My Bibliography

This repository contains software resources that help me manage my personal research library and generate bibliographies in my digital writing. I use tools like Zotero, Better BibTeX for Zotero, Zotfile, BibDesk, and Pandoc.

Scripts

Better BibTeX for Zotero citation key formula

• BBT_citation_key_format.txt

Example

key	citation
lee.etal2004_Deri-a	Benjamin Lee and Edward LiPuma, “Deriving the Derivative,” in Financial Derivatives and the Globalization of Risk (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), 107–40.

Explanation

First try to use the Short Title field (ShortTitle).

• authEtal2(clean=true).lower.replace(find="-",replace="").replace(find=/\..*/,replace='.etal')

  • authEtal2
    The last name of the first author, and the last name of the second author if there are two authors or ".etal" if there are more than two
  • .lower.replace(find="-",replace="").replace(find=/\..*/,replace='.etal')
    Lowercase. Remove any hyphens. Remove the second author. (Technically, remove everything after the first "." and replace it with ".etal".)

• year+len('>',5)
  4-digit year

• ShortTitle.skipwords.capitalize.len('>', 1).select(1,2).clean.replace(find="-",replace="").condense('').substring(1,4).prefix(_)

• Process the verbatim text of the Short Title field. Get the first four characters (of the first two words combined) and remove hyphens and spaces.

• postfix('#%(a)s')
  If duplicate cite keys exist, postfix it by adding '#' and a single lowercase letter.

• BookTitle.clean.replace(find=/[a-z0-9\s]+/g,replace="").condense('').substring(1,4).prefix('_')+extra(session).clean.len('>',0).prefix('.')
  For book chapters, additionally include the book title (abbr. in all caps) and chapter number.

If the Short Title field is empty, try doing the same thing using the Title field (shorttitle ).

The generator tries up to 8 different formulas to produce a cite key.

1. .match('.etal').len('<=',17) + Short title
   Use the first formula if there are more than one author, and the first author's last name is shorter than 12 characters.

2. .match('.etal').replace(find=/\..*/,replace='').substring(1,12).postfix('.etal') + Short title
   If there are more than one author and the their last name is longer than 12 characters, truncate after the first 12 and append ".etal"

3. .len('>',12).substring(1,12) + Short title
   If there is only one author and their last name is longer than than 12 characters, truncte it.

4. Entire last name of authors + Short title
   If there is only one author and their last name is not longer than 12 characters, use the entire name.

The final four attempts are the same as these first four, but they use the regular title instead of the short title.

ZotFile Settings

Delimiter between authors: &
Maximum number of authors: 2
Add suffix when authors are omitted: et al.

Advanced Settings

• Remove special charactes (diacritics) from filename

Renaming formula

File Name

{%a{ %y} -}{ %h| %W}{ @%O}

• %a – Author
• %y – Year
• { %h| %W} – Short title with fallback to safe title
  • %h – Short title
  • %W† – Title without semicolon
• %k† – Publication title (truncate after semicolon) (Book Section only)
• %O – Cite key for books. Empty for all other types.

†: Custom wildcard

Example

Lee & LiPuma 2004 - Financial Derivatives and the Globalization of Risk @lee.etal2004_Fina

Lee & LiPuma 2004 - Financial Derivatives and the Globalization of Risk - Global Flows and the Politics of Circulation

Subfolder Path

/ZotFile/%m{/%K}{/vol. %v}{/no. %e}/{p. %f - }{%C. }{%z|%Z|%b}

• %m† – Item type (uses "Book" for book section)
• %K† – Publication title (truncate after semicolon)
• %v – Volume
• %e – Issue
• %C† – Chapter (in "Extras" as chapter-number)
• {%z|%Z|%b} – Cite key, except books use title
  • %z – Book: short title
  • %Z – Book: title (truncate after semicolon)
  • %b – Cite key

Custom Wildcards

See ZotFile_wildcards.json in this repository.

• %B should be used for creating parent folders containing texts in an anthology or essay collection. It outputs text like bookTitle (year).
  • if there's an editor, it should include the editor. If there's no editor, assume it's a monograph and format like Author year - bookTitle.
    • for monographs, use :{%a %y - %B}
    • for anthologies/collections, use : {%d (eds.) %y - %B}
    • /ZotFile{/%d (eds.) %y - %B} or just /ZotFile{/%B (%y)}
• %P should be used for indicating the page numbers of book sections. Use it as an {option} wild-card in filenames. It makes alphabetical sorting more useful.
• %J behaves similarly to stock %j, but it replaces colons with dashes.
• %K is like %J or stock %j, but it removes everything after the semicolon. It returns the title of the book or journal that contains the item.
• %k is like %K, but it returns nothing for all types except Book Section. It returns the title of the book that contains the item and removes everything after the semicolon.
• %C is for chapter-number in the "Extras" field.
• %W is for formatting the title field to mimic the short title (?). Use it as a fallback for items without a short title.
• %m is exactly like %T, except it returns Book instead of Book Section.
• %Z and %z use the official Zotero variable citationKey for all item types except books. For books, they use the title and short title fields. Use this the path {/%K}{/%z|%Z|%b} to place book chapters and books in the same directory, named by the short book title. (dev note: If it fails for some reason, revert to the ZotFile variable citekey.)
• %O is empty for all types except books. For books, it uses the citation key. Attachments for all item types except books should be contained in a directory named by the citation key. Book attachments are in a directory named by the title, so add the citekey to the file directly.

See User defined wildcards in the ZotFile documentation for more details.

License

BBT_citation_key_format.txt and BTT_postscript.js are licensed under MIT License (following the precedent set by Better BibTeX for Zotero.

ZotFile_wildcards.json is licensed under GNU General Public License, version 3.0.