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Logseq Citations Plugin

BREAKING CHANGE in 2.0.0

• Version 2.0.0 had a breaking change. You will have to reconfigure the .bib export. It now has to be located in .logseq/storage/logseq-citation-manager and in settings, you just give the filename with extension(like starred-items.bib), no need for the file path.

Installation

• This plugin can be installed from the Logseq marketplace

Features

• Supports customisable page and block templates
• Supports embedding and linking to Bibtex items in the form of pages and links
• Supports Zotero, Paperpile and other applications with supports for .bib references
• Supports aliases for the links to the reference
• 100% local
• Performant with over 6000 references!

Instructions

1. Install the plugin
2. Configure templates, you can use the provided templates here for inspiration. Templates have to be added on a per graph basis.
3. Configure settings
4. Call the citation insertion UI
   • Use /Create Inline Literature Note to insert a literature note inline based on a block template. Also callable via mod+shift+I
   • Use /Create Inline Link to Lit Note to create a page following a specific template and insert a link(optionally aliased) in the currrent block. Also callable via mod+shift+L
   • Use /Search and open reference as page to search for a reference and create it as a page following a specific template if it doesn't already exist. Also callable via mod+shift+o
5. Select the reference using the keyboard or mouse
6. Watch as your action is performed!

Paperpile

• For usage with paperpile, create a synced export to the .bib format
• Use a sync provider to make it persist on desktop

Zotero

• If you use Zotero with [Better BibTeX]
  • Select a collection in Zotero's left sidebar that you want to export.
  • Click File -> Export library .... Select Better BibLaTeX or Better CSL JSON as the format. (We recommend using the BibLaTeX export unless you experience performance issues. The BibLaTeX format includes more information that you can reference from logseq, such as associated PDF attachments, but loads more slowly than the JSON export.)
  • You can optionally choose "Keep updated" to automatically re-export the collection -- this is recommended!

Configuration

• This plugin has a variety of configuration options
• citationReferenceDB
  • This path is the directory where your .bib database is located
• smartsearch
  • This is a toggle that allows you to use fuzzy search for the search, depends on your own use case and preference.
• indexAbstract
  • This is a toggle that allows you to index the abstract of the reference in the search. This can make search results more relevant but is expensive from a performance perspective
• templatePage
  • This is the path to the page template that will be used to create pages for the references. Simply create a page and name it whatever you want. Type the name of the page here. The page can use dynamic variables like {type}, {author}, {citekey}, {author lastname}, {abstract} etc.
  • When you create a page via a citation, the page will follow the template of the specified page and will automatically resolve the dynamic variables to it's actual values. You can use any field from the reference as a dynamic variable.
• templateBlock
  • This is the name of a template, created via logseq's "make template" feature. This template is used in the inline citation insertion feature.
  • When you create a block via a citation, the block will follow the template of the specified block and will automatically resolve the dynamic variables to it's actual values.
• linkAlias
  • For inserted links, optionally display an alias to the page. i.e. writing {author lastname} {year} would create a link to the actual citation page but it would display as [Appel 2012]([[Appel2012-ej]]). Leave it blank if aliases are not desired. For more about aliases visit: https://aryansawhney.com/pages/the-ultimate-guide-to-aliases-in-logseq/"
• pageTitle
  • This is the title of the page that is created. It defaults to using the citekey and this is the recommended approach in order to ensure that all references are unique. You can, however, play around, and add more items and fields to the title if desired.
  • You can use dynamic variables like {type}, {author}, {citekey}, {author lastname} etc. in this field
• reindexOnStartup
  • By default, when you call the plugin for the first time after restarting logseq, it will index all the references in the database. This time is usually not significant and won't be noticeable. However, if you have a lot of references, over a thousand, it may take a while.
  • By turning this off, logseq implements a local cache of the references so that you won't have to do the initial indexing every time you call the plugin for the first time after restart. This is a good idea if you have a lot of references in your database but it is important to note that changes you make in your citation manager plugin will not be reflected here by default.
  • If you want to force the reindexing of the references, you can force reindex via the command pallete and searching for reindex. This could take a while so be patient.

Templates

• You can check out ./citation_manager_template.md for an example of a page template
• Here is an example of a inline literature note template

  - {title} by {author}
  	- {abstract}
  

Credits

• Credits to Obsidian Citation Plugin for direct inspiration
• Credits to Kerim for sponsoring and the idea for the plugin