Exporting Extra as RIS

Scotthertzberg · May 27, 2020

Hello, does anyone know if it is possible to export contents of the extra field as a RIS. I tried and the contents of the field did not show up when I imported the file. Maybe I have to put the contents in another field for them to export.

Thanks for any help.

bwiernik · May 29, 2020

There isn’t a clear analogue to Extra in RIS, so the exporter doesn’t include it. It would be possible to edit your copy of the translator to add Extra somewhere.

What’s your use case though? Why are you exporting to RIS?

Scotthertzberg · May 29, 2020

Thank you. Good to know that you can't export contents in the extra field. However, I found an alternative. If you export a file as an RDF the contents of extra export. I sent someone a Zotero RDF and when the imported it they had the contents in extra.

Why are you exporting to RIS is a strange question. Isn't it common to export RIS files to send to people? Is it better to export a Zotero RDF if you know the recipient uses Zotero?

dstillman · May 29, 2020

Is it better to export a Zotero RDF if you know the recipient uses Zotero?

Yes, absolutely.

RIS is an old, generic format that doesn't have fields to cover all possible data in Zotero. It's also poorly specified, so even different versions of EndNote (the corporate descendant of the reference manager for which it was originally created) handle various fields in different ways.