Novus Convert
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Data format

BIB converter

A .bib file is a BibTeX database: a list of records, each opening with an @type and a citation key and then a set of field = {value} pairs. It separates what a reference *is* from how a journal wants it printed, which is the whole idea.

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Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where BIB comes from

Oren Patashnik and Leslie Lamport created BibTeX in 1985 as LaTeX's bibliography companion. Its insight — store the data once, let a style file decide the formatting — is why a paper can be retargeted from one journal's citation style to another's by changing a single line. The format has been effectively frozen since 1988; BibLaTeX later extended the field vocabulary substantially while keeping the same syntax, and every reference manager can export it.

How BIB works

  • Each record is @type{key, field = {value}, ...}, where the type (article, book, inproceedings, misc) determines which fields are required.
  • Braces protect capitalisation: {DNA} survives a style that would otherwise lowercase it, which is the format's most-missed subtlety.
  • @string definitions allow macro substitution, and concatenation with # joins values — features that make naive parsing insufficient.
  • Author lists are separated by the literal word 'and', not commas, and each name may be written in several equivalent orders.
  • Page ranges conventionally use a double hyphen, which LaTeX renders as an en dash.

When to use BIB

  • Managing references for LaTeX papers and theses
  • Exchanging citation libraries between Zotero, Mendeley, JabRef and EndNote
  • Converting a bibliography to RIS for a reference manager that prefers it
  • Turning a reference list into JSON or CSV for analysis

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Separates data from presentation, so citation style is a late decision
  • Plain text, diffable, and readable without any tool
  • Universally exportable from every reference manager in use

Limitations

  • No formal specification, so parsers disagree at the edges
  • Name parsing is genuinely hard and frequently wrong
  • Unicode handling depends on the engine; older workflows still expect escaped accents

Compatibility

LaTeX, BibLaTeX, Zotero, Mendeley, JabRef, EndNote, Overleaf and Google Scholar all read or write BibTeX. Novus Convert normalises records through a bounded citation model locally — without executing string macros or loading external files — and converts to RIS, JSON and CSV.

All standard bibliographic fields are carried into the JSON output; CSV flattens them to one row per record.

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