Auto conversion of PsychINFO OCLC output to BibTeX

As I was quite jealous of all the people using programs like EndNote who can easily import entries from online bibliography databases, I hacked a small AWK script together that can be used as a MIME handler in Mozilla to convert PsychINFO OCLC output to useable BibTeX.

Note: Dirk Janssen obviously felt the same, as he modified the original code quite extensively. He deserves all credit for the version that I put online January 17, 2003.

BTW, the script will probably also work with other online PsychINFO databases, as long as they have some way to export entries using the application/x-endnote-refer MIME format. However, I didn't test that.

Installation

Download the following two files:

• OCLC-to-bibtex (a simple shell script)
• OCLC-to-bibtex.awk (the actual GAWK script)

Make sure the first script is in your path, and edit the file to have it refer to the GAWK script. Then edit the GAWK script to make sure the GAWK script call the correct program to show or post-process the BibTeX entries and modify some other settings. There is some sparse documentation in the GAWK file itself.

Go to the OCLC FirstSearch PsychINFO pages, search for some interesting stuff, press the export icon and then the export button. In the Mozilla window, press the Advanced... button, enter as MIME type "application/x-endnote-refer", and as application "OCLC-to-bibtex" (both without quotes).

Et voila!

Misc

• Yes, I know that I could make the GAWK script itself executable. But I like this seperation better.
• The script is not at all perfect. Currently, all I know is that it works with the approximate 100 entries I exported over the last couple of days, which have been all book chapters and journal articles. If you run across an entry which doesn't work, fix it, and please send the sources to me... Or, check back here to see if I ran across the same problem and fixed it. :-)