[texhax] BibTeX journal abbreviations

[Sebastian Luque]

Dear list,

I've recently joined texhax and, because I haven't found any answers in 
the documentation and the archives, I'm turning to you for help on BibTeX.

I've successfully transfered my reference file from Endnote to BibTeX, 
but am having problems with journal abbreviations. Endnote handles these 
by letting you put the complete journal name in the database, and then 
defining any abbreviations you want in a 'terms' list. This is good 
because one can keep the database 'clean' and interchangeable with other 
database formats, as the fields contain the raw information. BibTeX, if 
I understand the documentation correctly, prefers you enter a one word 
shorthand for the journal, and then defining strings for the full 
journal name and abbreviation separately, in 'string' commands, or 
defining macros in a style file. I find this very incovenient because if 
one ever needs to transfer the database to another format (e.g. Endnote, 
etc.), one is left with the shorthand version of the journal names, 
which don't mean anything outside BibTeX. Additionally, one would have 
to replace the full journal names in the database with a shorthand, and 
then create all the 'string' commands to define full and abbreviated 
names. This seems too much.

Is there a better way to create abbreviations without changing the 
actual 'journal' field in the database?

I'd greatly appreciate your help with this. Thanks a lot in advance.

Sebastian

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