DOI Reference Extractor

A single-page application to extract references from academic papers by DOI, convert them to various citation formats, and download them in bulk.

Overview

DOI Reference Extractor allows researchers to quickly extract all references from a scientific paper using its DOI (Digital Object Identifier). The tool fetches the complete reference list, converts citations to various formats, and enables easy downloading as individual files or a ZIP archive.

Features

• Enter DOI to fetch all references
• View paper title and references
• Convert references to various formats:
  • BibTeX
  • RIS
  • EndNote
  • RefWorks
  • CSL JSON
  • RDF XML
  • Turtle RDF
• Apply various citation styles:
  • APA
  • Harvard
  • Vancouver
  • IEEE
  • Chicago
  • MLA
  • Nature
  • Over 5000 citation styles available
• Download options:
  • Single text file with all references
  • ZIP archive with individual files for each reference
• Share link with pre-filled DOI

How It Works

Technical Flow

1. Reference Extraction:

   • User enters a DOI
   • Application calls the OpenCitations API to retrieve all references
   • Each reference is processed to extract its own DOI

2. Metadata Retrieval:

   • For each extracted DOI, the application fetches metadata using the DOI Content Negotiation API
   • Metadata includes titles, authors, publication year, and other bibliographic information

3. Citation Formatting:

   • User selects desired output format (BibTeX, RIS, etc.) or citation style (APA, IEEE, etc.)
   • Application uses DOI Content Negotiation to convert each reference to the selected format
   • For citation styles, the application requests formatted text using CSL (Citation Style Language)

4. Download Options:

   • For single file download, all citations are combined into one text file
   • For ZIP download, each reference is saved as an individual file with a descriptive filename based on author, year, and title

APIs Used

1. OpenCitations API (v2)

   • Endpoint: https://opencitations.net/index/api/v2/references/
   • Purpose: Retrieves a list of all references from a paper by its DOI
   • Data format: JSON containing cited DOIs and metadata

2. DOI Content Negotiation

   • Endpoint: GET /api/crossref/v1/works/{DOI}/transform (proxied to https://api.crossref.org/...)
   • Purpose: Fetches metadata and formatted citations for DOIs
   • Formats: BibTeX, RIS, CSL JSON, RDF XML, etc.
   • Implements CSL (Citation Style Language) for text-based citations

3. Local Citation Style Files

   • Purpose: Provides access to thousands of citation styles
   • Storage: Pre-generated JSON files with style information

Tech Stack

• React 19 with TypeScript
• Vite for fast development and optimized builds
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• ShadCN UI components
• JSZip for creating downloadable ZIP archives
• Axios for API requests
• React Router for URL-based DOI input

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mireklzicar/doi-reference-extractor.git
cd doi-reference-extractor

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run the development server
pnpm dev

# Build for production
pnpm build

Docker

The application can be containerized using Docker:

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t doi-reference-extractor .

# Run the container
docker run -p 80:80 doi-reference-extractor

Usage

1. Enter a DOI in the input field (e.g., 10.1073/pnas.1118373109)
2. Click "Get References" or press Enter
3. Once references are loaded, select a format (BibTeX, RIS, etc.) or citation style (APA, Harvard, etc.)
4. Use the buttons to:
   • Copy citations to clipboard
   • Download all citations as a single file
   • Download individual citations as a ZIP archive

Environment Variables

No special environment variables are required to run this application.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Author

Developed by Miroslav Lžičař

License

Apache 2.0