What is a RIS file
RIS stands for Research Information System who developed the file and named it accordingly. It is a so-called bibliography citation file which contains information about citations used mostly in academic and scientific documents. The citation information in the RIS file includes title, author, date of publication, publisher, keywords, the number of the issue if applicable, and more.
The purpose of RIS files is to create a standard for the exchange of citation information. It's commonly used by and between digital libraries. The information inside the RIS file is saved in an ASCII text format. Thus, these files can be opened and viewed using any text editor. The information displayed in lines consisting of a two-character code and the corresponding value.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open RIS documents:
- BibDesk (Mac)
- Thomas Reuters EndNote (Windows & Mac)
- Wandora (Windows, Mac & Linux)
