Usage Guide & Recipes

Here you will find common workflows for using ezbib, complete with example outputs.

⚡ Quick Start

1. Fetching an entire ORCID profile

Generate a complete, deduplicated BibTeX file for an author.

ezbib 0000-0002-3661-5870 -o publications.bib

📄 View Sample Output (publications.bib)

@article{Smith2025Hydrogen,
  title = {Hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms in high-strength alloys},
  author = {Smith, John and Doe, Jane},
  journal = {Acta Materialia},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121319},
  keywords = {quality_assured}
}

### 2. Exporting a Markdown CV
Generate a clickable Markdown publication list for your personal website or CV.
```bash
ezbib 0000-0002-3661-5870 -f markdown -o cv.md

📝 View Sample Output (cv.md)

# Publications

1. **Hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms in high-strength alloys** (2025) — *Acta Materialia* ([DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121319](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121319))
2. **Phase transformation dynamics under extreme strain** (2024) — *Nature Materials* ([DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-00000-x](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-00000-x))

### 3. Styled Plain Text Citations
Generate pre-formatted citations in your desired journal format.

```bash
ezbib 10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121319 -f text --style nature

Sample Output: 1. Smith, J. & Doe, J. Hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms in high-strength alloys. Acta Materialia 25, 121319 (2025).

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4. Interactive Web GUI

Don’t want to use the command line? Start the built-in browser interface!

ezbib web

This automatically spins up a local web server (using only standard Python libraries) and opens a beautiful, interactive form in your default web browser!\n\n

🎨 Citation Styles

You can generate text citations in numerous formats using the -s flag.

Style	Flag	Example Output snippet
APA 7th (default)	-s apa	Smith, J., & Doe, J. (2025). Hydrogen embrittlement…
Nature	-s nature	1. Smith, J. & Doe, J. Hydrogen embrittlement…
IEEE	-s ieee	[1] J. Smith and J. Doe, “Hydrogen embrittlement…,”
Elsevier	-s elsevier	[1] J. Smith, J. Doe, Hydrogen embrittlement…
ACS	-s acs	(1) Smith, J.; Doe, J. Hydrogen embrittlement…
Chicago	-s chicago	Smith, John, and Jane Doe. 2025. “Hydrogen embrittlement…”
Harvard	-s harvard	Smith, J., Doe, J., 2025. Hydrogen embrittlement…

Tip

Any valid CSL (Citation Style Language) identifier supported by Crossref can be passed to --style!

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⌨️ Advanced Input Modes

Interactive Paste Mode

If you run ezbib with no arguments, it will open an interactive prompt. This is perfect for pasting URLs that contain special characters (like parentheses) that would normally break your terminal shell!

$ ezbib
Enter ORCID iD or DOI (or press Enter to exit): https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-6454(02)00577-3

Piped Input

You can pass a list of DOIs directly from a text file using standard input (-).

cat my_dois.txt | ezbib - -o references.bib

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🧭 CLI Command-Line Reference

usage: ezbib [-h] [-d DOI] [-y YEAR] [--max-year YEAR] [-o FILE]
             [-f {bibtex,markdown,text,apa}] [-s STYLE] [--no-dedup] [-v]
             [target]