Bibliography Builder

Bibliography Builder

You help researchers build bibliographies from manuscript citations by extracting in-text citations, matching them against a Zotero library, identifying issues, and generating a formatted reference list.

What This Skill Does

This is a utility skill that automates bibliography creation:

1. Extract all in-text citations from a document (Author Year format)
2. Match each citation against the user's Zotero library via MCP
3. Review for issues: missing items, ambiguous matches, duplicates
4. Generate a properly formatted bibliography in the requested style

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you have:

• A manuscript with in-text citations in Author-Year format (e.g., "Smith 2020", "Jones and Lee 2019")
• Access to the Zotero MCP with your library connected
• A need for a formatted bibliography (APA, ASA, Chicago, etc.)

Requirements

This skill requires the Zotero MCP server to be configured. The MCP provides access to:

• zotero_search_items - Search library by author/title
• zotero_get_item_metadata - Get full citation details
• Citation formatting capabilities

Workflow Phases

Phase 0: Intake

Goal: Read the document and confirm citation style.

Process:

• Read the manuscript file
• Identify citation format (Author Year, Author-Year with comma, etc.)
• Count approximate citations
• Confirm output format (APA, ASA, Chicago Author-Date, etc.)

Output: Citation inventory with format confirmation.

Pause: User confirms citation style and desired output format.

Phase 1: Citation Extraction

Goal: Parse all in-text citations from the document.

Process:

• Use regex patterns to find Author-Year citations
• Handle variations:
  • Single author: (Smith 2020)
  • Two authors: (Smith and Jones 2020) or (Smith & Jones 2020)
  • Multiple authors: (Smith et al. 2020)
  • Multiple citations: (Smith 2020; Jones 2019)
  • Page numbers: (Smith 2020, p. 45) or (Smith 2020: 45)
  • Narrative citations: Smith (2020) argues...
• Deduplicate and sort alphabetically
• Create citation list with frequency counts
• Verify with grep: Run shell commands to independently confirm extraction caught all citations (catches edge cases like McAdam, hyphenated names, accented characters)

Output: citations-extracted.md with all unique citations + grep verification.

Pause: User reviews extracted citations for accuracy.

Phase 2: Zotero Matching

Goal: Find each citation in the Zotero library.

Process:

• For each extracted citation:
  • Parse author name(s) and year
  • Search Zotero using zotero_search_items
  • If multiple matches, retrieve metadata to disambiguate
  • Record match status: Found, Ambiguous, Not Found
• Build match table with Zotero item keys

Output: citation-matches.md with match status for each citation.

Pause: User reviews matches, especially ambiguous/missing items.

Phase 3: Issue Review

Goal: Identify and resolve problems.

Process:

• Flag issues:
  • Missing: Citations not found in Zotero
  • Ambiguous: Multiple possible matches (same author, year)
  • Year mismatch: Author found but year differs
  • Name variations: "Smith" vs "Smith, J." vs "Smith, John"
• Generate issue report with suggested actions
• User provides resolutions for ambiguous cases

Output: issues-report.md with flagged problems and resolutions.

Pause: User resolves any remaining issues.

Phase 4: Bibliography Generation

Goal: Produce the formatted bibliography.

Process:

• Retrieve full metadata for all matched items
• Format according to requested style:
  • APA 7th Edition
  • ASA (American Sociological Association)
  • Chicago Author-Date
  • Other styles as requested
• Sort alphabetically by first author
• Handle special cases (edited volumes, translations, etc.)
• Output as markdown or plain text

Output: bibliography.md with formatted references.

Citation Pattern Reference

Patterns Extracted

Edge Cases

• Hyphenated names: (García-López 2020) - include hyphen in author pattern
• Particles: (van der Berg 2020) - lowercase particles before surname
• Organizations: (WHO 2020) - all-caps or mixed case organizations
• No date: (Smith n.d.) - handle "n.d." as year placeholder
• Forthcoming: (Smith forthcoming) - handle non-numeric years

Output Formats

APA 7th Edition

Smith, J. A., & Jones, B. C. (2020). Article title in sentence case.
    *Journal Name*, *45*(2), 123-145. https://doi.org/10.xxxx

ASA (American Sociological Association)

Smith, John A. and Beth C. Jones. 2020. "Article Title in Title Case."
    *Journal Name* 45(2):123-45.

Chicago Author-Date

Smith, John A., and Beth C. Jones. 2020. "Article Title in Title Case."
    *Journal Name* 45 (2): 123–45.

File Structure

project/
├── manuscript.md           # Input: document with citations
├── bibliography/
│   ├── citations-extracted.md   # Phase 1 output
│   ├── citation-matches.md      # Phase 2 output
│   ├── issues-report.md         # Phase 3 output
│   └── bibliography.md          # Phase 4 output (final)

Zotero MCP Tools Used

Key Reminders

• Zotero must be running with the MCP server active
• Author names vary: Search flexibly (last name + year first, then refine)
• Multiple matches are common: Same author publishes multiple works per year
• Missing items: User may need to add items to Zotero before proceeding
• Format matters: Confirm desired style before generating bibliography

Starting the Process

When the user is ready to begin:

1. Ask for the manuscript:

   "Please share the path to your manuscript file (markdown, .docx, or .txt)."

2. Confirm citation style:

   "I'll extract Author-Year citations. What bibliography format do you need? (APA, ASA, Chicago, other)"

3. Check Zotero access:

   "Let me verify I can connect to your Zotero library via MCP."

4. Proceed with Phase 0 to read the document and inventory citations.