# Generating formatted Citations for the Web from MODs

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [December 1, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241 "2014-12-01T19:37:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Matthew\_Roth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Matthew\_Roth](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Matthew_Roth)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/1 "2014-12-01T19:37:42Z")

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Hi List, [NOTE that this is a cross post from the MODS listserv[0]–this  
maybe a better place to post] After careful consideration over the past  
several months our web application has decided to store our citations in  
MODs as opposed to our propriety and often problematic relational  
structure. Great news for sure. We are now able to generate EndNote files,  
RIS files, BibTex files, DC, and MARCXML. With the latter two being less  
desired by our end users. Ideally our board of directors and (more  
importantly) our end users would like to generate formatted HTML citations  
in various formats. For example, the way Google scholar will give the user  
the choice of MLA, ALA, and Chicago. The problem looks to be that while  
there are several leads, no available resource exists for a proper HTML  
transformation. The most promising one is the citeproc project and the  
Citation Style Language[1]. They have projects in various stages in  
multiple languages. However, of the list I am only able to function in  
java, python, and JavaScript. The problem to me is that most expect a JSON  
format that is not too well documented–as best as I can tell, some of the  
discussions I’ve come across on this format our several years old at this  
point. Only one purports to work with MODs. citeproc-hs[2] a haskell  
library seems to have once expected MODs, but 1. I am not familiar with  
haskell and two it appears to not have been kept to date. I have not ruled  
it out completely, but need to consult a primer on haskell first. The  
python library, citeproc-py[3] claims to work with bibtex. However, they  
are still having issues with UTF-8[4]. Additionally, either the mapping is  
off in their BibTex parser or bibutils[5] is producing poor BibTex files  
from the inputted MODs files. Finally, the library according to the  
README.rst[6] is still not ready for production. Ideally, there would be an  
Xquery/XSL transformation that we could call from our web application which  
is built upon exist-db[7]. I suppose our next step may be writing our own  
transformation, however, it seems like coming to this as a programmer and  
not a librarian I may not be searching in all the right places. Do I need  
to write my own transformation, or has the wheel already been created? Best,  
Matt

PS I apologize if I have misrepresented anything about CSL and the various  
citeproc projects. I am still only a couple weeks old to this project.  
[0][http://listserv.loc.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1412&L=mods](http://listserv.loc.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1412&L=mods) [1]  
[http://citationstyles.org/](http://citationstyles.org/) [2]  
[https://hackage.haskell.org/package/citeproc-hs](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/citeproc-hs) [3]  
[https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py](https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py) [4]  
[https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py/issues/25](https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py/issues/25) [5]  
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/bibutils/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/bibutils/) [6]  
[https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py/blob/master/README.rst#citeproc-py](https://github.com/brechtm/citeproc-py/blob/master/README.rst#citeproc-py)  
[7][http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/homepage/index.html](http://exist-db.org/exist/apps/homepage/index.html)

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/2 "2014-12-01T20:17:00Z")

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Matt – the most mature CSL code is the javascript implementation by  
Frank Bennett.

I don’t believe, though Frank can correct me if I’m wrong, that  
citeproc-js can import MODS files.

So I am guessing you’d probably want to get someone to write an XSLT  
transformation to generate the JSON input data format from the MODS.

I’m not aware of any such code, but it may already exist. Also worth  
noting that conceptually such code would be pretty similar to an XSLT  
that could convert MODS to any other similar text format: RIS,  
Endnote, etc. So if you could find such openly licensed XSLT, it  
should be fairly easy to adapt to a CSL workflow.

But there’s another option, I suppose:

I wrote the first implementation of CSL using MODS in an exist-based  
workflow. So that code would probably work, with the downside that it  
would be based on an old version of the CSL spec. But you might not  
care about that.

