Where do the cite keys come from?

Each CSL item's `id` becomes the BibTeX cite key. If an item has no id, the converter builds one from the first author's family name plus the year, and adds a letter suffix to keep keys unique.

How are author names rebuilt?

Each CSL name object is written as `Family, Given`, which is the form BibTeX prefers. Multiple authors are joined with BibTeX's `and` separator. Literal names are passed through unchanged.

How is the issued date converted?

The first number in the `issued` date-parts array becomes the BibTeX `year`. If a month is present it is added as a separate `month` field.

Which CSL types are mapped?

article-journal maps to @article, book to @book, chapter to @incollection, paper-conference to @inproceedings, thesis to @phdthesis, and report to @techreport. Unknown types become @misc.

No. Parsing the JSON and generating BibTeX happen entirely in your browser. Your citation data never leaves your device.

CSL-JSON to BibTeX Converter

Convert CSL-JSON to BibTeX

This is the reverse of a BibTeX-to-CSL-JSON conversion: it takes CSL-JSON — the format used by Pandoc and citeproc — and produces BibTeX entries you can use directly with LaTeX. It is handy when a collaborator sends a .json bibliography but your document is built with bibtex or biber.

How it works

The tool parses the JSON (accepting either an array of items or a single object), then walks each CSL item. The CSL type chooses the BibTeX entry type (article-journal→@article, paper-conference→@inproceedings, thesis→@phdthesis, and so on). Variables are mapped back to fields: title→title, container-title→journal or booktitle, volume→volume, issue→number, page→pages (with - rewritten as the LaTeX --), DOI→doi, publisher→publisher.

Author and editor arrays are rebuilt into Family, Given strings joined with and. The issued date-parts array supplies the year (and month if present). Special characters such as &, % and _ are escaped so the resulting .bib compiles cleanly under LaTeX.

Notes

If a CSL item lacks an id, a cite key is synthesised from the first author’s family name and the year (for example Smith2021). Page ranges are normalised to the LaTeX double-hyphen en-dash form (3--17) regardless of how they were written in the input.