Publication types
Librario supports several kinds of scholarly publication: from journal articles and books to technical standards. Publication types help you keep your library well organised and make relevant literature easier to find.
The publication types follow the entry types of biblatex, the widely used successor to BibTeX1.
That is why Librario exports your references as a .bib file that uses biblatex entry types.
Classic BibTeX styles do not know some of these types (patent, periodical, report, standard, thesis); in that case, change the entry type in your reference manager.
No custom publication types
Librario supports only the publication types listed here. They cover the common forms of specialist literature and keep the library easy to navigate.
If an important publication type that comes up often in your organisation is missing, please contact our support team. We are happy to check whether we can add it in a future version.
Until then, we recommend using the closest existing type or, if in doubt, the type Miscellaneous.
Finer distinctions with categories
If you want to tell certain publications apart in more detail, we recommend using categories. Publication types define the basic kind of a publication, while categories let you group publications flexibly by topic or by organisational needs.
Examples of useful categories:
- Telling different kinds of report apart (quarterly reports, market analyses, feasibility studies)
- Grouping standards by topic (fire safety, structural engineering, energy efficiency)
- Grouping theses by subject area
- Marking internal and external publications
You can adapt your categories freely to your organisation’s needs. A publication can belong to several categories.
Article
Definition: article
An article in a journal, magazine, newspaper or other periodical that forms a section of its own with its own title.
Articles are the most common publication type for current research results. They give a quick insight into new developments and findings in a research field.
Many scholarly articles print a DOI on the first or last page (usually in very small type). Librario uses it to find the article’s metadata automatically and add it to your library.
In the Journal field, enter the name of the journal or newspaper the article appeared in.
Record a conference paper or a chapter in an edited collection as an article too.
Link the volume in the Parent publication field.
Librario has no separate type for these contributions: the export writes them as article (BibTeX) or Journal Article (EndNote) and leaves out the parent publication.
For your bibliography, change the entry type in your reference manager, for example to inproceedings or incollection.
Book
Definition: book
A book written by one person alone or by several authors together.
This type covers both printed books and e-books. Most books have an ISBN, which Librario uses to fetch metadata.
Periodical
Definition: periodical
A single issue of a magazine, journal or other periodically published work.
Unlike a single article, this type records the complete issue as a publication in its own right. This is especially useful for journals with themed issues, or when you want to keep track of everything in an issue.
Enter the name of the journal in the Title field, the issue number in the Number field and the volume in the Volume field.
Patent
Definition: patent
A legal document that describes an invention and protects the exclusive rights of the inventor or their successors in title.
Patents are important sources on technical innovation and the state of the art. They contain detailed technical descriptions and drawings.
Enter the patent number in the Identifier field.
Report
Definition: report
A technical report, research report or white paper from a university or other institution.
Use the Organisation field to state which institute is responsible for the report.
Thesis
Definition: thesis
An academic work written for an educational institution as a requirement for an academic degree.
A thesis can be a doctoral dissertation, a master’s thesis, a bachelor’s thesis or a Diplom thesis (the traditional German and Austrian university degree).
Standard
Definition: standard
National and international standards, issued by a competent body such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The type Standard mainly covers technical standards: ISO and EN standards, the German, Austrian and Swiss national standards (DIN, ÖNORM and SN), rule sets from Deutsche Bahn, the German rail operator, and guidelines from professional associations. The type Standard can also hold laws and regulations.
Choosing the type Standard turns on Librario’s standards management.
Librario can then fetch metadata for the standard (title, date, validity, predecessor and successor standards).
For this, the Identifier field must contain the standard’s designation (for example DIN 10451:1983-03).
Proceedings
Definition: proceedings
A proceedings volume: the collected papers of a conference in one volume. The work as a whole has no authors, but usually has editors.
Record an edited collection without a conference as a book.
Record the individual papers in a proceedings volume as articles and link the proceedings as their parent publication. The papers often document the current state of research at a particular point in time.
Miscellaneous
A type for publications that fit no other type. Use this type sparingly, as it can make your library harder to organise.
Unknown
Definition: unknown
A provisional type for publications whose kind has not yet been clearly determined.
Librario mainly uses this type when it imports publications automatically and cannot recognise their type. Check publications of this type and assign them a specific type as soon as you can.
Mapping publication types to biblatex entry types
Librario exports references in BibTeX format so you can exchange them with other reference managers. The table below maps Librario’s publication types to the corresponding biblatex types.
| Librario publication type | biblatex entry type |
|---|---|
| Article | article |
| Book | book |
| Periodical | periodical |
| Patent | patent |
| Report | report |
| Thesis | thesis |
| Standard | standard |
| Proceedings | proceedings |
| Miscellaneous | misc |
| Unknown | misc |
-
Source: biblatex on CTAN ↩