors | On | Rewrites author and editor names as Last, First. Names that already contain a comma, and names protected by braces, are left alone. |
Table 1. Options of the cleaner.
The four other tabs build a single entry from an identifier, by asking the registry that holds the record. Nothing is guessed or generated. Only need one converter? Each has its own page, listed in Table 2.
Table 2. The four lookups, their data source and their dedicated page.
Nowhere. The cleaner runs entirely in your browser: the .bib file you paste or upload is never sent to a server. A lookup sends the identifier you typed, and nothing else, to fetch the record.
None of the BibTeX tools needs an account, and there is no limit on the size of the file beyond what your browser can hold.