JabRef is a reference management application designed primarily for researchers, students and writers using BibTeX and BibLaTeX. It stores bibliographic information in text-based databases that can be edited, exchanged and incorporated into LaTeX projects.
The application provides an extensive graphical environment for organising scholarly literature. It is useful for research projects involving large numbers of publications, particularly when bibliographic information must be collected from different databases and kept consistent.
JabRef combines reference editing with literature discovery and document management. Its workflow covers finding publications, correcting metadata, maintaining collections and generating citations for academic writing.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Native editing of BibTeX and BibLaTeX bibliographic databases.
- Search academic catalogues including Crossref, Google Scholar, PubMed, IEEE Xplore and arXiv.
- Retrieve reference metadata using DOI, ISBN, PubMed and arXiv identifiers.
- Extract bibliographic information from PDF documents.
- Organise entries into hierarchical groups using keywords, search criteria and manual assignments.
- Advanced search and filtering across bibliographic records.
- Detect duplicate entries and merge their bibliographic information.
- Automatically generate citation keys using configurable naming rules.
- Identify incomplete metadata and correct common bibliographic errors.
- Attach related documents and automatically rename or move files according to configurable patterns.
- Insert and format references in LibreOffice Writer and Microsoft Word.
- Send citation keys to LaTeX editors including Kile, LyX, TeXstudio and Vim.
- Format references using thousands of citation styles and custom export filters.
- Share reference collections using text files or database synchronisation.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: www.jabref.org
Support:
Developer: JabRef development team and contributors
License: MIT License

JabRef is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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