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BytesAgain β€Ί Skills β€Ί Journal Abbrev
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Journal Abbrev

by @agents365-ai

Use when looking up journal or magazine name abbreviations, converting between full names and ISO 4/MEDLINE abbreviations, processing BibTeX files for journa...

Versionv1.0.2
Downloads553
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TERMINAL
clawhub install journal-abbrev

πŸ“– About This Skill

name: journal-abbrev description: Use when looking up journal or magazine name abbreviations, converting between full names and ISO 4/MEDLINE abbreviations, processing BibTeX files for journal name standardization, or answering questions about ζœŸεˆŠηΌ©ε†™/杂志缩写. Triggers on "journal abbreviation", "abbreviate journal", "journal name", "ζœŸεˆŠηΌ©ε†™", "杂志缩写", "ISO 4", "LTWA", "BibTeX journal". PROACTIVELY USE when user mentions citation formatting, reference list preparation, or manuscript submission to specific journals. allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep

--- Claude Code fields above, OpenClaw/SkillsMP fields below ---

author: Agents365-ai category: Academic Research version: 1.0.2 created: 2026-03-29 updated: 2026-04-12 github: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/journal-abbrev homepage: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/journal-abbrev metadata: openclaw: requires: bins: - python3 emoji: "πŸ“–" homepage: https://github.com/Agents365-ai/journal-abbrev os: ["macos", "linux", "windows"]

Journal Abbreviation Lookup

Look up journal/magazine name abbreviations using a multi-source cascade: JabRef database (~25K journals) β†’ AbbrevISO API (ISO 4) β†’ NLM Catalog (MEDLINE).

Critical rule: Always use jabbrv.py for lookups. Never guess abbreviations β€” even common journals have non-obvious abbreviations.

Quick Reference

| User wants... | Command | |---------------|---------| | Abbreviate a journal name | python3 jabbrv.py abbrev "Nature Medicine" | | Expand an abbreviation | python3 jabbrv.py expand "Nat. Med." | | Auto-detect direction | python3 jabbrv.py lookup "J. Am. Chem. Soc." | | Fuzzy search (paginated) | python3 jabbrv.py search "biolog chem" --limit 10 --offset 0 | | Process a .bib file | python3 jabbrv.py bib refs.bib | | Preview .bib changes (no write) | python3 jabbrv.py bib refs.bib --dry-run | | Explicit .bib output path | python3 jabbrv.py bib refs.bib --output out.bib | | Expand .bib abbreviations | python3 jabbrv.py bib refs.bib --expand | | Batch text list | python3 jabbrv.py batch journals.txt | | Batch as NDJSON stream | python3 jabbrv.py batch journals.txt --stream | | Inspect cache state | python3 jabbrv.py cache status | | Download missing cache files | python3 jabbrv.py cache update | | Rebuild cache from scratch | python3 jabbrv.py cache rebuild | | Machine-readable CLI contract | python3 jabbrv.py schema | | Schema for one subcommand | python3 jabbrv.py schema lookup |

Output format

Stdout is a stable JSON envelope when the CLI is not attached to a terminal (piped or captured by an agent), and a human table/indented view when run on a TTY. To force a format: --format json|table|human|auto. --json remains as a back-compat alias for --format json. Flags may appear before or after the subcommand.

Envelope shape (always the same fields for every subcommand):

  • Success: { "ok": true, "data": ..., "meta": { "schema_version", "cli_version", "cache", "latency_ms" } }
  • Partial success (batch): { "ok": "partial", "data": { "succeeded": [...], "failed": [...] }, "meta": {...} }
  • Error: { "ok": false, "error": { "code", "message", "retryable", ... }, "meta": {...} }

    • Exit codes

    | Code | Meaning | |------|---------| | 0 | success (including partial success) | | 1 | runtime / upstream error | | 2 | validation / bad input (missing file, bad flag) | | 3 | not found (the looked-up journal does not exist) |

    Error codes (inside error.code)

    not_found, file_not_found, validation_error, runtime_error. Each carries a retryable: bool so agents can branch retry logic.

    Workflow

    Step 1: Detect Intent

    | Intent | Action | |--------|--------| | Single journal name/abbreviation | Use lookup (auto-detect) or abbrev/expand (explicit direction) | | "What's the abbreviation for X?" | Use abbrev | | "What journal is X?" | Use expand | | Partial or uncertain name | Use search for fuzzy matching | | Fix journal names in .bib file | Use bib | | List of journals to process | Use batch |

    Step 2: Execute

    Run the appropriate jabbrv.py command. The script handles:

    1. Local cache lookup (instant, ~25K journals from JabRef) 2. AbbrevISO API fallback (algorithmic ISO 4 abbreviation, forward only) 3. NLM Catalog fallback (biomedical journals, bidirectional)

    First run downloads JabRef CSV cache files automatically (~2-5 MB).

    Step 3: Present Results

  • Show the full name, abbreviation, and source
  • Note the standard (ISO 4 vs MEDLINE) when relevant
  • For .bib processing: show the change summary before confirming

    • ISO 4 vs MEDLINE

    Two common abbreviation standards exist:

    | Standard | Periods | Example | Used by | |----------|---------|---------|---------| | ISO 4 | Yes | Nat. Med. | Most publishers, BibTeX | | MEDLINE | No | Nat Med | PubMed, NLM databases |

    JabRef provides ISO 4 style. NLM Catalog provides MEDLINE style. AbbrevISO computes ISO 4 algorithmically from LTWA (List of Title Word Abbreviations).

    Common Abbreviation Patterns

    | Word | Abbreviation | Word | Abbreviation | |------|-------------|------|-------------| | Journal | J. | International | Int. | | American | Am. | European | Eur. | | Science/Sciences | Sci. | Medicine/Medical | Med. | | Biology/Biological | Biol. | Chemistry/Chemical | Chem. | | Physics/Physical | Phys. | Engineering | Eng. | | Research | Res. | Review/Reviews | Rev. | | Society | Soc. | National | Natl. | | Proceedings | Proc. | Transactions | Trans. | | Letters | Lett. | Communications | Commun. | | Applied | Appl. | Computational | Comput. |

    Note: Single-word titles (e.g., "Nature", "Science", "Cell") are NOT abbreviated per ISO 4 rules.

    Integration Examples

    With Zotero

    # Export BibTeX from Zotero, then standardize journal names
zot export COLLECTION_KEY --format bibtex > refs.bib
python3 jabbrv.py bib refs.bib

    With LaTeX

    # Before compiling, ensure all journal names are abbreviated
python3 jabbrv.py bib references.bib

    Use the output file (references_abbrev.bib) in your LaTeX document

    Batch Processing

    Create a text file with one journal name per line:

    Nature Medicine
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Then run:

    python3 jabbrv.py batch journals.txt

    Troubleshooting

    | Issue | Solution | |-------|---------| | "No result found" | Try search with partial name for fuzzy matching | | Cache download fails | Check network connection, retry with update-cache | | Wrong abbreviation style | JabRef = ISO 4 (with dots), NLM = MEDLINE (no dots) | | BibTeX field not detected | Ensure format is journal = {Name} (curly braces) |

    πŸ“‹ Tips & Best Practices

    | Issue | Solution | |-------|---------| | "No result found" | Try search with partial name for fuzzy matching | | Cache download fails | Check network connection, retry with update-cache | | Wrong abbreviation style | JabRef = ISO 4 (with dots), NLM = MEDLINE (no dots) | | BibTeX field not detected | Ensure format is journal = {Name} (curly braces) |