[http://sourceforge.net/p/xbiblio/code/HEAD/tree/attic/citeproc-xsl/](http://sourceforge.net/p/xbiblio/code/HEAD/tree/attic/citeproc-xsl/)

Bruce

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**Author:** ![Matthew\_Roth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Matthew\_Roth](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Matthew_Roth)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/3 "2014-12-01T22:25:26Z")

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Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the prompt response. citeproc-js was the first project I looked  
at, and my recollection is that you are correct. No support for importing  
MODs. Can you recommend any good resources outside of the citeproc-js  
project and its documentation for the JSON it expects? I think that may  
just be the route I go.

As far as original implementation of CSL using MODS that is actually what  
brought me to CSL–okay, it was actually google. I’m afraid not only would  
it be an older version of the CSL spec it is also would likely expect a  
much older version of the MODs we are using.

I just cannot help feeling a bit surprised that having MODS, Bibtex,  
Endnote, RIS, DC, and MARCXML I cannot find a solid route to transform one  
of them into an HTML formatted citation. I am not tied to using CSL  
necessarily, but hands down it looks like one of the best resources out  
there. I feel like I am about to reinvent the wheel and that if I just keep  
researching a little longer I’ll find something.

Best,  
Matt

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**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Karcher](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/sebastian_karcher/32/176_2.png) [@Sebastian\_Karcher](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Sebastian_Karcher)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/4 "2014-12-01T22:40:28Z")

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I believe the folks at Uni Bielefeld’s Katalog Plus do what you want. They  
definitely use CSL, I believe via citeproc-js in citeproc-node, and I’d  
assume they use their MARC data. I don’t actually think the code is open,  
but it might be and/or they might be willing to share stuff with you. I  
don’t have a direct contact, maybe someone is reading along here, but I do  
know one of the principal architects tweets under @ChPietsch  
[https://twitter.com/ChPietsch](https://twitter.com/ChPietsch)  
Another place to look to would be Docear (they definitely read along here),  
which users citeproc-js and has a native database in bibtex, so they’re  
definitely converting BibTeX to CSLJSON somehow and are fully open.  
But since the Bielefeld people do exactly what you have in mind, that’d be  
my first attempt.

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**Author:** ![Frank\_Bennett](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/frank_bennett/32/198_2.png) [@Frank\_Bennett](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Frank_Bennett)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/5 "2014-12-01T23:22:17Z")

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The Asia & Europe Cluster at Heidelberg carries their content in MODS,  
channeled to citeproc-js for rendering, with multilingual citation  
support. The architect at Heidelberg is Jens Petersen, his contact  
details are here:

```
http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/people/associate-members/associate-members-person-details/persdetail/oestergaard-petersen.html

```

You are very right to say that documentation on walking data between  
the various formats should be closer to the surface. As things have  
stabilized over the past year or so, it is within view - all we are  
wanting is the time to work on it!

Frank

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**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 2:03am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/6 "2014-12-02T02:03:32Z")

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> The problem to me is that most expect a JSON format that is not  
> too well documented–as best as I can tell, some of the discussions I’ve  
> come across on this format our several years old at this point.

You’ve found our CSL JSON schema? I’m pretty sure both Zotero and  
Mendeley use this to ensure conformity.

[https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/blob/master/csl-data.json](https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/blob/master/csl-data.json)  
(for individual bibligraphic items)  
[https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/blob/master/csl-citation.json](https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/blob/master/csl-citation.json)  
(for citations to said items)

> citeproc-hs[2] a haskell library seems to have  
> once expected MODs, but 1. I am not familiar with haskell and two it appears  
> to not have been kept to date. I have not ruled it out completely, but need  
> to consult a primer on haskell first.

I recommend taking another look here. The original author of  
citeproc-hs, Andrea Rossato, has indeed been relatively inactive for a  
while, but recently announced a willingness to resume work on  
citeproc-hs. Meanwhile, the author of pandoc, John McFarlane, created  
pandoc-citeproc (based on citeproc-hs, but much more actively  
maintained), and extensive work was done to get a good BibTeX-to-CSL  
JSON mapping in pandoc (mostly by Nick Bart on the pandoc forums).

