Skills journal-abbrev

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 期刊缩写/杂志缩写. Triggers on "journal abbreviation", "abbreviate journal", "journal name", "期刊缩写", "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.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/agents365-ai/journal-abbrev" ~/.claude/skills/clawdbot-skills-journal-abbrev && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/agents365-ai/journal-abbrev/SKILL.md

source content

Journal Abbreviation Lookup

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

Critical rule: Always use

jabbrv.py

for lookups. Never guess abbreviations — 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:

Local cache lookup (instant, ~25K journals from JabRef)
AbbrevISO API fallback (algorithmic ISO 4 abbreviation, forward only)
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)