bibtex-janitor

name: bibtex-janitor description: Clean and standardize .bib files for AER/QJE economics journal submissions

BibTeX Janitor

Cleans and standardizes BibTeX files for economics journal submissions (AER, QJE, etc.).

Usage

/clean-bib path/to/references.bib

What it does

1. Journal Names: Standardizes to full formal names (e.g., 'JPE' → 'Journal of Political Economy')
2. Title Casing: Applies Title Case and wraps acronyms in braces ({GDP}, {USA})
3. Field Pruning: Removes abstract, keywords, issn, file, mendeley-groups
4. URL/DOI: Keeps only for @techreport/@unpublished, removes from @article
5. NBER Format: Ensures @techreport with proper institution field
6. Validation: Checks for missing mandatory fields

Requirements

pip install bibtexparser

Implementation

Core Functions

• load_bib(filepath): Load and parse BibTeX files using bibtexparser
• save_bib(bib_db): Convert parsed database back to properly formatted BibTeX
• apply_title_case(entry): Apply title case with special handling for acronyms and proper names
• standardize_journal_names(entry): Map journal abbreviations to full formal names
• prune_fields(entry): Remove metadata fields (abstract, keywords, file, etc.)
• handle_url_doi(entry): Conditionally keep URLs only for @techreport/@unpublished types
• ensure_nber_format(entry): Convert NBER papers to @techreport with proper institution field
• validate_entry(entry): Check for required fields by entry type
• clean_entry(entry): Orchestrate all cleaning operations on a single entry
• clean_bib_file(filepath, in_place=False): Apply all cleaning to entire file

Supported Entry Types

• @article: Journal papers (removes URLs, standardizes journal names)
• @techreport: Working papers and technical reports (preserves URLs)
• @book: Books (validates publisher field)
• @inproceedings / @incollection: Conference papers (validates booktitle field)