JabRef review: a bibliography you keep yourself

JabRef is a free open-source reference manager for students and researchers who want a bibliography they can keep themselves.¹² It collects books, papers and citations, then stores them in a plain text file.¹ The privacy benefit is that the list stays in a file you can open, copy and back up.⁴

Last checked October 28, 2026.

At a glance

What it is: A cross-platform tool that saves citations as a BibTeX or BibLaTeX text file.²

Works on: Windows, macOS and Linux, including a portable copy that can run from a USB stick.³⁷

Price: Free for private and corporate use.¹⁵

Licence: MIT.⁵

Best for: Writers who want a bibliography stored as an ordinary file.

Official site: jabref.org

What JabRef does (and how it protects your privacy)

JabRef is an open-source, cross-platform citation and reference manager. It helps you collect sources, organise them, and cite them while you write.² A new library is a BibTeX text file by default. That format is plain text and is meant for LaTeX.⁴ Each source gets a citation key, a short label such as Turing1950, which you type when you cite it.⁴

The project was founded in 2003 and is maintained by PhD students, postdocs and researchers in industry, in their free time.¹ They publish it as free open-source software and save your data in a simple text file, with no vendor lock-in.¹ You can read the file in any text editor, track changes with git (a record of each edit), and share it, for example via Dropbox.²⁴

GitHub’s latest release that is not a pre-release is version 5.15, published on 10 July 2024, with Windows, macOS and Linux installers.⁷ The stable build folders also listed version 6.0 packages for Windows, Linux and macOS, last modified on 27 October 2026.⁸⁹¹⁰ The installation guide points you to jabref.org for the latest version.³

Key features of JabRef

A readable library: The bibliography is a BibTeX text file you can copy and back up.⁴
Lookup by identifier: Fill a record from an ISBN, DOI, PubMed ID or arXiv ID. A DOI is the fixed code on many papers.²
Catalog search: Search Crossref, Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, Medline/PubMed, arXiv and others.²
Imports and PDFs: Import over 15 reference formats, and pull citation details out of a PDF.²
Browser button: An official extension for Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Vivaldi imports a reference from the page you are viewing.²
Groups and duplicates: Group entries, merge duplicates, and mark ranking, priority and read status.²
Attached files: Link related documents, with 20 kinds supported at the start, and rename them by your rules.²
Cite while you write: Use Word, LibreOffice, BibTeX or BibLaTeX, with many thousand built-in citation styles.²

JabRef pros and cons

Pros

Free for private and corporate use under the MIT licence, and the project says it stays free.¹⁵
The bibliography is a text file you can copy, back up and share.²⁴
A portable edition runs from a USB stick without a normal installation.³
Interface statistics stay off unless you enable them, and sending a PDF to the extraction service starts off.⁶
The interface supports UTF-8, a character encoding for most writing systems, and other languages.⁵

Cons

Official installs cover Windows, macOS and Linux, with no iPhone or iPad app described.³
The library is human-readable text, so anyone who can open the file can read the list.⁴
Identifier lookups contact outside services, which may log your IP address and the search terms.⁶
The version check and the journal database lookup are on by default.⁶
On Linux, Snap and Flatpak cannot connect to LibreOffice. Deb, rpm and tar packages can connect to a system copy.³
The newest non-prerelease on GitHub is 5.15 from July 2024, while the stable build folders already list 6.0 packages for Windows, Linux and macOS.⁷⁸⁹¹⁰

Is JabRef safe and private?

JabRef e.V. provides the desktop app. Its privacy policy, last updated on 6 August 2024, says JabRef does not collect personal information directly linked to you.⁶ A version check on startup, and lookups in the journal database, are on by default. Sending a PDF to GROBID, a service that tries to read the citation out of the file, is off by default. Anonymised statistics on interface use are off by default.⁶

The library stays in that text file. A proxy password and an API key (a code that lets the app call another website) are saved locally only if you store them, and both start off.⁶ Catalog searches use HTTPS, usually on port 443.⁵ Sites such as Crossref and the Library of Congress may log your IP address and the identifier you looked up.⁶ The third-party list includes OpenAI, Google Gemini and Mistral. The related-articles tab can send your language, browser and operating system to Mr. DLib, and it is off by default.⁶

The browser extension does not store your name or email. It uses Zotero’s services, so Zotero’s privacy policy applies, then passes the citation to JabRef on your computer through port 6050.⁵⁶ Share a library by sending the text file, or by syncing a SQL database you run. That is a shared database on a server, so pick a server you trust.²⁵

How to get started with JabRef

Download from jabref.org, which the install guide names for the latest version.³ Version 5.15 on GitHub has Windows, macOS and Linux packages. The portable copy, JabRef.exe on Windows and JabRef.app on Mac, can run from a USB stick.³⁷
On Linux, pick a deb, rpm or tar package if you cite from LibreOffice. Snap and Flatpak cannot connect to it. Windows may use choco install jabref; Ubuntu may use snap install jabref.³
Choose New library in the File menu and save the file with your other documents.⁴
Choose Library, then New entry, or press Ctrl+N. Add the author, title and year, then generate the citation key. The usual pattern joins the author and the year.⁴
Paste a DOI into the entry table, or create the entry from a DOI or ISBN, and keep the fields that match the paper.²⁵
Under Options, Preferences, Linked files, set a main file directory. Use Lookup, Search full text documents online, or attach a PDF you already have.⁴ Read those files with SumatraPDF on Windows, or with Sioyek for research PDFs.
Cite in Word, LibreOffice or LaTeX. Group entries and merge duplicates as the library grows.²

Who should use JabRef (and who might prefer something else)

JabRef fits a thesis, a paper or a lab list you expect to keep, especially if you write in LaTeX or want Word and LibreOffice citations from a plain-text library.²

For a manager less centred on BibTeX files, read the Academy’s guide to Zotero before moving a large library. If you only read PDFs, start with a reader and add JabRef when you need citations. Teams can sync a SQL database on a server they trust.⁵

Frequently asked questions

Is JabRef free?

Yes. JabRef is free and open source, including for private and corporate use, under the MIT licence.¹⁵

Is JabRef safe to use for a private reading list?

The list lives in a text file on your computer, and the privacy policy says the app does not collect personal information directly linked to you.⁴⁶ Catalog lookup, the browser extension and the listed AI services send information off the machine when you use them.⁶

Does JabRef work on iPhone?

The install guide covers Windows, macOS and Linux, including a portable copy, and does not describe an iPhone or iPad app.³ Version 5.15’s downloads are desktop packages for those systems.⁷

Does JabRef work offline?

You can create a library and edit entries in the local file with no connection.⁴ DOI lookup and catalog search use the network, and so does downloading a PDF from the web.⁴⁵ The startup version check is on by default and also goes online.⁶