inspire-citation

Are you tired of copying, pasting, and hopping between websites while preparing your bibliography? As high-energy physicists, we have plenty of other things to worry about. Let this Python script update your BibTeX file using official InspireHEP records. It automatically matches entries by arXiv ID, DOI, or title+year, and logs any citation key changes for easy LaTeX file updates.

Features

• Batch updates all BibTeX entries from InspireHEP
• Searches in order: arXiv, DOI, then title+year
• Works with any BibTeX entry type
• Logs citation key changes (old_key → new_key) to citation_key_changes.log
• Backs up your original .bib as filename-old.bib and writes updates to the original filename
• Quiet by default; enable per-entry logs with --verbose

Requirements

pip install bibtexparser requests tqdm

Usage

python inspireCitation.py [options] <bibfile>

• <bibfile>: your BibTeX file (e.g. reference.bib)
• Options:
  • -v, --verbose Enable per-entry 🔎/✅/❌ logs

Example:

# quiet (default)
python inspireCitation.py reference.bib

# verbose output
python inspireCitation.py reference.bib --verbose

After running:

1. Your original reference.bib is renamed to reference-old.bib

2. Updated entries are written to reference.bib

3. If any keys changed, see citation_key_changes.log:

   oldkey1 -> newkey1
   oldkey2 -> newkey2
   

The updated reference.bib now exactly matches the citations from InspireHEP. Enjoy!

Preview

Notes

• For best results, you just need to make sure that there is an arxiv or doi field in each bibliography entry
• Title+year matching is a fallback when no arXiv ID or DOI is found.

Enjoy a smoother bibliography workflow 🍶🥃