ISBN to BibTeX Converter

What you get

The ISBN 978-0-201-89683-1 is the third edition of the first volume of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming. Pasted into the field above, it gives this entry:

@book{knuth1997art,
  author    = {Donald Knuth},
  title     = {The art of computer programming},
  year      = {1997},
  edition   = {3rd ed.},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
  address   = {Reading, Mass},
  isbn      = {9780201896831}
}

The fields are author, title, year, edition, publisher, address (the place of publication) and isbn, each filled only when the record has it. The citation key follows the Google Scholar pattern; you can switch to Knuth1997 style under the field. For what a complete book entry can contain, see the @book entry type.

ISBN-10 and ISBN-13

Books printed before 2007 carry a ten-digit ISBN, later ones a thirteen-digit ISBN, and many show both. They identify the same book: the ISBN-13 is the ISBN-10 with 978 in front and a new check digit. The converter checks the last digit of whatever you paste, converts an ISBN-10 to its ISBN-13 and looks up that, so 0-201-89683-4 and 978-0-201-89683-1 give the same entry. Hyphens and spaces are ignored, and a leading ISBN: is accepted. If a digit is mistyped, the check digit no longer fits and the converter says so rather than returning some other book.

Where the data comes from

ISBNs have no BibTeX service behind them the way DOIs do. Your browser asks Open Library, the catalogue of the Internet Archive, and falls back to Google Books when Open Library has no record. Both collect their data from libraries and publishers, so it varies. Before you cite, check three things: the edition, which may be missing or written as free text; the publisher's name, which may be shortened or include an imprint; and the capitalisation of the title, which library catalogues usually store in sentence case. If your style should keep capitals, protect them with braces as described under special symbols.

Keep in mind that an ISBN identifies one edition in one binding, not the work. The entry describes that printing, so if you read the paperback of the fourth edition, look up that ISBN and not the hardback of the first.

When no record is found

Older books, regional publications and small presses are often missing from both catalogues, and e-books frequently have their own ISBN that no library has recorded. In that case write the entry by hand from the title page and its back. A minimal version looks like this:

@book{knuth1997art,
  author    = {Knuth, Donald E.},
  title     = {The Art of Computer Programming},
  volume    = {1},
  edition   = {3},
  publisher = {Addison-Wesley},
  address   = {Reading, MA},
  year      = {1997},
  isbn      = {978-0-201-89683-1}
}

The @book page lists the required and optional fields, and the format guide explains how to write names with several parts.

Several books at once

Put one ISBN per line to convert a whole reading list in one go. The entries come back in the order you pasted them, and any ISBN that fails is listed above the results with the reason. Copy puts all entries on the clipboard; Download .bib saves them as references.bib, ready to add to your .bib file. For journal articles and papers, use the DOI to BibTeX converter.

Questions

Is the ISBN to BibTeX converter free?

Yes. It is free, needs no account and runs in your browser. The lookups go straight from your browser to Open Library and Google Books, not through bibtex.org.

Should I paste the ISBN-10 or the ISBN-13?

Either. An ISBN-10 is checked and converted to the matching ISBN-13 before the lookup, so both give the same entry. The isbn field always holds the 13-digit form.

Why is the edition missing or wrong?

The edition comes from the library record, and many records leave it out or write it as free text such as 3rd ed.. Check the copyright page of the book and correct the edition field by hand. Most styles expect an ordinal word or a number there, for example {Third} or 3.

Can it find a book by its title?

No. It needs the ISBN, because only the ISBN points to one edition of one book. To search by title, use Google Scholar's "Cite" link or a reference manager such as Zotero, which can look up books by title and export BibTeX.