BibTeX to CSL-JSON Converter - Citation Tools

Convert BibTeX bibliography to CSL-JSON for Zotero, Mendeley, and citation managers. Fast, private, browser-based. Perfect for academic references.

Note: First conversion initializes Pandoc WebAssembly (~55MB). Subsequent conversions are instant.

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.bib bibliography files

BibTeX Input

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BibTeX Entry Types

Entry Type	Description	Common Fields
`@article`	Journal article	author, title, journal, year, volume, number, pages
`@book`	Published book	author/editor, title, publisher, year, isbn
`@inproceedings`	Conference paper	author, title, booktitle, year, pages, publisher
`@incollection`	Chapter in book	author, title, booktitle, editor, publisher, year
`@phdthesis`	PhD dissertation	author, title, school, year
`@mastersthesis`	Master's thesis	author, title, school, year
`@techreport`	Technical report	author, title, institution, year, number
`@misc`	Miscellaneous	author, title, howpublished, year, url

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Frequently Asked Questions

CSL-JSON (Citation Style Language JSON) is a JSON-based format for bibliographic data used by citation management tools like Zotero, Mendeley, and Pandoc. It's the native format for the Citation Style Language processor.

CSL-JSON is more structured and machine-readable than BibTeX. Many modern citation tools (Zotero, Pandoc Citeproc) prefer CSL-JSON for processing citations, generating bibliographies, and exporting references.

All standard BibTeX entry types are supported including @article, @book, @inproceedings, @incollection, @phdthesis, @mastersthesis, @techreport, @manual, @misc, and more. Custom entry types are preserved as-is.

Common fields are intelligently mapped: title→title, author→author, year→issued, journal→container-title, volume→volume, pages→page, DOI→DOI. The converter handles both standard and non-standard field names.

Yes. Zotero natively supports CSL-JSON import. Simply download the converted JSON file and import it via File → Import in Zotero. All metadata, authors, and citation details will be preserved.

Yes. The converter processes LaTeX special characters (\&, \%, \$), accented characters (\'{e}, \~{n}), and common LaTeX commands (\emph{}, \textbf{}) found in BibTeX files, converting them to proper Unicode.

Author names in various BibTeX formats (Last, First; First Last; First von Last Jr.) are parsed and converted to CSL-JSON's structured name format with family, given, and optional suffix fields.

Absolutely. All conversion happens locally in your browser using WebAssembly. Your BibTeX files and references never leave your device and are not uploaded to any server.

Yes. Paste an entire .bib file with multiple @article, @book, or other entries. The converter processes all entries and outputs a CSL-JSON array containing all references.

Pandoc accepts CSL-JSON as a bibliography source. Save the converted file and reference it in your Pandoc command: pandoc --bibliography=refs.json --csl=style.csl document.md -o output.pdf

BibTeX Entry Types

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