BibTeX Updater

Tools for managing BibTeX bibliographies: automatically update preprints to published versions, validate references against external databases, and filter to only cited references.

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install bibtex-updater

# With Google Scholar support
pip install bibtex-updater[scholarly]

# With Zotero support
pip install bibtex-updater[zotero]

# All optional dependencies
pip install bibtex-updater[all]

From Source (Recommended)

git clone https://github.com/rpatrik96/bibtexupdater.git
cd bibtexupdater
uv sync --extra dev --extra all

Using uv (No Installation)

Run directly without cloning using uv:

# Run any command directly
uv run --with "bibtex-updater[all]" bibtex-update references.bib -o updated.bib

# Or use the provided wrapper script
./scripts/bibtex-x update references.bib -o updated.bib
./scripts/bibtex-x check references.bib
./scripts/bibtex-x filter paper.tex -b references.bib -o filtered.bib

CLI Commands

Command	Description
bibtex-update	Replace preprints with published versions
bibtex-check	Validate references exist with correct metadata
bibtex-filter	Filter to only cited entries
bibtex-zotero	Update preprints in Zotero library
bibtex-zotero-organize	Organize Zotero items into collections by research taxonomy
bibtex-obsidian-keywords	AI-powered keyword generation for Obsidian paper notes

Quick Start

Update Preprints

# Update preprints to published versions
bibtex-update references.bib -o updated.bib

# Preview changes (dry run)
bibtex-update references.bib --dry-run --verbose

Validate References (Fact-Check)

# Check if references exist and have correct metadata
bibtex-check references.bib --report report.json

# Strict mode: exit with error if hallucinated/not-found entries
bibtex-check references.bib --strict

Filter Bibliography

# Filter to only cited entries
bibtex-filter paper.tex -b references.bib -o filtered.bib

# Multiple tex files
bibtex-filter *.tex -b references.bib -o filtered.bib

Update Zotero Library

# Set credentials (get from zotero.org/settings/keys)
export ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID="your_user_id"
export ZOTERO_API_KEY="your_api_key"

# Preview changes
bibtex-zotero --dry-run

# Apply updates
bibtex-zotero

Sync BibTeX Updates to Zotero

When updating a .bib file, you can simultaneously update matching entries in your Zotero library:

# Set Zotero credentials
export ZOTERO_LIBRARY_ID="your_user_id"
export ZOTERO_API_KEY="your_api_key"

# Update bib file AND sync to Zotero
bibtex-update references.bib -o updated.bib --zotero

# Preview Zotero changes only (bib changes still apply)
bibtex-update references.bib -o updated.bib --zotero --zotero-dry-run

# Limit to a specific Zotero collection
bibtex-update references.bib -o updated.bib --zotero --zotero-collection ABCD1234

The sync matches bib entries to Zotero items by:

1. arXiv ID - Most reliable for preprints
2. DOI - For preprints with DOIs (e.g., bioRxiv)
3. Title + Author - Fuzzy matching as fallback

Standalone Scripts

For environments without pip (e.g., Overleaf), filter_bibliography.py can be used directly as it has no dependencies:

# Copy the script and run directly
python filter_bibliography.py paper.tex -b references.bib -o filtered.bib

Documentation

Document	Description
docs/BIBTEX_UPDATER.md	Full BibTeX updater documentation
docs/REFERENCE_FACT_CHECKER.md	Full reference fact-checker documentation
docs/ZOTERO_UPDATER.md	Full Zotero updater documentation
docs/FILTER_BIBLIOGRAPHY.md	Full filter documentation
docs/LANDSCAPE.md	Databases, competing tools, and ecosystem landscape
examples/	Example workflows and configuration files

Overleaf Integration

Both tools integrate with Overleaf via GitHub Actions or latexmkrc.

