PMID to RIS Converter

Paste a PubMed ID and get an RIS record with authors, journal, volume, pages, and DOI. Free PMID to RIS converter for Zotero and EndNote. No sign-up.

Paste a PubMed ID to get an RIS record

Why convert a PMID to RIS

PubMed gives every record a PMID, and a PMID is all CiteTools needs to write an RIS record. It reads the PubMed record and tags each field: one AU line per author, TI for the article title, T2 for the journal as PubMed names it, VL and IS for volume and issue, and DO for the DOI when PubMed lists one. PubMed shortens page ranges and prints 646-74 for pages 646 to 674. The RIS record carries the full numbers, 646 in SP and 674 in EP, which is what a reference manager expects.

How the PMID to RIS conversion works

Copy the PMID from the PubMed record, where it sits below the article details, or from the address of its PubMed page.
Paste the number into the converter. CiteTools retrieves the PubMed record and marks the result Confirmed.
Copy the record or download the .ris file, then import it. For several articles, leave a blank line between the PMIDs to get one record each.

Sample RIS record

Every record opens with TY, the type of the work, and closes with ER. Between them each line holds one two-character tag and one value: AU for each author, TI for the title, T2 for the journal or the book a chapter sits in, PY for the year, SP and EP for the first and last page, and DO for the DOI. A reference manager reads these tags on import, so the record needs no editing first. A record built from a registry can carry more lines than the sample, such as SN for the ISSN and LA for the language.

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hanahan, D.
AU  - Weinberg, R. A.
DA  - 2011///
PY  - 2011
DO  - 10.1016/j.cell.2011.02.013
IS  - 5
J2  - Cell
SP  - 646
EP  - 674
T2  - Cell
TI  - Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation
UR  - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21376230/
VL  - 144
ER  -

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the export on PubMed?

PubMed sends its own NBIB format to a citation manager. Zotero and EndNote read NBIB, but shared reading lists and many databases ask for RIS. This page writes RIS straight from the PMID.

Why do the author names show initials only?

The PubMed summary that CiteTools reads gives each author as a surname and initials, and the record carries them as given. If you need full first names, convert the DOI of the same article instead.

What does the UR line point to?

To the PubMed page of the article, the PubMed address followed by the PMID. The DOI has its own DO line when PubMed lists one, so your reference manager can link to the publisher as well.