Named for Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), the Argentine writer and librarian known for stories about infinite libraries, imaginary books, and labyrinths of knowledge, Borges Bibliography Builder brings order to scholarly references in WordPress.

The Borges Bibliography Builder transforms pasted DOI(s), PubMed/PMID records, BibTeX entries, and citations into a semantically rich, auto-sorted reference list.

One-click import. Paste a DOI and CrossRef resolves the metadata instantly. Paste a PubMed/PMID identifier and Borges resolves it through an authenticated WordPress REST proxy to NCBI/PMC citation metadata. Paste BibTeX or formatted citations for books, articles, chapters, webpages, reviews, and theses.

Nine citation styles. Choose from Chicago Notes-Bibliography, Chicago Author-Date, APA 7, MLA 9, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, OSCOLA, and ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas / NBR 6023:2018) — all with automatic sorting per style rules.

Portable. Static HTML output survives plugin deactivation. No shortcodes. No database tables.

Reference-manager friendly. Export and reuse your bibliography in common research workflows. Borges supports CSL-JSON, BibTeX, BibLaTeX, RIS, DOI links, JSON-LD, and optional COinS metadata for compatibility with tools such as Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, JabRef, BibDesk, and other citation managers.

Try it first. Launch a disposable demo in WordPress Playground before installing it on your site.

Translation-ready. Plugin interface strings use the borges-bibliography-builder text domain, and official WordPress.org language packs are generated as community translations are approved on translate.wordpress.org.

What’s new in 1.2.0

PubMed/PMID import resolves PubMed records through an authenticated REST proxy.
BibLaTeX export supports LaTeX/Biber workflows alongside CSL-JSON, BibTeX, and RIS.
Numeric style reordering lets IEEE and Vancouver bibliographies follow first-citation order with visible controls and Alt+Arrow keyboard movement.
ABNT support is explicit: the ABNT option targets Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas bibliography formatting under NBR 6023:2018.

Recent accessibility releases

Version 1.1.0 added optional Block Accessibility Checks integration, and 1.1.1 restored reliable BAC registration plus visible keyboard focus on editor row actions.

Known Limitations

OSCOLA grouped bibliography — OSCOLA convention requires the bibliography to be divided into source-type groups (cases, legislation, books, articles, online sources). Borges currently renders a single alphabetized list regardless of style. A dismissible notice in the editor explains this when OSCOLA is selected. Grouped-bibliography support is planned for a future release.

Development

Full developer documentation, source code, issue tracker, and contribution guidelines are on GitHub:

https://github.com/dknauss/borges-bibliography-builder

Bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository for development setup, coding standards, and the PR process.

External Services

This plugin connects to fixed scholarly metadata services only when you explicitly add an identifier in the block editor — no citation data is sent automatically or in the background. No account or API key is required for the supported DOI or PMID lookups.

DOI metadata

DOI input connects to the CrossRef REST API (https://api.crossref.org/) to resolve citation metadata.

CrossRef service: https://www.crossref.org/
CrossRef REST API documentation: https://api.crossref.org/swagger-ui/index.html
CrossRef privacy policy: https://www.crossref.org/privacy/
CrossRef terms of service: https://www.crossref.org/terms/

PubMed/PMID metadata

PubMed/PMID input connects through the plugin’s authenticated WordPress REST proxy to the NCBI/PMC Literature Citation Exporter CSL endpoint. The proxy uses a fixed upstream host and validates the PMID before making the outbound request.

NCBI APIs: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/develop/api/
NCBI/PMC Literature Citation Exporter: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/api/ctxp/
NLM Web Policies: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/web_policies.html