in reply to Converting Bibitem into Bibtex Entry with Perl

Perhaps Text::BibTeX could be useful?

Update:Try the Tex2bib script on this site.

$ cat bib.tex \bibitem{Bertin83}Bertin, J. (1983), {\em Semiology of Graphics} (trans. W. Berg). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. \bibitem{Bickel75}Bickel, P. J., Hammel, J. W. and O'Connell, J. W. (1975). Sex bias in graduate admissions: data from Berkeley. {\em Science}, {\it 187}, 398-403. \bibitem{Farebrother87}Farebrother, R. W. (1987), ``Mechanical representations of the ${L}_1$ and ${L}_2$ estima +tion problems'', In Y. Dodge (ed.) {\em Statistical data analysis based on the L1 norm and related methods}, Amsterdam: North-Holland., 455-464. $ perl tex2bib -i bib.tex items has 4 items Skipping: , in @Book{Bertin83, author = {Bertin, J.}, year = 1983, title = {Semiology of Graphics}, publisher = {University of Wisconsin Press}, address = {Madison, WI}, note = {(trans. W. Berg).} } @Article{Bickel75, author = {Bickel, P. J. and Hammel, J. W. and O'Connell, J. W +.}, year = 1975, title = {Sex Bias in Graduate Admissions: Data from Berkeley +}, journal = {Science}, volume = 187, pages = {398--403} } @InCollection{Farebrother87, author = {Farebrother, R. W.}, year = 1987, title = {Mechanical Representations of the ${L}_1$ and ${L}_ +2$ Estimation Problems}, booktitle = {Statistical Data Analysis Based on the L1 Norm and +Related Methods}, editor = {Y. Dodge}, publisher = {North-Holland}, address = {Amsterdam}, pages = {455--464} } 3 items processed $
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print map{chr}unpack(q{A3}x24,q{074117115116032097110111116104101114032080101114108032104097099107101114})