Why convert RIS to CSV?
CSV opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or any database without plugins, making it the preferred format for filtering and screening large sets of bibliographic references - a common task in systematic literature reviews where researchers need to add columns for inclusion or exclusion decisions alongside the citation data.
How to convert RIS to CSV
Zotero FREE
File > Import the .ris file; right-click the resulting collection and choose Export Collection > CSV. Open the saved file in any spreadsheet application.
bibutils FREE
Install bibutils via your package manager, then run ris2xml file.ris > file.xml to produce intermediate MODS XML that can be further processed into CSV with a script or spreadsheet tool.
About these formats
.RIS
Research Information Systems citation file
An RIS file is a plain-text bibliographic citation file - the standard exchange format used by Google Scholar, PubMed, and library databases to hand references to citation managers. You…
Open .RIS details →
.CSV
Comma-Separated Values
A CSV file stores tabular data as plain text - one row per line, values separated by commas (or semicolons in European locales). Any spreadsheet opens it: Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice…
Open .CSV details →Quality & what to watch
- Not all RIS tags appear as CSV columns; Zotero covers common fields (author, title, year, journal, DOI, abstract, keywords) but may omit less-used tags.
- Multiple authors are joined into a single cell, typically separated by semicolons; post-process in Excel if you need each author in a separate column.
- A single RIS file can hold thousands of references; Zotero handles large imports without issue.
