citation-grabber

name: citation-grabber description: Search for scientific papers and fetch citations in BibTeX or NBIB format from PubMed and CrossRef version: 1.1.0 usage: citation-grabber [--format bibtex|nbib] [--output ] [--quiet] metadata: openclaw: emoji: "📚" os: ["darwin", "linux", "win32"] requires: bins: ["python3"] python: ">=3.8" install: - id: pip-deps kind: pip packages: ["requests>=2.25.0"] label: "Install Python dependencies"

Citation Grabber

Instantly fetch scientific paper citations from the command line.

Features

🔍 Search by title, DOI, or PubMed ID
📚 Supports BibTeX and NBIB output formats
🔄 Dual source: PubMed + CrossRef
📦 Batch processing from text files
✨ Smart fallback between data sources

Installation

The skill automatically ensures dependencies are installed. Manual installation:

pip3 install requests>=2.25.0

Usage

Single Paper

By Title:

python3 citation.py "Attention Is All You Need"

By DOI:

python3 citation.py "10.1038/nature14539"

By PubMed ID:

python3 citation.py "12345678"

Output Formats

BibTeX (Default):

python3 citation.py "Deep Learning" --format bibtex

NBIB (PubMed Format for EndNote/Zotero):

python3 citation.py "COVID-19 vaccine" --format nbib

Batch Processing

Create a file papers.txt with paper titles/DOIs/PMIDs (one per line):

Attention Is All You Need
10.1038/nature14539
Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition

Process all at once:

python3 citation.py papers.txt --output references.bib

Save to File

python3 citation.py "Paper Title" --output my_citations.bib

Quiet Mode

Suppress progress messages (useful for scripting):

python3 citation.py "Paper Title" --quiet

Command-Line Options

Option	Short	Description	Default
`--format`		Output format: `bibtex` or `nbib`	`bibtex`
`--output`	`-o`	Save to file instead of stdout	stdout
`--quiet`	`-q`	Suppress progress messages	`false`
`--version`		Show version and exit	-
`--help`	`-h`	Show help message	-

Examples

Get BibTeX for a Classic Paper:

python3 citation.py "The structure of DNA"

Get NBIB for a Medical Paper:

python3 citation.py "COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness" --format nbib

Process a List of Papers:

# Create papers.txt
echo "Attention Is All You Need" > papers.txt
echo "BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers" >> papers.txt
echo "Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition" >> papers.txt

# Fetch all citations
python3 citation.py papers.txt --output all_refs.bib

Silent Mode for Scripts:

python3 citation.py "10.1038/nature14539" --quiet > paper.bib 2>/dev/null

How It Works

Auto-Detection: Identifies input type (title, DOI, or PMID)
Smart Search:
- Direct DOI → Fetch from doi.org
- Direct PMID → Fetch from PubMed
- Title search → Try CrossRef first, fallback to PubMed
Robust Fallback: If one source fails, automatically tries the other

Tips

For biomedical papers, use --format nbib to get PubMed-native format
For LaTeX/Overleaf, use default --format bibtex
Use DOI or PMID when available for faster and more accurate results
Create a papers.txt file to manage your bibliography systematically

Troubleshooting

No citation found:

Verify the paper title is correct (check for typos)
Try using DOI or PMID instead of title
Some older papers may not be in digital databases

Timeout errors:

Check your internet connection
APIs may be temporarily unavailable
Try again after a few moments

Wrong paper returned:

Use more specific titles
Prefer DOI or PMID for exact matching
Verify the returned citation before use

Requirements

Python 3.8 or higher
requests library (auto-installed by skill)
Internet connection

Version History

1.1.0: Complete rewrite with type hints, better error handling, comprehensive tests
1.0.0: Initial release