Useful for converting in-text citations (from e.g. Word) into a LaTeX document.  Converts bracket notation into first 3 chars of first author’s last name (or 2 chars, if only 2 chars long), plus two-digit year: e.g. (Bobby 2009) becomes \citep{Bob09}.  See also my post on how to insert bibtex references into Word.

Search for:

\(([A-Za-z]{2,3})[A-Za-z -.]* (18|19|20)([0-9a-z]{2,3})\)

Replace with:

\\citep{\1\3}

Test citations:

(Bobby 2009)
(Bobby and Jonny 1909)
(Bobby et al. 1923)

(Maynard Smith 1989)
(Maynard Smith and Haigh 1974)
(Maynard Smith and Bobby-Jonny 1974)
(Maynard Smith and Maynard Smith 1974)
(Maynard Smith et al. 1993)

(Maisnier-Patin 1900)
(Maisnier-Patin and Bobby-Jonny 1956)
(Maisnier-Patin et al. 2002)

(Aa 1932)
(Aaa 1932)