def clean_bibitem_string(string):
    """Removes surrounding whitespace, surrounding \\emph brackets etc."""
    out = string
    out = out.strip()
    if out[:6] == "\\emph{" and out[-1] == "}":
        out = out[6:-1]
    if out[:8] == "\\textsc{" and out[-1] == "}":
        out = out[8:-1]

    return out