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Add references

There 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.

Capture by DOI, ISBN, arXiv or URL

The fastest way to add a reference is to paste an identifier and let myrna fetch the metadata for you. Click New reference in the top bar and choose Capture reference: a single field accepts a DOI, an ISBN, a PubMed ID, an arXiv ID or a URL — the type is detected automatically, so you don't have to say which one you're pasting. The N key and the command palette also open this dialog directly.

  1. 1Click New reference in the top bar and choose Capture reference (or just press N).
  2. 2Paste the work's DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or URL into the field.
  3. 3Click Fetch. While myrna works, the dialog narrates what it's doing ("Consulting CrossRef…") and warns you if a source is slow.
  4. 4The reference is added to your library and revealed in the list with a brief highlight, even if a filter was hiding it.
  5. 5Open it to review, complete anything missing, and optionally assign collections or mark it as a favorite.
Capture never duplicates your library: if the same DOI (or, without a DOI, the same ISBN or URL) is already there, myrna opens the existing entry and tells you "Already in your library" — and if that copy was sitting in the Trash, it is restored instead of staying hidden.

Metadata sources and fallbacks

A DOI is tried against CrossRef first, then OpenAlex, then DataCite — so preprints and datasets that only live in DataCite (arXiv, Zenodo, Dryad) still resolve; when a fallback answered, the confirmation says "Found via OpenAlex" or "Found via DataCite". arXiv IDs are converted to their DataCite DOI automatically. An ISBN is tried against OpenLibrary and Google Books, in both its ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 forms. A PubMed ID queries PubMed. A pasted URL is read for citation metadata or an embedded DOI — it works best on pages that expose them.

Errors are honest and specific: identifier not found, source down or rate-limited (with a retry button), unreachable URL, or a page with no metadata. If what you pasted isn't recognized as an identifier at all, the dialog offers to switch to Search online so you can find the work by title. And when a source returns incomplete metadata (missing authors or year), a warning with "Review now" opens the editor for you.

Capture in batch

The same dialog captures many works at once: paste several identifiers, one per line, and mix DOIs, ISBNs, PubMed IDs, arXiv IDs and URLs freely.

  1. 1Open Capture reference and paste the identifiers, one per line.
  2. 2Click Fetch: the list is processed one item at a time (respecting the sources' rate limits), and each line shows its own status.
  3. 3A failure on one line never stops the others — the line keeps its error message so you can fix just that identifier.
  4. 4At the end a summary tells you how many were added, how many already existed, and how many failed.

Search the web

When you don't have an identifier at hand, search for the work online. The search queries CrossRef and OpenAlex together, merges the results and removes repeats, returning candidates you can add straight to your library.

  1. 1In the References sidebar, choose Search online (also available from the New reference menu).
  2. 2Type the title, author or keywords in the main search field and press Search.
  3. 3For a narrower query, open Advanced search and fill in author, title, journal or a year range.
  4. 4Browse the results — each shows title, authors, year, journal and DOI — and find the work you're looking for.
  5. 5Click Save on that result to add it to your library; entries already there are marked "In library" and can't be added twice.
  6. 6The page stays open so you can keep adding other results from the same search.

Enter manually

For works without an identifier, or that don't show up in the search, fill in the fields by hand. Click New reference and choose Add manually to get a blank form.

  1. 1Click New reference in the top bar and choose Add manually.
  2. 2Select the reference type first — it determines which fields are relevant for that kind of work.
  3. 3Fill in the title, the authors (one per line), the year and the journal or book.
  4. 4Complete the other fields that apply: volume, issue, pages, publisher, DOI, ISBN, URL, the full text / repository link, abstract, keywords and your own tags (comma-separated).
  5. 5Save the reference; you can assign it to collections at any time afterwards.
The form protects your typing: the year must be a real 4-digit year (no silent discarding), and closing the dialog with unsaved edits asks for confirmation instead of dropping them. For the full list of types and every field they use, see the "Types and fields" page.
If you give a reference a DOI that already belongs to another reference in your library, it is saved without that DOI and you're warned — check the Duplicates view to merge the two. To bring in a whole library at once from BibTeX, RIS or JSON, see "Import and export".