Drop your NBIB file. We'll convert it to RIS right here in your browser, your file never leaves your device.
Drop your file here
or click to pick from your device
How it works
Click the dropzone above or drag a NBIB from your desktop. Files of any size, there's no upload, so there's no upload limit.
The conversion runs entirely in this tab using JavaScript and WebAssembly. Your file never touches our servers, we don't have any.
Get your RIS the moment the conversion finishes. Convert another, or close the tab.
Your file is never uploaded. The entire conversion runs in your browser using WebAssembly. We can't see what you convert because we have no server to see it.
Server converters cap free users at 1-2 GB and gate larger files behind a paid plan. Since nothing uploads, our limit is whatever your browser can handle.
No account required. No watermark on the output. No queue. Open source, every line of conversion code is public.
Formats involved
NBIB is the National Library of Medicine's citation format for PubMed exports. Structurally identical to RIS with a different tag dictionary (PMID, FAU, JT, AID instead of ID, AU, JO, DO). Reference managers treat .nbib files as RIS-flavored with PubMed-specific extensions. The format ships with PubMed downloads and the major systematic-review tools (Covidence, Rayyan).
How to open
Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Papers, all read NBIB natively. Plain text in any editor.
RIS is a tagged citation format from Research Information Systems (the Reference Manager company), now an industry-standard interchange. Two-letter tags (TY=type, AU=author, TI=title, JO=journal, etc.), one per line, records terminated by ER. Most academic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, JSTOR, Scopus) export to RIS. Reference managers all import and export it.
How to open
Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Papers, RefWorks, Citavi, every modern reference manager. Plain text in any editor.
Related tools
How we compare
| Feature | Ustwineconvert | CloudConvert | iLovePDF | FreeConvert | Smallpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Files uploaded to a server | |||||
| Free file size limit | No limit | 1 GB | 200 MB | 1 GB | 5 GB |
| Free conversions per day | Unlimited | 10/day | Limited | Limited | 2/day |
| Signup required | |||||
| Watermark on output | |||||
| Open source | |||||
| Works offline (after first load) |
Last verified May 2026 from each competitor's pricing and FAQ pages. Limits and pricing change frequently.
FAQ
Yes. No signup, no watermark, no daily file count limit. The entire engine is open source, you can read the conversion code on GitHub.
Nowhere. The conversion runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly. Your file is never uploaded to our servers. We don't have any servers handling files, there's nothing for us to log, store, or accidentally leak.
Whatever your browser can hold in memory. Practically, this means a few hundred MB on most computers, significantly larger than the 1-2 GB caps that server-upload converters charge for. Very large files (multi-GB) may require closing other browser tabs first.
PubMed citation export; systematic review imports. Citation interchange between databases and reference managers. The most common reason to convert is compatibility, RIS works in places where NBIB doesn't, or vice versa.
Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Papers, all read NBIB natively. Plain text in any editor.
Once the page is loaded, the conversion itself runs entirely offline. The first time you use a tool, your browser downloads the conversion library (a one-time cache). If you reload while offline, the page won't load, but you can install the site as a Progressive Web App for full offline use.
Single file at a time for now. Batch conversion is on the roadmap, for now, drop one file, download the result, then convert the next.