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JabRef is the leading desktop bilbiography management software. More and more users want to use a web based interface to collaborate. Instead of rewriting JabRef for the cloud or reimplementing web-based solutions, we want to create a new product offering a new way of collaboration.
We want JabRef and JabCloud working together to drive Science 2.0. The goal is to develop a web-based counterpart for JabRef. We believe that BibTeX is still the bibliography format to use, although BibLaTeX, BibTeXML, and CrossTeX are good alternatives.
Currently, there are two use cases of BibTeX files:
- (UC1) Store a bibliography of papers (for collecting, categorizing, commenting, putting in relation, sharing, using as related work for a publication)
- (UC2) Use as bibliography for a publication.
We see that the main issue of BibTeX usage is good BibTeX entries and derive following requirements:
- (R1) All fields filled correctly (authors, conference name, publisher, series, pages, DOI, URL).
- (R2) Fields stripped down for publication. For instance, ACM requires the page numbers, but they can be omitted for IEEE papers. IEEE uses different journal abbreviations than other publishers.
When managing a BibTeX file in the context of UC1, R1 is important and R2 not relevant at all. In the case of UC2, R2 is important and R1 not relevant at all.
Therefore, it must be possible to retrieve an excellent BibTeX entry for a paper and to convert that BibTeX entry according to requirements of the publisher. There are various sources for BibTeX entries, most notable Google Scholar and dblp. ResearchGate offers information on many papers, but does not offer a BibTeX entry at all. All in all, provided BibTeX entries mostly are incomplete or even wrong.
This project is in the planning phase. Please input your thoughts by editing this wiki or creating an issue.
This section lists features which are offered by a web interface and accessible by humans.
- Finding papers
- Editing of a BibTeX entry of a paper
- Vote for good/bad changes of a BibTeX entry of a paper (similar to the voting system of stackoverflow)
- Download a BibTeX entry
- Make a collection of BibTeX entries (personal BibTeX database)
- Share a subset of BibTeX entries
- Share PDF files to a closed user group
- Share comments on a paper to a closed user group
- Manage journal abbreviations
This section lists services which can be used by JabRef as client.
- Fetch a BibTeX entry
- Correction of local BibTeX file
- Possibly asking for acceptance of each change
- BibTeX file sent in and output a completed BibTeX file
- Minimalization of a BibTeX file
- E.g., having two lines for each entry for the final version of a paper. Method: Trial and error. Shorten Authors, shorten journal name, omit pages, omit editors, omit DOI, .... In other words: Usage of textool's
minify-bibtex-*commands
- E.g., having two lines for each entry for the final version of a paper. Method: Trial and error. Shorten Authors, shorten journal name, omit pages, omit editors, omit DOI, .... In other words: Usage of textool's
- PDF to BibTeX (similar to Mr.DLib or Docear's importer)
- Recommendation (similar to Docear's recommender)
- Show new citations of a paper
- Unique BibTeX keys. See #6.