RIS to CSE Citation Converter

Convert RIS records to CSE name-year style citations in seconds. Paste an export from Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley and copy the CSE result. No sign-up.

RIS to CSE Citation Converter

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Each source is checked against its published record, formatted in CSE Style (Name-Year), and kept in this browser. No sign-up.

What is RIS?

RIS is a plain-text reference format created by Research Information Systems and still used as the standard export format by EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, Web of Science, Scopus, and most library databases. Each record is a block of two-letter tags: TY marks the reference type, AU lines carry one author each, TI holds the title, PY the year, SP and EP the page range, and ER closes the record. Because every field is tagged, an RIS record converts cleanly – CiteTools maps each tag onto its citation data model and renders the reference in the style you choose. This page is the fast path when a database hands you an .ris file but your bibliography needs formatted text: open the file in any text editor, copy a record, and paste it here.

How the RIS to CSE conversion works

Open your exported .ris file in a text editor and copy one or more records.
Paste them into the input field; CiteTools reads the tagged fields directly.
Copy each formatted citation, or convert the whole batch at once.

Example input:

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Harris, Charles R.
AU  - Millman, K. Jarrod
TI  - Array programming with NumPy
JO  - Nature
VL  - 585
SP  - 357
EP  - 362
PY  - 2020
DO  - 10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2
ER  -

About CSE Style

Council of Science Editors, name-year system - used in biology, geology, and other natural sciences.

CSE style, from The CSE Manual: Scientific Style and Format, 9th edition, is used across biology, geology, and the other natural sciences. CiteTools writes the name-year system. A reference gives the authors as surname and initials, then the year, the title in sentence case, and the abbreviated journal name. Volume(issue):pages follow, and the DOI closes the reference as an https://doi.org address. The list runs in alphabetical order, and the in-text citation is the surname and the year in parentheses. CiteTools lists up to five authors and cuts a longer list to the first author and et al.

Frequently asked questions

How do I export RIS from my reference manager?

In Zotero use File > Export Library and pick RIS. In EndNote choose the RefMan (RIS) output option. Most databases – Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed – offer an RIS or citation-manager export on every record page.

Can I paste more than one RIS record?

Yes. Paste several records – each ending in its ER tag – separated by blank lines, and CiteTools converts up to 100 of them in one batch.

Which RIS tags does the CSE output use?

TY, AU, TI, T2 or JO, PY, VL, IS, SP, EP, DO, and UR cover everything a CSE reference needs. Unknown tags are ignored rather than causing an error.

RIS to CSE Citation Converter