# Journal Abbreviations file

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [June 15, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180 "2013-06-15T22:44:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/1 "2013-06-15T22:44:54Z")

</div>

Hello,

My next project in Mendeley is to add “Journal Abbreviations”.  
Currently Mendeley Desktop has a workaround but it doesn’t have proper  
support (with UI, etc.).

In this feedback page:  
[http://feedback.mendeley.com/forums/4941-mendeley-feedback/suggestions/83173-journal-abbreviations](http://feedback.mendeley.com/forums/4941-mendeley-feedback/suggestions/83173-journal-abbreviations)

some users has posted a file with the format:  
FULL\_JOURNAL\_NAME abbreviated

See for example:  
[http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75692408/AbbreviationsFixMendeley.zip](http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/75692408/AbbreviationsFixMendeley.zip)

It seems that the users has been sending this file between them and improving.

I don’t really know from where the original data came but I know that  
has been used for a while for many users.

Questions:  
a) Should the citation styles github repository contain a list of  
journal abbreviations? We have citations and locales, so it may be  
interesting for the community.  
b) Could we use without legal problems the above file in the  
citation-styles project? Mendeley hasn’t done it, it has evolved from  
different sources. Maybe it comes from places like  
[http://www.library.uq.edu.au/faqs/endnote/journal\_terms.html](http://www.library.uq.edu.au/faqs/endnote/journal_terms.html) but I  
haven’t checked.

Regards,–  
Carles Pina | Software Engineer

> **[Carles Pina | Mendeley](https://www.mendeley.com/profiles/Carles-Pina/)**
>
> Connect and collaborate with Carles Pina at Swiss Polar Institute on Mendeley.

Mendeley Limited | London, UK | [www.mendeley.com](http://www.mendeley.com)  
Registered in England and Wales | Company Number 6419015

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [June 15, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/2 "2013-06-15T23:59:59Z")

</div>

on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to  
abbreviate unknown journal titles, but I don’t know that for sure).

We can obviously host list(s) on CSL and I actually intended to do  
this at one time - that’s why we have  
[https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations) which is  
empty.  
Feel free to push stuff to it.

For me abbreviations become most interesting from a CSL perspective if we either  
a) we have multiple lists for different sets of journals (e.g. Endnote  
says they have 11 different ones or so, I don’t know how different  
they are) and even more so if  
b) we decide to include the information of which list to use in  
citation styles (which - if there are multiple lists - I think would  
be ideal). For that we’d need, again, a better sense of the  
differences out there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Lawrence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@David\_Lawrence](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/David_Lawrence)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/3 "2013-06-16T00:52:19Z")

</div>

In addition to the ISSN-LTWA title word to abbreviation utility:  
[http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php](http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php)

I have used these resources (some of the listings are proprietary):

[http://www.abbreviations.com/jas.php](http://www.abbreviations.com/jas.php)

> **[LibGuides: Information Literacy Research Skill Building: Journal Title...](http://libguides.libraries.wsu.edu/infolit/finding-the-real-title)**
>
> This guide contains information literacy instructional materials based on the ACRL Information Literacy Standards.

[http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/res/journal\_abbrevs.xhtml](http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/res/journal_abbrevs.xhtml)

> **[LibGuides: Journal Abbreviations: Home](http://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=650101)**
>
> This guide provides links to resources for determining the standard abbreviations of journal titles, and for identifying journals on the basis of abbreviations.

[http://www.aip.org/pubservs/style/4thed/appg.pdf‎](http://www.aip.org/pubservs/style/4thed/appg.pdf%E2%80%8E)

David W. Lawrence, PhD, MPH, Director  
Center for Injury Prevention Policy and Practice  
San Diego State University, School of Public Health  
6475 Alvarado Road, Suite 105  
San Diego, CA 92120 USA  
@David_Lawrence  
V 619 594 1994 Skype: DWL-SDCA  
[www.CIPPP.org](http://www.CIPPP.org) – [www.SafetyLit.org](http://www.SafetyLit.org)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:59am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/4 "2013-07-08T09:59:16Z")

</div>

Hi,

> on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
> the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
> there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to

I’m searching it and I can’t find (the Medline original files) (searching  
in NLM and other pages. I’ve found some XML files but they don’t see to be  
free).

