How do you maintain Bibliography file for BibTex?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around methods for managing bibliography files using BibTeX, focusing on various tools and practices for organizing references across multiple projects and computers. Participants share their experiences with different bibliography management software and plugins.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Ankit describes a manual process of maintaining bibliography files across multiple computers and expresses interest in finding a more efficient solution.
  • Some participants mention using JabRef as an alternative to Zotero for bibliography management.
  • One participant shares their use of RefTeX within Emacs, highlighting a preference for a single .bib file managed through symlinks.
  • A participant questions the effectiveness of Zotero in recognizing resources compared to other services like BibSonomy and citeulike, noting past issues with those plugins.
  • Another participant responds that Zotero works well for capturing academic content from various sources, including Amazon and Google Scholar, and prefers it over a single .bib file approach due to the need for managing multiple computers.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing preferences for bibliography management tools, with no consensus on a single best solution. Some favor Zotero, while others prefer JabRef or RefTeX, indicating a variety of approaches and opinions on effectiveness.

Contextual Notes

Participants' experiences with Zotero and other tools are based on personal preferences and specific use cases, which may not be universally applicable. There are unresolved questions about the reliability of resource recognition by Zotero compared to other services.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals looking for bibliography management solutions, particularly those working across multiple devices or interested in integrating academic content capture into their workflow.

ank_gl
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Hi guys,

I have several projects on my three computers which use bibliography. I maintain them manually, copying and pasting whatever is needed. Needless to say, this is becoming stupid now.

I recently started using Zotero. It seems like a nice idea, I use the zotero plugin to save whatever I need, to the library, and I can export the latest bib file to the project I am working.

Here is my question, is there a better way to do it? Is there a better bib management out there? I really don't want to change what I am doing, if I am going to have to change it again in 6 months.

Thanks
Ankit
 
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Never heard of Zotero. I use JabRef.
 
I use RefTeX inside Emacs together with one long, plain .bib file that sits in the root of my home directory and to which I create symlinks. Sometimes I use JabRef with the same .bib file. It is all a matter of taste.
 
Reading about it some more, it seems to me that Zotero is a kind of "http://arxiv.org/help/social_bookmarking" service, similar to BibSonomy and citeulike. I tried these latter two as browser plugins, but I found that often a resource (like an article or a book) on a certain webpage was not properly recognized by the plugin and then I would still be required to enter the bibliographical data manually. How is this with Zotero, @ank_gl?

If it is good at recognizing resources, I would imagine it can be quite handy. I was planning to use BibSonomy or citeulike to keep track of potentially interesting articles and books, so I could remember them for possible future reading or reference without already pasting them into my .bib file that I use for my own writing.
 
Thanks Krylov for your reply. I never use Zotero for bookmarking web stuff, I only use it to on to capture academic content using the browser plugin. So far, its pretty good. It works nicely on amazon books, google books, google scholar, and even on webpages containing references to research papers.

I don't want to use one bib file in root folder because I have three work computers, and keeping multiple files is exactly what I don't want to. Well, in short, Zotero is working fine for me.
 

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