BibLib

A powerful library for parsing various academic reference file formats in Node.js.

Features

• Parse multiple reference file formats:
  • RIS (Research Information Systems)
  • Medline
  • EndNote XML
  • BibTeX
  • CSV
• Standardized output format for all parsers
• TypeScript support with full type definitions
• Configurable parsing options
• Author name normalization
• DOI handling and validation
• Page number formatting

Installation

npm install biblib

Usage

import {
  parseRIS,
  parseMedline,
  parseEndnoteXML,
  parseBibTeX,
  parseCSV,
} from 'biblib';

// Parse RIS file
const risRefs = await parseRIS(risContent, {
  defaultType: 'journalArticle',
  delimeter: '\r',
});

// Parse Medline file
const medlineRefs = await parseMedline(medlineContent, {
  reformatAuthors: true,
  journal: 'long',
  parseAddress: true,
});

// Parse EndNote XML file
const endnoteRefs = await parseEndnoteXML(xmlContent, {
  defaultType: 'journalArticle',
});

// Parse BibTeX file
const bibtexRefs = await parseBibTeX(bibtexContent, {
  removeComments: true,
  defaultType: 'journalArticle',
});

// Parse CSV file
const csvRefs = await parseCSV(csvContent, {
  defaultType: 'journalArticle',
});

API Reference

Common Output Format

All parsers return references in a standardized format:

interface BibLibRef {
  type?: string;
  title?: string;
  authors?: string[];
  journal?: string;
  year?: string;
  volume?: string;
  number?: string;
  pages?: string;
  doi?: string;
  urls?: string[];
  abstract?: string;
  keywords?: string[];
  date?: string;
  isbn?: string;
  language?: string;
  notes?: string;
  label?: string;
  [key: string]: any;
}

RIS Parser

parseRIS(content: string, options?: {
  defaultType?: string;    // Default: 'journalArticle'
  delimeter?: string;      // Default: '\r'
}): Promise<ReflibRef[]>

Medline Parser

parseMedline(content: string, options?: {
  defaultType?: string;    // Default: 'journalArticle'
  delimeter?: string;      // Default: '\r'
  reformatAuthors?: boolean; // Default: true
  journal?: 'long' | 'short'; // Default: 'long'
  parseAddress?: boolean;  // Default: true
  parseDoi?: boolean;      // Default: true
  parseYear?: boolean;     // Default: true
}): Promise<ReflibRef[]>

EndNote XML Parser

parseEndnoteXML(content: string, options?: {
  defaultType?: string;    // Default: 'journalArticle'
}): Promise<ReflibRef[]>

BibTeX Parser

parseBibTeX(content: string, options?: {
  removeComments?: boolean; // Default: true
  defaultType?: string;     // Default: 'journalArticle'
  delimeter?: string;       // Default: '\n'
}): Promise<ReflibRef[]>

CSV Parser

parseCSV(content: string, options?: {
  defaultType?: string;    // Default: 'journalArticle'
}): Promise<ReflibRef[]>

Features in Detail

Author Name Handling

The library automatically normalizes author names into a consistent format (A. Azlan):

• Handles various input formats (Firstname Lastname, Lastname, Firstname, etc.)
• Properly handles middle names and initials
• Preserves suffixes (Jr., Sr., III, etc.)

DOI Handling

• Automatically adds 'doi.org' prefix when missing
• Validates DOI format
• Removes common prefixes (doi:, http://dx.doi.org/, etc.)

Page Number Formatting

• Standardizes page number formats (e.g., "123-129", "123--129", "123 to 129")
• Handles single page numbers
• Preserves complex page numbers when needed

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.