View source for Software:Refer

{{Short description|Reference management software}}
{{lowercase|refer}}
{{infobox software
| name                   = refer
| logo                   = <!-- image name is sufficient -->
| logo alt               = 
| logo caption           = 
| screenshot             = <!-- image name is sufficient -->
| screenshot alt         = 
| caption                = 
| collapsible            = <!-- any text here will collapse the screenshot -->
| author                 = [[Biography:Mike Lesk|Mike Lesk]]
| developer              = 
| released               = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes|paren=yes}} -->
| discontinued           = <!-- set to yes if software is discontinued, otherwise omit -->
| ver layout             = <!-- simple (default) or stacked -->
| latest release version = 
| latest release date    = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes|paren=yes}} -->
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes|paren=yes}} -->
| status                 = 
| programming language   = 
| operating system       = [[Unix-like]]
| platform               = 
| size                   = 
| language               = 
| language count         = <!-- number only -->
| language footnote      = 
| genre                  = [[Software:Reference management software|Reference management]]
| license                = depends on implementation
| alexa                  = 
| website                = <!-- {{url|example.org}} -->
| repo                   = <!-- {{url|example.org}} -->
| standard               = 
| AsOf                   = 
}}

'''refer''' is a program for managing bibliographic references, and citing them in [[Software:Troff|troff]], [[Software:Nroff|nroff]], and [[Software:Groff|groff]] documents.  It is implemented as a [[Preprocessor|preprocessor]].

refer was written by [[Biography:Mike Lesk|Mike Lesk]] at Bell Laboratories<ref>Michael Lesk. Some applications of inverted indexes on the Unix system. In ''UNIX Programmer's manual: Supplementary Documents'', volume 2. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, seventh edition, 1982. Also available online [http://plan9.bell-labs.com/7thEdMan/]</ref><ref name="reader">{{cite tech report |first1=M. D. |last1=McIlroy |year=1987 |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf |title=A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 |series=CSTR |number=139 |institution=Bell Labs}}</ref> in or before 1978, and is now available as part of most [[Unix-like]] operating systems.  A free reimplementation exists as part of the [[Software:Groff|groff]] package.

{{as of|2015}}, refer sees little use, primarily because troff itself is not used much for longer technical writing that might need software support for reference and citation management.  {{as of|2016}}, some [[Software:Reference management software|reference management software]] (for instance, [[Software:RefWorks|RefWorks]]) will import refer data.

== Example ==

refer works with a "reference file", a text file where the author lists works to which they might want to refer.  One such reference, to an article in a journal in this case, might look like:

 %A Brian W. Kernighan
 %A Lorinda L. Cherry
 %T A System for Typesetting Mathematics
 %J J. Comm. ACM
 %V 18
 %N 3
 %D March 1978
 %P 151-157
 %K eqn

The author then can refer to it in their troff, groff, or nroff document by listing keywords which uniquely match this reference:

 .[
 kernighan cherry eqn
 .]

== Database fields ==

A refer bibliographic database is a text file consisting of a series of records, separated by one or more blank lines.  Within each record, each field starts with a {{nowrap|%-sign}} at the beginning of the line and one character immediately after.  The name of the field should be followed by exactly one space, and then by the contents of the field.  Empty fields are ignored.  The conventional meaning of each field is shown in the table below.  Compare this scheme with the newer [[Software:EndNote#Tags and fields|EndNote scheme]] which uses a similar syntax.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Database fields{{nnbsp}}<ref>refer [[Man page|man page]], {{nowrap|version 1.22.3}}, dated 2{{nbsp}}July 2016.</ref>
|-
! Field
! Meaning
|-
| align="center" | %A
| The name of an author.  If the name contains a title such as {{background|gainsboro|Jr.}} at the end, it should be separated from the last name by a comma.   There  can  be  multiple occurrences of the %A field.  The order is significant.  It is a good idea always to supply an %A field or a %Q field.
|-
| align="center" | %B
| For an article that is part of a book, the title of the book.
|-
| align="center" | %C
| The place (city) of publication.
|-
| align="center" | %D
| The  date of publication.  The year should be specified in full.  If the month is specified, the name rather than the number of the month should be used, but only the first three letters are required.  It is a good idea always to supply a %D field; if the date is unknown, a value such as {{background|gainsboro|in press}} or {{background|gainsboro|unknown}} can be used.
|-
| align="center" | %E
| For  an  article  that  is  part of a book, the name of an editor of the book.  Where the work has editors and no authors, the names of the editors should be given as %A fields and {{background|gainsboro|, (ed)}} or {{background|gainsboro|, (eds)}} should be appended to the last author.
|-
| align="center" | %G
| US Government ordering number.
|-
| align="center" | %I
| The publisher (issuer).
|-
| align="center" | %J
| For an article in a journal, the name of the journal.
|-
| align="center" | %K
| Keywords to be used for searching.
|-
| align="center" | %L
| Label.
|-
| align="center" | %N
| Journal issue number.
|-
| align="center" | %O
| Other information.  This is usually printed at the end of the reference.
|-
| align="center" | %P
| Page number.  A range of pages can be specified as {{background|gainsboro|m-n}}.
|-
| align="center" | %Q
| The name of the author, if the author is not a person.  This will only be used if there are no %A fields.  There can only be one %Q field.
|-
| align="center" | %R
| Technical report number.
|-
| align="center" | %S
| Series name.
|-
| align="center" | %T
| Title.  For an article in a book or journal, this should be the title of the article.
|-
| align="center" | %V
| Volume number of the journal or book.
|-
| align="center" | %X
| Annotation.
|- class="sortbottom"
| colspan="2" style="font-size: smaller" | {{plainlist|
* For all fields except %A and %E, if there is more than one occurrence of a particular field in a record, only the last such field will be used.
* A field with no value given is simply ignored.
}}
|}

== See also ==

'''Data schemes'''

* {{slink|BibTeX#Bibliographic information file}} – a text-based data format used by LaTeX
* {{slink|EndNote#Tags and fields}} – a similar, but not identical, data scheme used by the EndNote program
* [[RIS (file format)|RIS]] – a text-based data scheme from Research Information Systems

'''Other'''

* [[Software:Comparison of reference management software|Comparison of reference management software]]
* [[Software:Pybliographer|Pybliographer]]

== References ==

{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==

* [http://www.kohala.com/start/troff/v7man/refer/refer.ps Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the UNIX System] ([[PostScript]])
* [http://man.cat-v.org/unix_8th/1/refer man page for refer(1)]
* [http://hcibib.org/refer.html Extended refer code reference for the HCI bibliography database]

{{reference management software}}

[[Category:Reference management software|Refer]]
[[Category:Bibliography file formats]]

{{Sourceattribution|Refer (software)|1}}