Do you have the URL?

I see the abbreviations (abbreviations.json) in  
Zotero\_linux-i686/resource/schema but I don’t see any comment or  
information from where it came (maybe in the git repo…).

I’d like to refetch this list (Medline) and perhaps other free lists to  
[GitHub - citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations) so we can all use  
it.  
I’m contacting CASSI at the moment since they seem to have the information  
but not available to download, as far as I can see.

Regards,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [July 8, 2013, 11:51am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/5 "2013-07-08T11:51:36Z")

</div>

> Hi,
> 
> > on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
> > the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
> > there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to
> 
> I’m searching it and I can’t find (the Medline original files) (searching in  
> NLM and other pages. I’ve found some XML files but they don’t see to be  
> free).
> 
> Do you have the URL?
> 
> I see the abbreviations (abbreviations.json) in  
> Zotero\_linux-i686/resource/schema but I don’t see any comment or information  
> from where it came (maybe in the git repo…).
> 
> I’d like to refetch this list (Medline) and perhaps other free lists to  
> [GitHub - citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations) so we can all use  
> it.  
> I’m contacting CASSI at the moment since they seem to have the information  
> but not available to download, as far as I can see.

In the Zotero sources, the file is in the resource fork at:

```
https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/master/resource/schema/abbreviations.json

```

I can’t help on the MedLine data behind it.

Frank

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [July 8, 2013, 11:52am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/6 "2013-07-08T11:52:14Z")

</div>

> > Hi,
> > 
> > > on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
> > > the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
> > > there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to
> > 
> > I’m searching it and I can’t find (the Medline original files) (searching in  
> > NLM and other pages. I’ve found some XML files but they don’t see to be  
> > free).
> > 
> > Do you have the URL?
> > 
> > I see the abbreviations (abbreviations.json) in  
> > Zotero\_linux-i686/resource/schema but I don’t see any comment or information  
> > from where it came (maybe in the git repo…).
> > 
> > I’d like to refetch this list (Medline) and perhaps other free lists to  
> > [GitHub - citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations) so we can all use  
> > it.  
> > I’m contacting CASSI at the moment since they seem to have the information  
> > but not available to download, as far as I can see.
> 
> In the Zotero sources, the file is in the resource fork at:
> 
> ```
> https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/master/resource/schema/abbreviations.json
> 
> ```

(oops, sorry, that wasn’t your question)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/7 "2013-07-08T13:57:47Z")

</div>

Hi,

> Hi,
> 
> > on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
> > the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
> > there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to
> 
> I’m searching it and I can’t find (the Medline original files) (searching  
> in NLM and other pages. I’ve found some XML files but they don’t see to be  
> free).
> 
> Do you have the URL?

- Pubmed:  
I’ve found:  
[Help - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.pubmedhelptable45/)

Linked from:  
[Home - NLM Catalog - NCBI](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog) (“Journal Lists by FTP”)

That files and a script (I’ll write in Python) and we could create journal  
abbreviations lists. My understanding is that it’s public domain:  
[Copyright and Disclaimers](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/disclaimer.html) so, as far as we  
attribute to them, it’s ok

Usually now I’d say that sentence “any lawyer in the room?” but I just  
realized that we have one indeed, afaik not specialized in this topic.  
Anyway, correct me if I’m wrong, please.

- CAS:  
There is a list here:  
[CAS References Core Journal Coverage List](http://www.cas.org/content/references/corejournals)(core journal). The  
terms and conditions and so on is more complicated (  
[Legal, License Agreements and Policies](http://www.cas.org/legal) ).

