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PaperFetch.jl

PaperFetch.jl helps validate BibTeX bibliographies against source metadata. It writes review reports and optional fetch manifests; it does not edit the input .bib file.

The package is built for small and medium bibliography review tasks, usually 10-100 references. It favors traceable evidence, cautious normalization, and human-readable output over bulk harvesting.

Quickstart

Activate and instantiate the package from the repository root:

using Pkg
Pkg.activate(".")
Pkg.instantiate()

Run an offline check against the included fixture metadata:

julia --project=. -e 'using PaperFetch; PaperFetch.main()' -- \
  check examples/01_exact_article.bib \
  --fixture examples/metadata_fixture.json \
  --outdir paperfetch_out

A fixture is a small JSON file containing known source metadata for examples or tests. It lets PaperFetch.jl exercise the same comparison and reporting logic without making live API requests, so results are deterministic and repeatable.

This writes:

  • paperfetch_out/01_exact_article.md
  • paperfetch_out/01_exact_article.inc

The Markdown report is for direct human review. The INC report is a CSV-like table with metadata, suitable for spreadsheets and downstream tooling. CLI report names default to the input file stem; pass --report-basename NAME to choose a different basename.

Markdown reports preserve the original BibTeX keys. Each entry has a compact general-flags table for source discovery, provider errors, required fields, PDF candidates, and confidence, followed by a field comparison table with a Flag column for green, amber, red, or ignored review signals.

Julia API Tutorial

using PaperFetch

reports = check_bibliography(
    "examples/01_exact_article.bib";
    fixture = "examples/metadata_fixture.json",
    check = :none,
)

first(reports).confidence

Write both report formats:

paths = write_reports(reports, "paperfetch_out")
paths[:markdown]
paths[:inc]

Fetch mode uses explicit PDF candidate URLs from source metadata:

results, manifest = fetch_pdfs(reports, "paperfetch_out")

This writes manifest.md, a human-readable table of references and fetch diagnostics, plus manifest.inc for spreadsheet and tooling use. Entries without PDF candidates are recorded as skipped, not as validation failures.

Design Commitments

  • BibTeX input is parsed, never rewritten.
  • DOI and similar identifiers use exact normalized comparison.
  • Titles, authors, pages, journal names, and other bibliographic text are compared with documented normalization.
  • Edited books may use editor instead of author; proceedings and chapter entries compare their container as booktitle.
  • URLs found in note or howpublished, including LaTeX \url{...} macros, can be matched to source URL metadata.
  • URL normalization preserves path and query case while canonicalizing DOI resolver links and HTTP(S) hosts.
  • Author order is treated as meaningful. Reordered author lists are marked for manual review rather than accepted silently.
  • Network API use is opt-in.
  • Default tests and examples are offline and deterministic.