v4.0.3 Citation Keys Standardization

enhancement
bibliography
automation
Automated fix for 95+ citation key mismatches across bibliography files
Author
Affiliation

E. Rosalie Li

Information Epidemiology Lab

Published

February 14, 2026

Issue

Widespread citation key mismatches existed between .qmd files and .bib files, causing citations to display as “?” instead of proper references. The root cause was inconsistent naming conventions:

  • Text files used lowercase: @sleeboomfaulkner2007
  • Bibliography used uppercase: SLEEBOOM-FAULKNER2007
  • Inconsistent handling of hyphens and numeric suffixes

Scale of Problem

  • 95+ citation keys required standardization
  • Affected multiple bibliography files across function chapters
  • Manual fixing would have been error-prone and time-consuming

Solution: Automated Tooling

Created two-phase automated solution:

Phase 1: Basic Case Matching (fix_citation_keys.py)

  • Fixed simple case mismatches
  • Standardized 67 keys in first pass
  • Examples: CIA1975 → cia1975, HUANG2019 → huang2019

Phase 2: Advanced Matching (fix_citation_keys_v2.py)

  • Handled compound names with hyphens
  • Processed numeric suffixes correctly
  • Fixed additional 28 complex keys
  • Examples:
    • SLEEBOOM-FAULKNER2007 → sleeboomfaulkner2007
    • CHEN20211 → chen2021
    • Alexiev19852 properly matched

Files Modified

  1. function/legitimation.bib - 30+ keys standardized
  2. function/Exported-Items-FIXED.bib - 26 keys standardized
  3. function/projection-abroad.bib - 7 keys standardized
  4. function/command-and-control.bib - 3 keys standardized
  5. function/obfuscation.bib - 1 key standardized

Impact

  • ✅ 95+ citations now resolve correctly
  • ✅ Consistent lowercase naming convention established
  • ✅ Reduced “?” placeholders throughout site
  • ✅ Improved scholarly credibility of references

Tools Created

Both scripts are available for future use:

# Basic case matching
python fix_citation_keys.py

# Advanced matching with hyphens/suffixes
python fix_citation_keys_v2.py

These tools can be reused whenever new bibliography entries are added or citation mismatches occur.

Verification

quarto render
# Significant reduction in citation warnings
# Most citations now display proper references

This automation saved hours of manual work and established a reproducible process for citation maintenance.

FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
  author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
  title = {V4.0.3 {Citation} {Keys} {Standardization}},
  date = {2026-02-14},
  url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/notes/v4.0.3-citation-keys-standardization.html},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “V4.0.3 Citation Keys Standardization,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/notes/v4.0.3-citation-keys-standardization.html.