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User Documentation

To get started, please follow the installation instructions and familiarize yourself with the basics of JabRef.
Installation
Getting started
Use the Search icon at the top left of this page to find what you're looking for. To learn more about JabRef's features, please follow the links below.
​Collect​
Add new entries manually or the based on the reference text​
​Search across many online scientific catalogues like CiteSeer, CrossRef, Google Scholar, IEEEXplore, INSPIRE, Medline/PubMed, MathSciNet, Springer, arXiv, and zbMATH
​Import options for over 15 reference formats
Easily retrieve and link full-text articles
​Fetch complete bibliographic information based on identifiers such as ISBN, DOI, PubMed-ID and arXiv-ID
​Extract metadata from PDFs​
Import new references directly from the browser with one click using the official browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Vivaldi​
​Organize​
​Edit the bibliographic information using a convenient user interface
​Group your research into hierarchical collections and organize research items based on keywords/tags, search terms or your manual assignments
​Advanced search and filter features​
​Complete and fix bibliographic data by comparing with curated online catalogues such as Google Scholar, Springer or MathSciNet
​Customizable citation key generator​
​Manage field names and their content​
Customize and add new metadata fields or reference types
​Fix common mistakes, automatically upon save if you wish
​Find and merge duplicates​
​Attach related documents: 20 different kinds of documents supported out of the box, completely customizable and extendable
Automatically rename and move associated documents according to customizable rules
​Keep track of what you read: relevancy, ranking, priority, printed, quality-assured, read status
​Cite​
Native BibTeX and biblatex support​
​Cite-as-you-write functionality for external applications such as Emacs, Kile, LyX, Texmaker, TeXstudio, Vim and WinEdt
Format references in one of the many thousand built-in citation styles or create your style
Support for Word and LibreOffice/OpenOffice for inserting and formatting citations
​Share​
​Many built-in export options or create a custom export format​
Library is saved as a simple text file and thus it is easy to share with others e.g. via Dropbox and is version-control friendly
Work in a team: sync the contents of your library via a SQL database​
JabRef is highly customizable and adapts to you, not the other way around.
If you want to dive even deeper, have a look at the advanced information about JabRef.
JabRef is developed and maintained by a multidisciplinary core team of PhD students, postdocs, and researchers in industry who work on JabRef in their freetime. Without the support of numerous volunteers, none of this would have been possible. We welcome anyone who would like to contribute to be part of an active user and developer community!​

Installation

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Outline

Collect

Organize

Cite

​Collect​

​Organize​

​Cite​

​Share​

Collect

Organize

Cite

Share