Abbreviations

A repository of abbreviations for references, e.g., for conferences, journals, institutes, etc.

Currently, a number of journal lists are offered.

Format of the file

Since October 2019, the data files are in CSV format (using semicolons as separators):

<full name>;<abbreviation>[;<shortest unique abbreviation>[;<frequency>]]

The abbreviation should follow the ISO4 standard, see https://marcinwrochna.github.io/abbrevIso/ for details on the abbreviation rules and a search form for title word abbreviations. The last two fields are optional, and you can safely omit them. JabRef supports the third field, which contains the "shortest unique abbreviation". The last field is not currently used; its intention is to give publication frequency (e.g., M for monthly).

For instance:

Accounts of Chemical Research;Acc. Chem. Res.;ACHRE4;M

If you want to add a list or submit corrections, see the contribution guidelines.

Relation to JabRef

JabRef can help you refactor your reference list by automatically abbreviating or unabbreviating journal names. This requires that you keep one or more lists of journal names and their respective abbreviations. To set up these lists, choose Options -> Manage journal abbreviations. See https://docs.jabref.org/fields/journalabbreviations for an extensive documentation.

At each release of JabRef, the available journal lists are combined into two lists that are made available to the users:

• journalList.csv - contains all lists that follow the ISO4 standard with dots (currently acs, ams, geology_physics, mathematics, mechanical, meteorology, sociology, and general)
• journalList_dotless.csv - contains all lists that follow the ISO4 standard without dots (currently entrez and medicus)

In case of duplicate appearances in the journal lists, the last occuring abbreviation is chosen.

Other projects

abbrevIso

• Homepage: https://github.com/marcinwrochna/abbrevIso
• Frontend: https://marcinwrochna.github.io/abbrevIso/
• API: https://tools.wmflabs.org/abbreviso/

It takes the official list of ISO4 abbreviations of single words, plus the general rules defined in the ISO4 specifications to deduce the abbreviation for any journal name you input.

Could be an alternative or complementary (when missing in the lists) approach to abbreviate journal names. But of course, it does not handle unabbreviation, for which there is no alternative to lists. It can also be a way to check the consistency of existing lists and it might make sense to link to the frontend on the abbrv.jabref website, so that people who want to add abbreviations can check for the correct one.

Contributors ✨

Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):

Jonas Lähnemann 🖋 📖

dominicelse 🖋

Wolfgang Noichl 🖋

This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!