bibtex export of entries with URL causes errors when running pdflatex

etiennesky

When exporting journal entries with url values using the BibTeX exporter, pdflatex fails to run due to certain URLS not being escaped properly by the BibTeX exporter.

The faulty URLs are like this one (containing a number of % symbols) : http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2

If I manually edit the files to escape the % symbols, (replacing them with \%) bibtex runs fine.

Here are the contents of .bib and .rdf files that have this problem:


@article{manabe_climate_1969,
title = {{CLIMATE} {AND} {THE} {OCEAN} {CIRCULATION} : I. {THE} {ATMOSPHERIC} {CIRCULATION} {AND} {THE} {HYDROLOGY} {OF} {THE} {EARTH'S} {SURFACE}},
volume = {97},
issn = {0027-0644, 1520-0493},
shorttitle = {{CLIMATE} {AND} {THE} {OCEAN} {CIRCULATION} I},
url = {http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2},
doi = {10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2},
language = {en},
number = {11},
urldate = {2014-04-11},
journal = {Monthly Weather Review},
author = {Manabe, Syukuro},
month = nov,
year = {1969},
keywords = {et-models-land-lsm, et-thesis},
pages = {739--774}
}

<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:z="http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/export#"
xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
xmlns:bib="http://purl.org/net/biblio#"
xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:prism="http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/">
<bib:Article rdf:about="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2">
<z:itemType>journalArticle</z:itemType>
<dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="urn:issn:0027-0644,%201520-0493"/>
<bib:authors>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:surname>Manabe</foaf:surname>
<foaf:givenname>Syukuro</foaf:givenname>
</foaf:Person>
</rdf:li>
</rdf:Seq>
</bib:authors>
<dc:subject>et-models-land-lsm</dc:subject>
<dc:subject>et-thesis</dc:subject>
<dc:title>CLIMATE AND THE OCEAN CIRCULATION : I. THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION AND THE HYDROLOGY OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE</dc:title>
<bib:pages>739-774</bib:pages>
<dc:date>11/1969</dc:date>
<z:language>en</z:language>
<z:shortTitle>CLIMATE AND THE OCEAN CIRCULATION I</z:shortTitle>
<dc:identifier>
<dcterms:URI>
<rdf:value>http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2&lt;/rdf:value&gt;
</dcterms:URI>
</dc:identifier>
<dcterms:dateSubmitted>2014-04-11 17:11:30</dcterms:dateSubmitted>
<z:libraryCatalog>CrossRef</z:libraryCatalog>
</bib:Article>
<bib:Journal rdf:about="urn:issn:0027-0644,%201520-0493">
<dc:title>Monthly Weather Review</dc:title>
<prism:volume>97</prism:volume>
<prism:number>11</prism:number>
<dc:identifier>DOI 10.1175/1520-0493(1969)097<0739:CATOC>2.3.CO;2</dc:identifier>
<dc:identifier>ISSN 0027-0644, 1520-0493</dc:identifier>
</bib:Journal>
</rdf:RDF>

adamsmith

That's on purpose. See the discussion here:
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/13706/export-of-special-chars-to-bibtex-problem/
the solution won't look exactly like that anymore since the bibtex translator has changed, but it should be pretty similar.

etiennesky

OK I understand that this may be related to my particular bst format.

Ideally things should "just work" without having to fiddle with translators, as bibtex is a universal format.

I'll just remove the offending urls for now.

thanks for the reply

adamsmith

as bibtex is a universal format.

well that's the problem - bibtex is _not_ a universal format. There are countless different bibtex flavors and different .bst place different requirements on how bibtex should be formatted.

etiennesky

my mistake... thanks!