As you begin writing academic papers, you will need to cite the work of other researchers. From the prior two posts in this series, you know about using LaTeX to typeset your paper, and using JabRef to store your bibliographic references. However, typing in all the citation information by hand is rather tedious. Your ability to search the research literature is greatly enhanced if your academic institution provides you with access to databases of the engineering literature (Engineering Village, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science). All of these services allow you to export bibliographic data to a file on your computer, which you can then import into JabRef. However, there is a better way: BibConverter.
The brainchild of Kjell Magne Fauske, BibConverter is a free online service that converts a web page of information into a BibTex reference. While you are browsing through one of the article databases, you will likely find a paper you want to reference. Instead of downloading a citation file, simply copy the entire web page to your desktop, go to BibConverter, and paste the clipboard contents into the provided box. Click on the “Convert” button, and now you have a valid BibTex reference, that will look something like this:
@ARTICLE{Kalman1960,
title = {New approach to linear filtering and prediction problems},
author = {Kalman, R. E.},
year = {1960},
volume = {82},
number = {1},
pages = {35--45},
month = mar,
abstract = {Classical Wiener problem (filtering and prediction) is re-examined in
discrete case using author's new ("state transition") method of
analysis of dynamic systems; general solution is developed in
terms of conditional expectations; this gives result of
greatest possible generality when only first and second-order
statistical averages are used; basic concepts of theory of
random processes reviewed.},
}
Copy this data to the clipboard, and go to JabRef. Create a new BibTex entry with “Ctrl+N”, select the “Article” entry type, and then replace the “BibTex Source” entry with your clipboard contents. Once you’ve done this once or twice, it will seem quite natural, and it saves you the time and mess of having to clean up all the citation files that will start to litter your system. You can even download a bookmarklet from the BibConverter site to save you the trouble of surfing to the BibConverter site and selecting the proper database format. This service has saved me hours of time over the past several years.
[Note: IEEE Xplore recently changed it’s online format, and it looks like BibConverter is currently unable to process data from that service.]