How to Export Citations to BibTeX, RIS, and LaTeX

If you use Overleaf, Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote, you need your citations in a machine-readable format – not only plain text. CiteTools can export to BibTeX, RIS, and other formats these tools understand.

Why Export Matters

Plain text citations are fine for Word documents where you format manually. But if you use:

• Overleaf or LaTeX – You need BibTeX (.bib) files
• Zotero – Imports BibTeX or RIS
• Mendeley – Imports BibTeX or RIS
• EndNote – Imports RIS (.ris) files
• Reference managers – Most support BibTeX and/or RIS

Exporting saves you from manually entering every field into your reference manager.

BibTeX Export

BibTeX is the standard format for LaTeX users. A BibTeX entry looks like this:

@article{smith2025impact,
  author  = {Smith, John D. and Johnson, Mary K.},
  title   = {The Impact of Citation Accuracy on Academic Publishing},
  journal = {Journal of Academic Writing},
  volume  = {15},
  number  = {3},
  pages   = {45--62},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.1234/example}
}

How to Use BibTeX in Overleaf

1. Export your citations as BibTeX from CiteTools
2. In Overleaf, create a new file called references.bib
3. Paste the BibTeX entries into that file
4. In your .tex document, add:

\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{references}

5. Cite sources in your text with \cite{smith2025impact}

BibTeX Entry Types

• @article – Journal articles
• @book – Books
• @inproceedings – Conference papers
• @misc – Websites, software, other
• @phdthesis – Dissertations

RIS Export

RIS (Research Information Systems) is a tagged format understood by most reference managers:

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Smith, John D.
AU  - Johnson, Mary K.
TI  - The Impact of Citation Accuracy on Academic Publishing
JO  - Journal of Academic Writing
VL  - 15
IS  - 3
SP  - 45
EP  - 62
PY  - 2025
DO  - 10.1234/example
ER  -

Importing RIS into Reference Managers

Zotero: File > Import > select the .ris file

Mendeley: File > Add Files > select the .ris file

EndNote: File > Import > select RIS as the filter

How to Export from CiteTools

1. Paste your citation (DOI, URL, BibTeX, or plain text) into CiteTools.io
2. Select your citation style – this affects the formatted output but not the export
3. Choose your export format from the output options (BibTeX, RIS, or other formats)
4. Copy or download the exported data

For batch export, paste multiple citations separated by blank lines. All citations export together. Learn more about batch processing in our citation conversion guide.

Which Format Should You Use?

Worked Example: Exporting a Small Batch for a Literature Review

Say you’re starting a literature review with three sources already found – two with DOIs and one book with an ISBN. Paste all three into CiteTools separated by blank lines, select BibTeX as the export format, and copy the combined output directly into a new references.bib file:

@article{smith2025impact,
  author  = {Smith, John D. and Johnson, Mary K.},
  title   = {The Impact of Citation Accuracy on Academic Publishing},
  journal = {Journal of Academic Writing},
  volume  = {15},
  number  = {3},
  pages   = {45--62},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.1234/example}
}

@book{wilson2024writing,
  author    = {Wilson, Robert},
  title     = {Academic Writing: A Complete Guide},
  edition   = {3},
  publisher = {Routledge},
  address   = {London},
  year      = {2024}
}

Every new source you find later gets pasted and exported the same way, then appended to the same file – you never need to re-export sources you’ve already added.

Common Export Mistakes

1. Reusing the same citation key twice. LaTeX resolves every \cite{} call to whichever definition compiles last, so a duplicate key silently points to the wrong source. Keep every BibTeX key unique across your .bib file, even when merging files from different exports.
2. Exporting before the citation is complete. An export inherits whatever the original citation was missing – no DOI in the input means no DOI field in the BibTeX or RIS output either.
3. Ignoring encoding issues with accented characters. Names like “Muller” or “Garcia-Pena” can render as escaped LaTeX commands or broken characters depending on your editor’s encoding settings. Check names with diacritics after every export, especially in Overleaf.
4. Mixing export formats in one import batch. Most reference managers expect one consistent format per import – don’t paste BibTeX entries into a file you’re about to import as RIS.
5. Overwriting a .bib file instead of merging. If you’re adding sources mid-project, append to your existing file rather than re-exporting and replacing it, or you’ll lose citation keys already referenced in your draft.

Troubleshooting Common Export Issues

Special Characters Break My LaTeX Compile

BibTeX historically expects accented characters written as LaTeX escape sequences rather than raw Unicode – “Muller” as M\"{u}ller rather than the character directly. Most modern LaTeX setups using biblatex with the biber backend handle raw UTF-8 correctly, but older bibtex-backend setups sometimes don’t. If a name renders incorrectly after compiling, check which backend your Overleaf template uses before assuming the export itself is wrong.

Duplicate Citation Keys Across Multiple Exports

If you’ve exported citations from CiteTools at different points in a project and combined the resulting .bib files, two separate entries can end up sharing the same auto-generated key. Rename one of the keys manually, then update the matching \cite{} calls in your .tex file to point to the corrected key.

My Reference Manager Won’t Import the RIS File

Reference managers are strict about RIS formatting – a missing ER - end-of-record tag, or a blank line in the wrong place, can cause a silent import failure. Open the .ris file in a plain text editor and confirm every entry ends with ER - on its own line before re-importing.

Some Fields Didn’t Export

An export can only include the fields the original citation had. Paste a DOI or ISBN into CiteTools before exporting whenever one is available, so the metadata lookup fills in every field automatically – see our DOI guide for how to find one.

Tips for Clean Exports

• Start with DOIs. DOI-based lookups pull structured metadata directly from Crossref, the registry that powers doi.org resolution, which is why they produce the most complete BibTeX and RIS entries.
• Check the citation key. BibTeX entries have a key (e.g., smith2025impact). Make sure it’s unique across your .bib file.
• Verify special characters. LaTeX handles accented characters differently. Check names like “Muller” vs “M”{u}ller”.
• Export early, export often. Don’t wait until your paper is done – build your .bib file as you research.
• Run a final check before submission. Our thesis bibliography checklist covers the formatting details an exported file won’t catch on its own, like consistent author-name formatting across entries.

Try It with CiteTools

Head to CiteTools.io to convert and export your citations to BibTeX, RIS, or LaTeX. Paste a DOI, get a ready-to-import file for Overleaf or your reference manager. If you’re evaluating which reference manager to pair with CiteTools, see our Zotero vs Mendeley vs CiteTools comparison.