GitHub Actions (Recommended)

1. Enable GitHub sync in Overleaf (Menu -> Sync -> GitHub)
2. Copy a workflow from examples/workflows/ to .github/workflows/
3. Changes synced from Overleaf automatically trigger updates

latexmkrc (Direct Overleaf)

For filter_bibliography.py only (no dependencies required):

1. Upload filter_bibliography.py to your Overleaf project
2. Create .latexmkrc based on examples/latexmkrc
3. Recompile - filtered bibliography appears in your file list

Features

BibTeX Updater (bibtex-update)

• Multi-source resolution: arXiv, OpenAlex, Europe PMC, Crossref, DBLP, ACL Anthology, Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar
• High accuracy: Title and author fuzzy matching with confidence thresholds
• ACL Anthology support: Zero-overhead resolution for NLP papers (ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, etc.)
• Batch processing: Multiple files with concurrent workers (default: 8)
• Deduplication: Merge duplicates by DOI or normalized title+authors
• Smart caching: On-disk cache + semantic resolution cache with TTL
• Per-service rate limiting: Optimized rate limits per API (Crossref, S2, DBLP, ACL Anthology, arXiv, OpenAlex, Europe PMC)
• Batch API support: Faster bulk lookups via arXiv/S2/Crossref batch endpoints
• Resolution tracking: --mark-resolved tags updated entries to skip on re-runs

Zotero Updater (bibtex-zotero)

• Direct Zotero integration: Fetches and updates items via Zotero API
• Same resolution pipeline: Uses the same multi-source resolution
• Preserves metadata: Keeps notes, tags, and attachments intact
• Idempotent: Already-published papers are automatically skipped
• Dry-run mode: Preview changes before applying
• Tag-based chunking: Track processing state with preprint-upgraded/preprint-checked/preprint-error tags

Zotero Organizer (bibtex-zotero-organize)

• AI-powered taxonomy: Organize items into hierarchical collections automatically
• Multiple backends: Claude, OpenAI, or local embeddings for classification
• Caching: Classification results cached to reduce API calls
• Batch processing: Configurable limits and dry-run mode

Obsidian Keywords (bibtex-obsidian-keywords)

• AI-powered keywords: Generate [[wikilinks]] for Obsidian paper notes
• Multiple backends: Claude, OpenAI, or local embeddings
• Smart skipping: --min-keywords to skip notes that already have enough keywords
• Topics file: Provide existing topics for consistent tagging across notes
• Dry-run mode: Preview changes before modifying files

Reference Fact-Checker (bibtex-check)

• Multi-source validation: Crossref, DBLP, Semantic Scholar
• Detailed mismatch detection: Title, author, year, venue comparisons
• Hallucination detection: Identifies likely fabricated references
• Structured reports: JSON and JSONL output formats
• CI/CD integration: Strict mode with exit codes for automation

Filter Bibliography (bibtex-filter)

• Zero dependencies: Uses only Python standard library
• Works on Overleaf: No pip install needed
• Multiple bib files: Merge and filter from multiple sources
• Citation detection: Supports natbib, biblatex, and standard LaTeX citations

Python API

from bibtex_updater import Detector, Resolver, Updater, HttpClient, RateLimiter, DiskCache

# Create HTTP client with rate limiting and caching
rate_limiter = RateLimiter(req_per_min=30)
cache = DiskCache(".cache.json")
http_client = HttpClient(
    timeout=30.0,
    user_agent="bibtex-updater/0.5.0",
    rate_limiter=rate_limiter,
    cache=cache
)

# Detect preprints
detector = Detector()
detection = detector.detect(entry)

if detection.is_preprint:
    # Resolve to published version
    resolver = Resolver(http_client)
    candidate = resolver.resolve(detection)

    if candidate and candidate.confidence >= 0.9:
        # Update the entry
        updater = Updater()
        updated_entry = updater.update_entry(entry, candidate.record, detection)

Development

# Clone and install in development mode
git clone https://github.com/rpatrik96/bibtexupdater.git
cd bibtexupdater
uv sync --extra dev --extra all

# Run tests
uv run pytest tests/ -v

# Run tests with coverage
uv run pytest tests/ -v --cov=bibtex_updater --cov-report=term-missing

# Code quality
pre-commit run --all-files

# Build package
uv build

# Check package
uv run twine check dist/*

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.