BibTeX Validator & Cleaner
Find structural errors in a .bib file and reformat it without touching the references.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded.
About this tool
Paste BibTeX to see what stops it compiling: unbalanced braces, a missing or duplicated citation key, a repeated field. Missing recommended fields are reported separately as warnings. The cleaner then reformats indentation, alignment and field order — it never edits an author, title, journal or DOI.
Questions & answers
- What is the difference between an error and a warning?
- An error is structural: unbalanced braces, a missing entry type or citation key, a duplicate key or field. A warning means a field conventionally expected for that entry type is absent, such as journal on an article — the file still compiles.
- Does the cleaner change my references?
- No. It only changes layout: indentation, alignment of the equals signs, field order, the trailing comma and the case of the type and field names. Values are copied through character for character.
- Which fields are expected for each type?
- The conventional ones: article needs author, title, journal and year; book needs author or editor, title, publisher and year; inproceedings needs author, title, booktitle and year. Others follow the same convention.