read_bibtex: Read a BibTeX file

In bibnets: Importing, Constructing, and Exporting Bibliometric Networks

Read a BibTeX file

Description

Parses a .bib file into a standardized bibliometric data frame. Note: standard BibTeX does not contain cited references, so the references column will be empty unless the file includes a non-standard cited-references or note field with reference data.

Usage

read_bibtex(file, encoding = "UTF-8")

Arguments

file	Path to a .bib file.
encoding	Character. File encoding. Default "UTF-8".

Value

A data frame in the standard bibnets format: id, title, year, journal, doi, cited_by_count, abstract, type, plus list-columns authors, references (typically empty for BibTeX), and keywords.

Examples

# Write a minimal BibTeX entry to a temp file, then read it
bib <- '@article{smith2020,
  title  = {Bibliometric networks},
  author = {Smith, J. and Jones, K.},
  journal = {Test Journal},
  year   = {2020},
  doi    = {10.1000/test}
}'
f <- tempfile(fileext = ".bib")
writeLines(bib, f)
data <- read_bibtex(f)
data[, c("id", "title", "year", "journal", "doi")]
unlink(f)

bibnets documentation built on June 19, 2026, 1:06 a.m.