[https://code.google.com/p/citeproc-hs/issues/detail?id=101#c10](https://code.google.com/p/citeproc-hs/issues/detail?id=101#c10)

> **[pandoc-citeproc](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/pandoc-citeproc)**
>
> Supports using pandoc with citeproc

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pandoc-discuss](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pandoc-discuss)

Best,  
Rintze

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**Author:** ![michelkraemer](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/michelkraemer/32/226_2.png) [@michelkraemer](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/michelkraemer)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/7 "2014-12-02T11:52:54Z")

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Dear all,

Please note that citeproc-java supports several input formats such as  
BibTeX, RIS and EndNote. It also has got a nice command line tool that  
can be used to convert BibTeX or EndNote to CSL, for example.

What you have to do, though, is to build the tool from source as the  
current release 0.6 does not have this features yet (except for BibTeX  
import). However, building is relatively easy. It’s all described on the  
website:

[http://michel-kraemer.github.io/citeproc-java/](http://michel-kraemer.github.io/citeproc-java/)

After building the tool you can import RIS and EndNote in the same way  
you import BibTeX.

I’m currently working on version 1.0 which I plan to release some time  
soon. I’m very busy at the moment so the release might be around Christmas.

I hope this helps. Please let me know, if you need any assistance.

Cheers,  
Michel

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**Author:** ![Nick\_Bart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@Nick\_Bart](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Nick_Bart)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/8 "2014-12-03T20:13:06Z")

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Matthew,

I don’t know what motivated you or your organization to choose MODS; the  
main problem I see is that MODS is nowhere as standardized as biblatex,  
bibtex (which I would consider to be too limited for serious use though),  
or CSL; so if I were you I’d probably try to use one of these formats for  
my database instead.

Still, if you must use MODS, some background on citeproc-hs and  
pandoc-citeproc:

citeproc-hs and pandoc-citeproc incorporate bibutils to first convert all  
bibliography database input formats bibutils recognizes to MODS (with the  
exception of CSL JSON and MODS itself for citeproc-hs, and CSL JSON, CSL  
YAML, bibtex, biblatex, and MODS for pandoc-citeproc).

Thus, as Andrea Rossato, the citeproc-hs author, has pointed out  
repeatedly, citeproc-hs’s MODS parser has been written with the sole aim of  
parsing MODS records generated by bibutils, and nothing else, so depending  
on the MODS flavour you will be using, your mileage may vary considerably.

Unfortunately, the whatever-to-MODS (bibutils) and MODS-to-CSL JSON  
(citeproc-hs) routines suffered from many bugs, some of which have not been  
fixed to this date (for open bug reports see  
[http://sourceforge.net/p/bibutils/discussion/general/](http://sourceforge.net/p/bibutils/discussion/general/) and  
[http://code.google.com/p/citeproc-hs/issues](http://code.google.com/p/citeproc-hs/issues)).

pandoc-citeproc inherited the citeproc-hs MODS parser essentially  
unchanged, and since pandoc-citeproc bypasses the MODS-related routines of  
both bibutils and citeproc-hs completely for what appear to be its most  
popular input formats, biblatex and bibtex (CSL JSON or CSL YAML not  
needing conversion anyway), there has never been much demand on the  
pandoc-citeproc forum for fixing MODS-related bugs.

That being said, if you want to get an idea of whether pandoc-citeproc’s  
MODS-to-CSL JSON conversion could work for you, try `pandoc-citeproc --bib2json yourbibfile.mods`.

Best,  
Nick

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/generating-formatted-citations-for-the-web-from-mods/1241/9 "2014-12-03T20:17:29Z")

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To your first question, MODS comes out of the library world, and so is also  
a way to bring MARC data into the 21st century. Pretty sure that’s why  
they’re using it.

Also, while MODS is less, shall we say controlled, it’s also more  
expressive than the alternatives you note.