RIS File Format (.ris)

A RIS file is a plain-text citation record in the tagged format Research Information Systems designed for its Reference Manager software, using two-letter codes such as AU and TI to mark author, title and other bibliographic fields.

.risDocuments

RIS at a glance#

Full name	Research Information Systems citation
File extension	.ris
Category	Documents
Developer	Research Information Systems, Inc.
MIME types	application/x-research-info-systems
Compression	Uncompressed
FileFlip support	FileFlip reads this format but does not write it

What a .ris file can hold#

These are the things a RIS file either supports or does not, and they are what decides whether a conversion keeps everything or quietly drops something.

Selectable text	Yes
Human readable	Yes

Strengths and limitations of RIS#

What RIS does well

Supported for import and export by essentially every reference manager and academic database, from Zotero to PubMed to IEEE Xplore
Tag-value lines are simple enough to generate or parse without a real parser, which is why so many library catalogues export it
One shared tag set covers many reference types: journal articles, books, conference papers and theses

Where RIS falls short

No single body maintains the format anymore, so it has drifted into two informally documented versions, one from 2001 and one from 2011
A few tags are interpreted inconsistently between tools, so a round trip between two reference managers can shuffle fields around
Carries only bibliographic metadata, never the full text or PDF of the source itself

Use RIS when moving a citation list between two different reference managers, since it's the format nearly all of them agree on.

Convert RIS to BibTeX when the citations need to be cited from a LaTeX document instead of a reference manager.

How to open a .ris file#

A .ris file opens in the programs below, grouped by the platform you are on. If you would rather not install anything, FileFlip converts RIS into a format your machine already opens, and it does it in the browser tab rather than on a server.

Platform	Programs that open it
Windows	Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, JabRef
macOS	Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, JabRef
Linux	Zotero, JabRef
Web	FileFlip

RIS questions people ask#

What is a RIS file used for?

A RIS file carries a citation or a list of citations between reference managers and academic databases, with two-letter tags marking each bibliographic field. It's the export format library catalogues and databases like PubMed reach for when a user wants to save a reference into their own citation library.

Does Zotero support RIS files?

Yes, Zotero both imports and exports RIS files, and it's one of the two or three formats Zotero recommends for moving a library into or out of a different reference manager.

What's the difference between RIS and BibTeX?

RIS is a general tagged format built for reference manager interoperability, while BibTeX is the citation format LaTeX documents cite against directly. A citation library usually passes through RIS when moving between reference managers and through BibTeX when it needs to reach a LaTeX document.

Why did my RIS import lose some fields?

RIS has no single current maintaining body, so different tools export slightly different tag conventions for the same field, and a reference manager importing a RIS file written by another tool can misread or drop a field it doesn't recognize.

Converting RIS files#

FileFlip does not write .ris files, so nothing on the site converts into this format. It works as a source only.

Every conversion runs inside your browser. The file is read from your disk, the work happens on your own machine, and nothing is uploaded. How FileFlip works names the engine behind each family and how to verify that for yourself.