I use the open-source app BibDesk to manage my references. Here are a few scripts and templates I've set up.


Create Groups by Date - create static groups based on the date items were added to the bibliography, similar to Calendar View in iPhoto.


Post to Bibdesk from NetNewsWire - an Applescript to create a new publication in BibDesk based on a newsfeed entry (typically from an RSS feed of a Journal's table of contents) in NetNewsWire. This allows me to skim tables of contents and quickly save the information on articles I want to read at a later date.

The script partially fills in the bibliographic data: the Title of the new publication is set to the title of the newsfeed entry; the Journal of the new publication is set to the name of the feed (so you will want to rename your feeds accordingly); the year of the new publication is set to the year of the date the newsfeed entry was published (usually this is the same as the year of the journal, but you should double-check); the URL for the newsfeed entry is added to the publication; and, finally, a dialog box appears to add keywords. A keyword "untagged" is also added to the new publication -- I use this to identify references that need to be cleaned up.

Save the file in /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/NetNewsWire/Scripts/


Add Keyword - an Applescript to add keywords to the selected publications. Save the file in /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/Scripts/ . Loosely based on Christian Hofman's scripts linked from the BibDesk wiki.

Replace Existing Keywords - an Applescript to replace the existing keywords in the selected publications. Save the file in /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/Scripts/ .


Open in Google Books - launches a browser window and attempts to locate a book on Google Books. Books with ISBN should produce an exact match, while others will produce results of an author+title search.


Lookup Publishers - if the selected publications include a publisher but no address, this script aims to add the address of the publisher. Uses an if...then...else lookup in the script which you can edit to suit your needs .


American Anthropologist template - an rtf template to display / export references according to the style guidelines of the American Anthropological Association. Currently includes formatting for the following publication types:

Save the file in /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/BibDesk/Templates/


Human Ecology template - "In general, Human Ecology follows the recommendations of the Style Manual for Biological Journals, published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences." Book, chapter in a book and article only.

World Development template - for the journal World Development.

OMC bibliography commands - some commands I've created for use with OnMyCommand to help with BibDesk and locating references more generally. At the moment these consist of the following: