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References

The References module is your bibliography and citation manager inside myrna: store articles, books, theses and web pages; fetch metadata automatically from a DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or URL — one at a time or several in batch; organize everything into collections you can share with your team; explore the citation network in the graph; and cite any reference straight from your notes, with the note and the reference linked in both directions. This page is the overview — each task has its own page below.

Overview

Each reference is a record with everything you need to find, read and cite a work later. You add references in a few ways (automatic capture by identifier, online search, manual entry or file import), gather them into collections, and move between the module's views to work with them. Deleting is always reversible: removed references go to the module's own Trash first.

Whenever you have the DOI or ISBN at hand, prefer the automatic capture: besides saving you typing, it brings standardized metadata, falls back across several sources, and detects works already in your library instead of creating duplicates.

Core concepts

Reference
A record for one work, with its type, authors, year and the fields needed to cite it. See "Types and fields".
Collection
A group to organize references by project, theme or subject. A reference can be in several collections, and a collection can be shared with your team. See "Organize the library".
Views
The sidebar switches between the Library list (All references, Favorites or one collection), the Citation graph, Duplicates, Search online and the Trash.

Built for daily work

  • Every way of adding lives behind the "New reference" button in the top bar: Capture reference, Add manually, Search online, and Import / export.
  • Changes are queued when you're offline and sent when the connection returns — edits, deletions and collection links included.
  • The command palette can jump straight into the capture dialog from anywhere in the app.
  • Focus mode hides the side panels, the status bar keeps live counts, and the whole module supports dark mode.
Open the capture dialogN
Focus the reference search box/
Move the selection in the list↑ / ↓
Edit the selected referenceEnter
Move the selected reference to the TrashDelete
Copy the formatted citation of the selected referenceCtrl+Shift+C

In this module

Each task below has its own page:

Add references
Capture by DOI/ISBN/arXiv/URL (single or batch), search the web or type entries in by hand.
Import and export
Bring in a whole library from BibTeX, RIS or JSON, and export to BibTeX or RIS.
Cite in notes
Insert citation chips in your notes, generate a bibliography, and follow the link back and forth.
Organize the library
Collections, tags, favorites, filters, duplicates and the Trash.
Citation graph
Explore how works connect through citations, with clusters and analysis.
Types and fields
The reference types and every field a reference can hold.
The References module pairs with Notes in both directions: cite a reference inside a note and the chip stays bound to the record — and the reference's panel shows "Cited in notes", the list of notes that cite it.
Add referencesThere are three ways to add a reference to your library: let myrna capture the metadata from an identifier (DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or URL — including several at once, in batch), search the web by title or author, or type the fields in by hand. Every entry point lives behind the New reference button in the top bar. This page covers each one in depth. To bring in a whole library from another tool, see the "Import and export" page.Import and exportBring an existing bibliography into myrna in bulk, or take your library out to use it elsewhere. Import accepts BibTeX (.bib) and RIS (.ris) files — myrna detects the format and maps the fields for you. Export gives you a BibTeX or RIS file ready for LaTeX or any reference manager. This page covers both flows and how fields are matched.Cite in notesCite a reference straight from a note and you drop an inline citation chip into the text that stays tied to the reference record. The chip carries the reference's id, so it always knows which work it points to; clicking it jumps to that reference in the References module — and the reference's panel shows the notes that cite it, closing the loop in both directions. This page shows how to insert a citation, how the chip behaves, how citations are formatted, and how to generate a bibliography.Organize the libraryAs your library grows, a flat list stops being enough. This page shows how to keep references tidy: gather them into collections (and share those with your team), add your own tags, star what matters most, filter and search the list to find any work fast, export the view you're looking at, clean up duplicates — and recover anything you removed, because deletions go through the module's Trash.Citation graphThe citation graph turns your library into a network, drawing a line every time one work cites another. Instead of scanning a table, you see from above how your references relate: which are cited most, which pull ideas together, and which stand alone. It only draws citations between works that are both in your library.Types and fieldsEvery reference has a type — journal article, book, book chapter, thesis, conference paper, report or web page. The type defines which fields actually matter for that work and how the entry is written out when you cite it in a note or export it to BibTeX or RIS. This page lists the available types and every field a reference can hold.