pmid2bibtex.rb

# pmid2bibtex.rb
# convert a PubMed PMID to BibTeX citation format
# updated version of http://chrisamiller.com/science/2010/12/13/using-bioruby-to-fetch-citations-from-pubmed/
# works as of 2015-03-18

require 'bio'
Bio::NCBI.default_email = "[email protected]" # required for EUtils

id  = "18265351"
pm  = Bio::PubMed::efetch(id)         # array of MEDLINE-formatted string
med = Bio::MEDLINE.new(pm[0])         # MEDLINE object
bib = med.reference.format("bibtex")  # format is a method of Reference object

# "@article{PMID:18265351,\n  author       = {Brown, T. and Mackey, K. and Du, T.},\n  title        = {Analysis of RNA by northern
# and slot blot hybridization.},\n  journal      = {Curr Protoc Mol Biol},\n  year         = {2004},\n  volume       = {Chapter
# 4},\n  pages        = {Unit 4.9},\n  url          = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18265351},\n}\n"