Citation and Reference Management: Importing and Exporting Citations

Most  Reference Management Tools provide the ability to export your library in one of three formats:

• BibTeX (.bib)
• RIS – Research Information Systems (.ris)
• Endnote XML (.xml)

To export your library from a desktop app:

1. Open the Desktop app
2. Highlight the files you want to export (or the entire library)
3. Go to 'File' and click 'export'.
4. Select the format you wish to export as and click 'save'. This will generate a file you can then save to your machine.

NOTE: 

1. The export only contains reference Metadata. PDFs are referenced, but not directly exported.  You will need to re-add these individually from DOI numbers or pdf files you saved on your desktop.
2. The export doesn't maintain collection hierarchies and only exports the top hierarchy (the library).  To maintain hierarchies, you will need to export individual collections and name them, then later organize them into the desired hierarchy.

Most  Reference Management Tools also allow for importing a library from another tool.  You'll need to check what formats are allowed and be sure to export the files from the tool you wish to migrate in the format that is acceptable by the target tool.  These formats tend to be one of the following three:  

• BibTeX (.bib)
• RIS – Research Information Systems (.ris)
• Endnote XML (.xml)

To import your library from a file:

1. Open the target location.
2. Go to 'File' and click 'imprort'.
3. Select the format you wish to import and click "import". 

NOTE:  The import will organize content at the top level (typically hierarchies are not imported).  If you wish to maintain your hierarchies, you will need to import each collection individually, name it, and later organize it.