JabRef/jabref
Desktop app for managing BibTeX and BibLaTeX (.bib) libraries observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
86/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 60
- Longevity 100
Flags: prerelease_only
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 82
- age_days: 4558
- days_rel: 111
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 6
Adoption not part of the score
4648 stars · 3536 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
JabRef is an open-source, cross-platform desktop application for managing BibTeX and BibLaTeX (.bib) reference libraries. It helps researchers collect, organize, search, and cite bibliographic data, with integrations for LaTeX editors, Word, LibreOffice, and online scientific catalogs.
Use cases
- manage a bibtex bibliography for a latex thesis
- organize research papers and pdfs into groups
- fetch citation metadata from a DOI or arXiv id
- extract metadata from pdfs to build a reference library
- insert formatted citations into word or libreoffice documents
- deduplicate and clean up a large .bib file
- search google scholar and pubmed from a reference manager
- share a bibliography file with collaborators via git
When to choose
- you write in LaTeX and need native BibTeX/BibLaTeX support
- you want a free, open-source reference manager with no vendor lock-in
- you prefer your library stored as a plain-text, version-control-friendly file
- you need to fetch metadata from many online catalogs and identifiers
When to avoid
- you need a web-based or mobile reference manager
- your team requires a centralized cloud database as the primary storage
- you mainly work with RIS/EndNote-style workflows rather than .bib files
Facets
application · maturity active
gui search-engine ocr pdf internationalization education developer-tools files cross-platform cross-platform jvm bibtex biblatex reference-manager citation latex academia javafx bibliography desktop
8 sources
- readme: https://github.com/JabRef/jabref · fetched 2026-08-28 · 96efeb8b28bc
- homepage: https://www.jabref.org · fetched 2026-08-29 · 65d4350a7e8a
- site_page: https://docs.jabref.org/faq/faqcontributing · fetched 2026-08-29 · 7fcc0a414bd3
- site_page: https://docs.jabref.org/getting-started · fetched 2026-08-29 · 381b0dd03173
- site_page: https://docs.jabref.org/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 482ebeed950f
- site_page: https://discourse.jabref.org/c/features · fetched 2026-08-29 · 6c44850fd569
- site_page: https://docs.jabref.org/faqcontributing/how-to-translate-the-ui · fetched 2026-08-29 · cc6d9145a205
- site_page: https://devdocs.jabref.org/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 3ba021589373
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| JabRef/jabref | main | 86 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem