The bibcode (also known as the refcode) is a compact identifier used by several
astronomical
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...
data systems to uniquely specify literature references.
Adoption
The Bibliographic Reference Code (refcode) was originally developed to be used in
SIMBAD
SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France.
SIMBA ...
and the
NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is an online astronomical database for astronomers that collates and cross-correlates astronomical information on extragalactic objects (galaxies, quasars, radio, x-ray and infrared sources, etc.). NED was ...
(NED), but it became a de facto standard and is now used more widely, for example, by the NASA
Astrophysics Data System
The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is an online database of over 16 million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for almost all articles, and full scanned ...
, which coined and prefers the term "bibcode".
Format
The code has a fixed length of 19 characters and has the form
:
YYYYJJJJJVVVVMPPPPA
where
YYYY is the four-digit year of the reference and
JJJJJ is a code indicating where the reference was published. In the case of a journal reference,
VVVV is the volume number,
M indicates the section of the journal where the reference was published (e.g.,
L for a letters section),
PPPP gives the starting page number, and
A is the first letter of the last name of the first author. Periods (
.) are used to fill unused fields and to pad fields out to their fixed length if too short; padding is done on the right for the publication code and on the left for the volume number and page number.
Page numbers greater than 9999 are continued in the
M column. The 6-digit article ID numbers (in lieu of page numbers) used by the Physical Review publications since the late 1990s are treated as follows: The first two digits of the article ID, corresponding to the issue number, are converted to a lower-case letter (01 = a, etc.) and inserted into column
M. The remaining four digits are used in the page field.
Examples
Some examples of bibcodes are:
See also
*
Digital object identifier
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...
References
{{Portal bar, Literature, Astronomy, Stars, Science
Index (publishing)
Identifiers
Electronic documents
Computational astronomy