Reformat reference-list text file using google scholar

I have a literature reference list that I am trying to make Mendeley compatible. The list was provided to me by a colleague and is contained in a text file. Normally, I would run it through text2bib and then import it into Mendeley. However, the references use a bizarre formatting style which is very inconsistent throughout the file. For instance, in some cases the publication year are in parantheses and in other cases are free standing (no parantheses). As a result, text2bib is having trouble using the file correctly.

The biggest issue is that there are hundreds of references in this single file. I could manually correct each one, but that is a very tedious task.

The idea I had is to write a loop which: 1) copies a reference from each line in the text file, 2) inputs the text into a literature search engine like Google Scholar, 3) retrieves a properly formatted reference from the search results, and 4) writes the proper reference into a new text file for importing into text2bib or Mendeley.

My problem is that I have no idea which functions will allow me to readily input and retrieve from websites in this way. Each reference has its own line in the text file, so isolating one reference at a time is not the problem.

Any advice on how to do this efficiently? Or, does anyone know of a program already available to do the same function?

Answer 1

[xinian]

I guess you can check out webread/weboption functions.