bibslurp.el — retrieve BibTeX entries from NASA ADS

bibslurp provides an easy way to find BibTeX entries from the NASA ADS server and to copy them into your local database. All from within emacs!

We have tried to make bibslurp as simple and as unobtrusive as possible, with advanced features available when you need them. We hope you like the interface!

News:

Sadly, ADS Classic is dead. bibslurp used to parse the simple HTML structure of ADS Classic to make it available in Emacs. However, the new ADS runs completely on (non-free) Javascript, and so the old code has stopped working.

This repo contains a new version of bibslurp which uses the official APIs attempting to provide the same functionalities the old bibslurp had (and maybe more in the future).

What is working at the moment:

• Simple search (limited to first few results)
• Copy a bibtex entry pressing return
• Show the abstract pressing “a” on an entry

To use the new bibslurp a API key is necessary. A key can be obtained following the instructions here. Next, the variable ads-auth-token has to be set:

(setq ads-auth-token "XXXX")

TODO:

• [ ] Remove sync statements
• [ ] Use pager in the results instead of asking for all the rows
• [ ] Instead of journal name, put actual journal info in abstract
• [ ] If scrolling with “n”, the last result is only partially displayed

Legacy:

Example usage:

1. add an entry to a bibtex buffer:

   M-x bibslurp-query-ads RET ^Quataert 2008 RET
       

   Type the corresponding number and hit RET:

   1 RET
   q
   C-y
       

   Alternatively, you can navigate to the abstract you want with the n and p keys, or search in the buffer with s or r, and then press

   RET
   q
   C-y
       

Description:

Creating a BibTeX file is one of the more tedious aspects of writing a paper. The NASA ADS system (http://adswww.harvard.edu/) helps a lot by making bibliography data available and easy to find, but there’s still the matter of copying and pasting it into your local database. Since I find that process annoying, I wrote BibSlurp, a set of emacs functions to speed it along.

BibSlurp enables you to query nasa ads without leaving emacs. As an example, typing M-x bibslurp-query-ads RET white rees RET brings up the following buffer: (the search string is sent directly to ADS, so things like ^white rees or ^white 1978 will also work as expected.)

Let’s say I want to add the second paper to my .bib database. All I have to do is hit 2 RET (or simply RET if point is on that entry). After waiting for the appropriate files to download, BibSlurp responds with the message saved bibtex entry to kill ring.

From here, hitting q takes me back to my .bib file, where I can yank the entry with C-y: (note that bibslurp automatically generates a label for the entry)

If I’m not sure which paper I want, I can pull up the abstract by hitting 2 a (or simply a if point is already on the wanted abstract). From there, q takes me back to the search results.

Advanced search

You can turn to the ADS advanced search interface, akin to http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html, either by pressing C-c C-c after having issued bibslurp-query-ads, or directly with M-x bibslurp-query-ads-advanced-search RET. This pulls up a buffer like this:

Here you can fill the wanted search fields (authors, publication date, objects, title, abstract) and specify combination logics, and then send the query either with C-c C-c or by pressing the button Send Query. Use TAB to move through fields, and q outside an input field to quit the search interface.

Other features

In the ADS search result buffer you can also visit some useful pages related to each entry:

• on-line data at other data centers, with d
• on-line version of the selected article, with e
• on-line articles in PDF or Postscript, with f
• lists of objects for the selected abstract in the NED database, with N
• lists of objects for the selected abstract in the SIMBAD database, with S
• on-line pre-print version of the article in the arXiv database, with x

For each of these commands, BibSlurp will use by default the abstract point is currenly on, but you can specify a different abstract by prefixing the command with a number. For example, 7 x will fire up your browser to the arXiv version of the seventh abstract in the list.

Installation:

Use package.el. You’ll need to add MELPA to your archives:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)

Alternatively, you can just save this file and do the standard

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/bibslurp.el")
(require 'bibslurp)

Note that bibslurp requires the s and dash libraries. If you install bibslurp manually, you need to make sure you also have these in place.

You might consider giving it a keybinding, e.g.

(global-set-key (kbd "C-x M-b") 'bibslurp-query-ads)

License

Copyright (C) 2013-2015 authors

written by Mike McCourt and Mosè Giordano

license: GPLv3

TODO:

1. Look into using an xml parser instead of regular expressions