JabRef: Java GUI for managing BibTeX and other bibliographies
I’ve been searching for an Open Source alternative of Endnote. It’s partially philosophical, but mostly because its interface is so bad.
There are few projects on SourceForge. BibDesk is very popular on MacOS. On the windows side, there is surprisingly little effort. So far the most promising is JabRef: Java GUI for managing BibTeX and other bibliographies
JabRef is a graphical frontend to manage BibTeX databases, the standard LaTeX bibliography reference format. JabRef is build to be platform independant (requires Java >= 1.4.2). It merges and extends the functionalities of BibKeeper (Morten O. Alver) and JBibtexManager (Nizar Batada).
I dislike java in general, but this one seems to work quite ok. The 1.7 version is about 3M, and it started without problems, which to me is a pretty rare experience with Java.
Importing references from Endnote to JabRef is possible, but not easy. Despite the "Import->Endnote" mene item, JabRef does not read the native Endnote library file format. I tried EndNote’s XML and RIS format. Neither worked, and the program hanged in both cases. Had to do BibTex export to a text file. JabRef was able to read all entries, and journal articles works, but not books and chapters. Titles and other fileds are missing. I haven’t had time to check whether the problem was with Endnote’s BibTex output filter or JabRef’s import filter.
It’s output layout can be specified. It does not have an APA format with it, but I suspect that’s fairly easy to mock up.
So far my biggest concern is that it’s written for the workflow of LaTex and alike. Most people in Psychology uses MS Word or WordPerfect. APA and LaTex does not mix as well as with M$ products, although there are some LaTex APA files floating on the net. [links to come]
What should I do now?
I guess I will stick with Endnote for now. Meanwhile, I hope someone would be interested in integrating JabRef with CiteULike, which is primarily based on BibTex, too. To LaTex or not to LaTex, it’s the real question…
May 3rd, 2005 at 12:27 pm e
Perhaps this is just too obvious, but why use Endnote et.al.?
I use to manage my bibliographies as simple OpenOffice/StarOffice text documents.
I’m not even using OOo’s internal bibliography function.
Am I missing something vital?
May 3rd, 2005 at 1:10 pm e
JabRef bibliography manager
An entry in Gay Feng’s weblog made try out an OpenSource alternative to the commercial Endnote: JabRef
Pros:
platform independence through Java
OpenSource
starts faster on my machine than StarOffice 7/OpenOffice.org 1.1.4
Cons:
I s…
May 4th, 2005 at 9:06 am e
I haven’t used OpenOffice for a while since I last tried it — M$ gives a pretty attractive discount for universities and Office comes as standard installation. Just lazy to uninstall it.
Anyway, having 2000+ references in a text file is not easy to manage, particularly if you want to keep reading notes in there, too. I am not saying Endnote is good, but it’s at least makes it possible.
One nice thing about Endnote is that you can define the output format. American Psychological Association has a very stringent requirement for style. But that can be done in JabRef, too, if I knew Java. For a while I kept all references in an XML file and made XSL/CSS styles that gave me the APA style reference list. I waited for a common XML standard for refereces to evolve (there are a few, including the PubMed XML), but I lost interest in that.
I think time is close to moving beyond Endnote. CiteULike is a promising way to manage and share references and reading notes. Something like JabRef could be extended to output things other than BibTex. There is a good chance we can link desktop reference managers with on-line communities such as CiteULike. The down side of the 2 systems mentioned above is that they (more or less) are based on BibTex, which is not something social scientists will adopt for years. An alternative format/work flow should be supported.
– gary
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:42 am e
Jabref does import the endnote file, but this file should be the plain text export not XML or binary. One great feature of jabref is the grouping feature which is quite helpful when you have many references. Finally, there are talks about working on jabref to implement a feature that will allow direct “push” references into openoffice.
June 23rd, 2005 at 6:00 pm e
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November 1st, 2005 at 6:41 pm e
Switching to LATEX from the highly unreliable Word is the best thing that I ever did. I must admit that to begin it is quite daunting since most of the documentation for LATEX is too complex. However found that ‘Tex for the impatient’ is a pretty good intro. In the case you are using LATEX, JabRef totally Rocks!
July 6th, 2006 at 7:23 pm e
I have just started using LyX and Jabref and I’m quite pleased with the combination. I use jabref to create a standard bibtex database, and let LyX handle the APA formatting, as it is built in to the software. Not sure if this was how it was intended, but it works for me. (At least it did once I figured it out, because I could not find any documentation for it anywhere, took some trial and error). It’s far superior to Endnote + Word or OO.o.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pm e
The advice at http://jabref.sourceforge.net/help/OpenOfficeHelp.php worked brilliantly for me!
I have a JabRef bibliography (which is native BibTeX so immediately usable in LaTeX) and an OpenOffice database called Bibliography, set up as explained in the link above, and implemented as an ods spreadsheet.
The neat thing about this is that every time I add a reference to my JabRef bibliography, I export it as a spreadsheet (the same file that is the OpenOffice bibliography database) and next time I need to add references to my documents, the database contains the new reference!
August 26th, 2008 at 8:25 am e
Could some one guide me how to import a search from pubmed to jabref.
I saved the xml file from pubmed and try to import using Jabref. But the error message came ” No entries found, make sure u are using the correct filter”
Please help
Dj