- CASSI (CAS Source Index) is even more restricted:  
[CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool](http://cassi.cas.org/guidelines.jsp)

To start I’d focus on Pubmed ones.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/8 "2013-07-08T16:39:44Z")

</div>

Hi,On 8 July 2013 14:57, Carles Pina \<@Carles\_Pina\> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On 8 July 2013 10:59, Carles Pina \<@Carles\_Pina\> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > On 16 June 2013 00:59, Sebastian Karcher \<@Sebastian\_Karcher\> wrote:
> > 
> > > on the Zotero side this is handled with a single list from MEDLINE -  
> > > the Medline data is under some type of open license, so no legal issue  
> > > there. (The file is JSON - I think Zotero also has an algorithm to
> > 
> > I’m searching it and I can’t find (the Medline original files) (searching in NLM and other pages. I’ve found some XML files but they don’t see to be free).
> > 
> > Do you have the URL?
> 
> - Pubmed:  
> I’ve found:  
> [Help - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.pubmedhelptable45/)
> 
> Linked from:  
> [Home - NLM Catalog - NCBI](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog) (“Journal Lists by FTP”)
> 
> That files and a script (I’ll write in Python) and we could create journal abbreviations lists. My understanding is that it’s public domain: [Copyright and Disclaimers](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/disclaimer.html) so, as far as we attribute to them, it’s ok

Here I show what I meant:

> <https://github.com/cpina/abbreviations/tree/master/ncbi>
>
> //github.com/cpina/abbreviations/tree/master/ncbi

See the result:  
[https://raw.github.com/cpina/abbreviations/master/ncbi/abbreviations.txt](https://raw.github.com/cpina/abbreviations/master/ncbi/abbreviations.txt)  
(it’s the previous lists, deduplicated)

May this be useful?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [July 22, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/9 "2013-07-22T17:56:10Z")

</div>

FYI, I inquired at NCBI whether their abbreviation list is indeed in  
the public domain, and they confirmed it is:

— (quote)  
These table/files:  
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.pubmedhelptable45/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3827/table/pubmedhelp.pubmedhelptable45/)  
are NCBI generated and therefore in the public domain, so you do not  
need a permission for use:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/disclaimer.html---](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/disclaimer.html---)

As an aside, does anybody have a preference for the format used to  
store abbreviations in the CSL repo? Tab-delimited CSV or JSON?

Rintze

---

<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:** [July 22, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/10 "2013-07-22T18:19:43Z")

</div>

My opinion is less important than the implementers here, but given  
that we already do XML and JSON, I’d suggest JSON would be better than  
adding a third.

Bruce

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [July 22, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/11 "2013-07-22T19:15:25Z")

</div>

We do use tab-delimited CSV for storing style metadata at  
[https://github.com/citation-style-language/utilities/tree/master/generate\_dependent\_styles/data](https://github.com/citation-style-language/utilities/tree/master/generate_dependent_styles/data)  
, but I think the Zotero team generally prefers JSON, so it would be  
good to hear from them :).

Rintze

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aurimas\_Vinckevicius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Aurimas\_Vinckevicius](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Aurimas_Vinckevicius)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/12 "2013-10-18T01:52:30Z")

</div>

Carles,

Have you heard back anything from CAS or CASSI about the legality of  
compiling abbreviation lists in JSON for re-distribution?

I’ve been looking around for different styles that require abbreviations and  
I’m not coming across that many different abbreviation lists. Most require  
LTWA, some reference MEDLINE/Index Medicus, which is essentially LTWA with a  
few changes. Both of those are not restricted AFAIK and CSL could easily  
distribute them.

However, ACS journals refer to CASSI (I actually thought CAS was essentially  
the same list), which, as Carles points out is copyrighted and their terms  
of use pretty clearly state that you cannot compile the abbreviations into a  
large list for distribution. It’s a bit odd that they would be this  
restrictive, considering that access to CASSI is free. If we can’t compile  
it into a JSON file, I figured that the reference managers could have users  
click buttons to “automatically” retrieve abbreviations for the journals in  
their libraries. That seems to be ok with their ToS.  
[http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/j-abbrev.html](http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/j-abbrev.html) suggests that CASSI is  
also based on LTWA, but obviously, like with MEDLINE, there may be some  
corrections that need to be accounted for.

I also came across an abbreviation list used by Society for Biblical  
Studies. It’s published in The SBL Handbook of Style (section 8.4.1) and is  
obviously copyrighted. Their copyright notice  
([http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/publishing\_fairuse.aspx](http://www.sbl-site.org/publications/publishing_fairuse.aspx)), however,  
does not seem very restrictive and perhaps they would grant rights to  
redistribute the list if inquired (I haven’t yet).

