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BibTeX Formatter

Paste your .bib content and get consistent entries: tidy fields, predictable citation keys, warnings for what is missing, and an APA-like reference list.

Your references are cleaned by your browser. Nothing is uploaded, saved or sent anywhere.

Sort entries by
Entries
3
Warnings
2

Warnings

  • Duplicate citation key “smith2020” appears 2 times (BibTeX ignores letter case in keys).
  • Entry “smith2020” (@article) is missing: journal.

Renamed citation keys

Renamed citation keys
Old keyNew key
Smith2020smith2020deep
knuthknuth1984texbook
smith2020smith2021second

Clean BibTeX (up to 2,000 entries)

@book{knuth1984texbook,
  author    = {Donald E. Knuth},
  title     = {The {TeX}book},
  year      = {1984},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley}
}

@article{smith2020deep,
  author  = {Smith, John and Doe, Jane},
  title   = {Deep Learning for {DNA} Analysis},
  journal = {Journal of Examples},
  year    = {2020},
  volume  = {12},
  pages   = {101--115},
  doi     = {10.1000/xyz123}
}

@article{smith2021second,
  author = {Smith, John},
  title  = {A second paper},
  year   = {2021}
}

Reference list

Knuth, D. E. (1984). The TeXbook. Addison-Wesley.

Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2020). Deep Learning for DNA Analysis. Journal of Examples, 12, 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123

Smith, J. (2021). A second paper.

How it works

  1. Paste your BibTeX entries into the box.
  2. Choose whether to rewrite citation keys and how to sort entries.
  3. Read the warnings about missing fields, duplicate keys and unclosed entries.
  4. Copy the clean BibTeX or the formatted reference list.

What people use it for

  • Thesis and papers

    Tidy a bibliography collected from Google Scholar, publishers and reference managers.

  • Merging .bib files

    Spot duplicate keys before two bibliographies collide in LaTeX.

  • Quick reference lists

    Turn a few entries into readable references for a report or a README.

Questions

What does the cleanup change?
Field names become lowercase and are put in a standard order (author, title, journal, year…), values are wrapped in braces with extra spaces and line breaks collapsed, page ranges become “12--15”, and DOI links keep only the identifier. A repeated field keeps its first value. Capitalization protected with braces, like {DNA}, is left untouched.
How are citation keys normalized?
A key is built as first author’s last name, year and the first significant title word, in lowercase ASCII: smith2020deep. If two entries get the same key, a, b, c… is appended. Turn the option off to keep your keys; renamed keys are listed so you can update your \cite commands.
Which problems are reported, and what are the limits?
Missing required fields per entry type (for example journal for an @article), keys used more than once, entries that are not closed, and unbalanced braces. The reference list is a simple APA-like style, not a full citation engine, and up to 2,000 entries are read. Nothing is uploaded.