RIS to Vancouver Converter
Paste RIS records and get ICMJE-compliant Vancouver numbered references for your medical paper. Works with exports from PubMed, EndNote, Mendeley, Embase, and Cochrane. 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 PubMed, EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, Embase, or any medical database that exports RIS. Each record starts with TY and ends with ER.
Step 2
Convert to Vancouver
CiteMe parses RIS tags (TY, AU, TI, JO, PY, VL, IS, SP, EP, DO) and builds an ICMJE-compliant Vancouver reference numbered in your input order.
Step 3
Copy your Vancouver references
Get numbered Vancouver references for your medical paper. 1. Smith JD, Johnson MR. Article title. Nat Med. 2024;29(4):123-145.
Why use CiteMe for RIS to Vancouver?
ICMJE / NLM Vancouver
Author surnames with initials (no commas: Smith JD), abbreviated journal titles preserved, year-volume-issue-pages, DOI optional. Up to 6 authors before "et al."
All RIS Record Types
TY=JOUR (journal), TY=BOOK, TY=CHAP (chapter), TY=THES (thesis), TY=CONF (conference), TY=ELEC (web/Internet) — each formatted with the Vancouver rule for that source kind.
PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane
Built for medical researchers exporting from clinical databases. Drop a 200-record PubMed export in and get a numbered reference list ready for your manuscript.
Systematic-Review Friendly
Numbered in input order — paste your reference list in the order you cite it, and CiteMe matches the in-text numbering. No reordering needed.
RIS to Vancouver — example
RIS input (PubMed export)
TY - JOUR
AU - Smith, John D.
AU - Johnson, Maria R.
TI - Machine Learning in
Healthcare Diagnostics
JO - Nat Med
PY - 2024
VL - 29
IS - 4
SP - 123
EP - 145
DO - 10.1038/s41591-024-0001
ER -Vancouver (ICMJE) output
In-text: as shown1
Works with RIS exports from medical databases
PubMed
Send to > Citation manager. Saves up to 200 records as a .ris file. Paste the file content here.
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.
Embase
Select records > Export > Format: RIS. Bulk-export multiple medical records at once.
Cochrane Library
Select citations > Export > "Plain text RIS". Paste the content here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert RIS to Vancouver style?
Paste your RIS records (lines starting with TY, AU, TI, JO, PY, DO) into CiteMe. Each record is parsed into a Vancouver numbered reference — author surnames with initials (no commas), journal title abbreviated, year, volume, issue, and page range — exactly the ICMJE / Index Medicus format used in medical journals.
Is this Vancouver or ICMJE Vancouver?
They're the same thing in everyday use. Vancouver style was originally codified by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and refined by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) for Index Medicus / PubMed. CiteMe outputs the modern ICMJE-compliant format used by most medical journals.
Where do RIS files come from for medical research?
RIS is the export format of EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero, PubMed (Send to > Citation manager), Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane. Most medical databases offer "Export RIS" or ".ris" download — the file contains one or more records ready to convert.
Does it abbreviate journal titles per ICMJE?
CiteMe preserves the journal title as it appears in the RIS record. If your RIS records were exported from PubMed, journal titles already arrive in NLM/ICMJE-abbreviated form (e.g., "N Engl J Med", "JAMA", "Lancet"). For records from other databases, double-check abbreviations against the NLM Catalog before submitting.
How does Vancouver differ from APA on the same record?
Vancouver uses superscript numbers in-text (e.g., "as shown¹"), where APA uses author-year. The reference list in Vancouver is numbered in citation order (not alphabetical). Authors use surname-initials with no commas (Smith JD), and there are up to 6 authors before "et al."
Can I paste a full PubMed export at once?
Yes. PubMed exports up to 200 records as RIS via the "Send to > Citation manager" option. Paste the entire file. On the free plan you can convert up to 3 records per submission; Pro converts your full PubMed export in one batch — useful for systematic reviews.
Does it include the [Internet] tag for online articles?
For TY=ELEC (web) and TY=JOUR records with a URL but no print version, CiteMe adds the [Internet] tag and access date per ICMJE guidance. Print journal articles (TY=JOUR with volume/issue) do not get the [Internet] tag.
Keep the medical reference workflow moving
After converting RIS to Vancouver, the next step is usually checking citations against your manuscript draft, importing PubMed records you missed, or formatting an Endnote library for a separate APA-required course.
Paste RIS. Get Vancouver numbered references. No signup required.
Start Now