papers is a command-line bibliography manager for maintaining collections of research papers, PDF documents and BibTeX references. It provides a collection of commands for importing publications, organising document files and keeping bibliographic information consistent.
The software is designed around plain BibTeX files and conventional directories containing research documents. Users retain control over their reference data rather than storing it in an opaque application database. A single collection can be maintained for a particular project, or multiple bibliographies can be managed independently.
papers is especially useful for researchers working with LaTeX and terminal-based tools. It helps automate repetitive tasks such as collecting metadata, assigning consistent filenames and identifying problems with imported references.
The application also provides a mechanism for tracking changes to bibliography collections, making it possible to recover earlier states when references are accidentally modified or removed.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Import bibliographic entries from PDF documents, DOI identifiers and existing BibTeX records.
- Scan directories to add multiple PDF documents to a bibliography.
- Extract DOI information from PDF files.
- Retrieve bibliographic metadata using Crossref and Google Scholar searches.
- Maintain one or more BibTeX collections linked to PDF files.
- Rename and copy PDF documents using configurable bibliographic naming patterns.
- Search and filter references using keyword matching and bibliographic fields.
- Display results in different formats, including citation keys and BibTeX records.
- Add and modify tags associated with bibliography entries.
- Perform actions on matching references, including editing, deleting and renaming.
- Identify duplicate references and merge bibliography records.
- Check bibliographic metadata and correct inconsistent fields, DOI information and citation keys.
- Detect missing PDF attachments, duplicate files and broken document paths.
- Repair attachment paths associated with imported Mendeley bibliographies.
- Integrate with Git to maintain a history of bibliography modifications.
- Undo and redo changes to a reference library, with extended history available through Git tracking.
Website: github.com/perrette/papers
Support:
Developer: Mahé Perrette
License: MIT License
papers is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
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| Gorae | Terminal-based library manager for PDF and EPUB collections |
| CiteBib | Generate a Bibtex or LaTeX bibliography |
| bibclean | BiBTeX and Scribe bibliography prettyprinter and syntax checker |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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