robotics-bibtex-venue-unifier

name

robotics-bibtex-venue-unifier

description

Normalize venue names and conference entry types in BibTeX `.bib` files for thesis or dissertation style. Use when Codex needs to unify `booktitle`, `journal`, or `series` fields across entries, convert conference papers to `@InProceedings`, preserve venue-specific naming rules such as `Proceedings of ...` for AI or vision conferences and year-specific IEEE robotics titles like `ICRA` or `IROS`, audit remaining shorthand venue names including workshops, or clean inconsistent journal capitalization.

Robotics BibTeX Venue Unifier

Normalize venue names consistently across a .bib file without flattening distinct publication types. Start by inventorying current venue strings, infer the user's rubric from explicit examples, then make targeted edits and re-audit the file.

Workflow

1. Inspect the bibliography style or the user's examples before editing. If the user names a target format, treat that as authoritative. If the style matters, check whether the project uses plain, abbrv, ieeetr, apalike, natbib, or biblatex.

2. Inventory the current venue fields before changing anything. Use python3 scripts/audit_bibtex_venues.py path/to/references.bib. This prints entry type counts, tracked venue-family counts, unique booktitle, journal, and series values, shorthand or workshop flags, suspicious entry/field mismatches, and near-duplicate venue variants. Use the mismatch sections to catch problems such as conference-looking venues stored in journal, journal-like venues stored in booktitle, or non-canonical entry-type casing such as @INPROCEEDINGS or @ARTICLE.

3. Derive a normalization rubric from the file and the user's preferences. Read references/venue-rubric.md for the default rubric and common mappings. Do not assume all venues should follow the same pattern. A common mixed rubric is: CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, WACV, BMVC, 3DV, AAAI, or ICML: full conference or proceedings form. ICRA, IROS, IV, or ITSC: year-specific official conference title. CoRL or RSS: full conference name with acronym in parentheses if the user wants thesis-style expansion. Workshops: preserve the specific workshop title, but flag raw shorthand workshop venue strings for manual review. Journals: proper title case.

4. Edit only the fields that implement the rubric. Conference papers should usually use @InProceedings with booktitle. Journal papers should usually use @article with journal. Normalize entry-type casing while you are editing. Preserve the rest of each entry unless the user asks for broader cleanup.

5. Re-audit after editing. Run the audit script again and look for leftover shorthand venue values, duplicate variants that differ only by capitalization or punctuation, and suspicious field/type mismatches that indicate a misfiled venue.

Editing Rules

• Prefer @InProceedings for conference papers and @article for journals.
• Preserve arXiv preprint ... entries unless the user asks for a different preprint style.
• Avoid converting every venue to Proceedings of ... blindly. Match the user's rubric.
• Remove redundant inconsistency, not meaningful variation. Different venues may intentionally follow different naming patterns.
• If a venue string contains the year and the user wants year-specific conference names, keep the year in booktitle.
• Treat non-canonical entry-type casing such as @INPROCEEDINGS or @ARTICLE as cleanup targets when the user wants a unified bibliography.

References

• Use references/venue-rubric.md for the default mapping rules and examples.
• Use scripts/audit_bibtex_venues.py to inventory venue strings before and after edits.