[http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/j-abbrev.html](http://www.library.illinois.edu/biotech/j-abbrev.html) also mentions BIOSIS  
and a couple other lists (they all seem to be LTWA-based), but I have not  
found any styles that reference these. Do you guys know if they are actually  
used? There’s also the WoS list  
[http://images.webofknowledge.com/WOK46/help/WOS/A\_abrvjt.html](http://images.webofknowledge.com/WOK46/help/WOS/A_abrvjt.html) but again, I  
haven’t seen a style that uses it.

Finally, I know that Bluebook has a bunch of abbreviation lists, but they  
are copyrighted and, as Frank has discovered, Bluebook holds on to their  
copyright very tightly. ALWD may also have abbreviations, but I don’t have  
access to either of the manuals, so I can’t comment exactly.

So basically, my concern is that, with the exception of MEDLINE and LTWA,  
all the other lists are copyrighted, which essentially puts a stop to CSL  
distributing them.

I had started writing a formal specification for abbreviation lists  
([https://gist.github.com/aurimasv/6878178](https://gist.github.com/aurimasv/6878178)). The gist of it is that managing  
the lists and generating abbreviations would be left up to the reference  
manager. CSL would have been the source of the actual lists, but considering  
the above, perhaps it’s best to leave obtaining/generating the lists up to  
the reference managers as well.

CSL would simply identify the list that needs to be used for a style (the  
list identifiers would have to be agreed upon), the CSL processor would  
request the reference manager to generate an abbreviation for a particular  
field given an abbreviation list ID (falling back to unabbreviated form  
otherwise), and the rest would be left up to the reference managers to  
implement as they see fit.

I’d love to have this subject finalized as soon as possible, so that we can  
properly implement abbreviation lists in Zotero.

Thanks for your input.  
Aurimas.–  
View this message in context: [http://xbiblio-devel.2463403.n2.nabble.com/Journal-Abbreviations-file-tp7578617p7578807.html](http://xbiblio-devel.2463403.n2.nabble.com/Journal-Abbreviations-file-tp7578617p7578807.html)  
Sent from the xbiblio-devel mailing list archive at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 18, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/13 "2013-10-18T03:24:33Z")

</div>

Curious to see what happens with this. Carles?

Frank

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/14 "2013-10-18T09:16:13Z")

</div>

It’s living in [https://github.com/cpina/abbreviations](https://github.com/cpina/abbreviations) , I’ll do a pull  
request later on (was forgotten, apologies).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/15 "2013-10-18T11:16:27Z")

</div>

It’s there too:

> **[citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations/tree/master/ncbi)**
>
> Contribute to citation-style-language/abbreviations development by creating an account on GitHub.

  
. I’ve done a pull request with some small update. I’ll prepare a  
better README.md for the root of the repo.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carles\_Pina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@Carles\_Pina](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Carles_Pina)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/journal-abbreviations-file/1180/16 "2013-10-18T11:36:21Z")

</div>

Hi Aurimas,

Regarding CAS: I asked them and I received an answer that said that  
“look the terms and conditions” which is quite strict. I haven’t done  
any work there.

Regarding MEDLINE/Index, etc.: see

> **[citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations/tree/master/ncbi)**
>
> Contribute to citation-style-language/abbreviations development by creating an account on GitHub.

  
. The terms of use on the webpage says that it’s ok and Rintze double  
checked with them and they answered that it’s ok to publish it to  
different places, etc.

LTWA: terms of use of the webpage says that it’s freely re-distributable, etc.

At Mendeley we use LTWA but I haven’t uploaded to  
[https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations](https://github.com/citation-style-language/abbreviations) because it’s  
not a journal abbreviations but word abbreviations. Citeproc-js cannot  
use it straight away. What we did: citeproc-js looks up the  
abbreviation and Mendeley Desktop uses ncbi and if we don’t have an  
exact match then it does its best with LTWA.

We released it one month ago approximately (even a bit more) and so  
far we haven’t had complains. If I can help in something else let me  
know.

Regards,