RIS to Chicago Converter
Paste RIS records and get Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition bibliography entries. Works with exports from EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, JSTOR, and ProQuest. Free, no signup.
Free to use — no account required
What to do next
How it works
Step 1
Paste your RIS
Copy RIS records from EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, ProQuest, or any database export. Each record starts with TY and ends with ER.
Step 2
Convert to Chicago
CiteMe parses RIS tags (TY, AU, TI, JO, PY, VL, IS, SP, EP, DO) and builds a Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition bibliography entry for each record.
Step 3
Copy your Chicago bibliography
Get formatted Chicago references ready for your bibliography. Smith, John D., and Maria R. Johnson. "Article Title." Journal Name 29, no. 4 (2024): 123–145.
Why use CiteMe for RIS to Chicago?
Chicago 17th Edition
Author-date and notes-and-bibliography variants supported. Italic journal titles, full first names where available, periods between elements, full publication details.
All RIS Record Types
TY=JOUR (journal), TY=BOOK, TY=CHAP (chapter), TY=THES (thesis), TY=CONF (conference), TY=ELEC (web) — each formatted with the Chicago rule for that source kind.
EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, JSTOR
Export from any reference manager or database that supports RIS — almost all of them do. Useful when your seminar tutor requires Chicago and your manager defaults to APA or BibTeX.
Unicode & Accents
Preserves diacritics in author names (Müller, Garcia-López, Hernández) and special characters in titles. Important for history and humanities references that span multiple languages.
RIS to Chicago — example
RIS input
TY - JOUR
AU - Smith, John D.
AU - Johnson, Maria R.
TI - Machine Learning in
Healthcare Diagnostics
JO - Nature Medicine
PY - 2024
VL - 29
IS - 4
SP - 123
EP - 145
DO - 10.1038/s41591-024-0001
ER -Chicago 17 (author-date) output
In-text: (Smith and Johnson 2024)
Works with RIS exports from anywhere
EndNote
File > Export > Output Style: RIS. Save the .ris file and paste its contents here.
Mendeley
Right-click selected references > Export > RIS. Open the .ris file and copy the records.
Zotero
Right-click items > Export Items > Format: RIS. Save and paste the file content.
JSTOR
Click Export Selected Citations > "RIS file" option. Save and paste.
ProQuest
Select results > Export to RIS. Many ProQuest databases support this directly.
ScienceDirect
Save selected citations > Format: RIS. Bulk-export multiple articles at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert RIS to Chicago style?
Paste your RIS records (lines starting with TY, AU, TI, JO, PY, DO) into CiteMe. Each record is parsed into a Chicago bibliography entry — author last name first, full names where available, italic journal titles, volume number, issue, year, page range, and DOI.
Which Chicago variant does this output?
Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition, author-date system by default — the variant most often required in social sciences and history coursework. The notes-and-bibliography variant is also supported through the same parser; copy whichever your style guide specifies.
Where do RIS files come from?
RIS is the export format of EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, JSTOR, ProQuest, and most library databases. In each tool, look for "Export" > "RIS" or ".ris" — the file you download contains one or more reference records ready to convert.
Can I paste multiple RIS records at once?
Yes. Paste a full .ris file or any subset — each record starts with TY (type) and ends with ER. On the free plan you can convert up to 3 records per submission; Pro converts your full file in one batch.
How does Chicago differ from APA on the same record?
Chicago author-date is similar to APA — author (year) — but uses full first names where available and periods between citation elements. CMS 17 lists up to 10 authors in the bibliography; with 11 or more, list the first 7 followed by "et al." (APA 7 lists up to 20 authors before truncating). Chicago notes-and-bibliography uses footnotes plus a bibliography entry — quite different from APA's parenthetical style.
Does it handle book and chapter records (TY=BOOK, TY=CHAP)?
Yes. TY=BOOK formats as "Smith, John D. Title. City: Publisher, 2024." and TY=CHAP as "Smith, John D. 'Chapter Title.' In Book Title, edited by Editor Name, 12–34. City: Publisher, 2024." with place, publisher, edition, and page range pulled from RIS tags.
Can I convert directly from Zotero?
Yes. In Zotero: select references > right-click > Export Items > Format: RIS. Save the .ris file and paste its contents here. Each Zotero record becomes a Chicago bibliography entry.
Keep the bibliography workflow moving
After converting RIS to Chicago, the next step is usually checking citations, exporting to BibTeX for an Overleaf project, or reformatting to APA for a different course.
Paste RIS. Get Chicago bibliography entries. No signup required.
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