Importing from Reference Manager

Citavi can import databases from Reference Manager (see our YouTube video). To continue working on a document containing Reference Manager fields, in the Word Add-In on the Citavi Ribbon, click Convert, and then click Convert EndNote or RefMan fields to Citavi fields. Watch our YouTube video to see how to do this.

Importing from Reference Manager

If you want your references to have the same sequence numbers that they had in Reference Manager, it's important that you import the references into a new, empty Citavi project.

Please note:

Reference Manager lets you define your own fields. If you used this feature, please contact the Citavi Support team before importing your RefMan database. We're happy to advise you on how best to import your information.

1. In Reference Manager on the File menu, click Export.
2. Select RIS as the Output format.
3. Start Citavi. In the Reference Editor on the File menu, click Import.
4. Select Another reference management program.
5. Select Reference Manager (via RIS Export), click Add, and then click Close. Then click Next.
6. Click Browse, select the RIS file you want to import, and then click Next.
7. In the import window that appears, you can choose which references you want to import. To import all the references, click Add to project. To add specific references only, first select the corresponding checkboxes and then click Add to project.
8. Select any appropriate import options.
9. Click Add to project to complete the import.

Customizing the Import Filter

If you defined your own reference types and fields in Reference Manager you may want to customize Citavi's import filter. Make sure to test the import filter in an empty project a few times before importing the RefMan project that you'll want to continue using in Citavi.  

1. In Windows Explorer switch to the following folder: C:\Users\[Your name]\Documents\Citavi 5\Settings\Mappings.
2. Create a copy of the file ReferenceManager_RIS_Text.CitaviTX.
   (If the file is not in the folder, follow steps 3-5 above under Importing from Reference Manager.)
3. Temporarily change the file extension from CitaviTX to xml so that your text editor uses different colors for the syntax.
4. To edit the file, we recommend using Notepad++. Open the ReferenceManager_RIS_Text.XML file in Notepad++. You can close all XML nodes by pressing ALT+0.
5. Change the filter name so that you can better distinguish it in Citavi later on. To do so, replace the contents between the <DisplayName> tags (for example RefMan Import ACME).
6. Change the ID number. Create a new ID under http://www.guidgen.com/ and then replace the contents of the <ID> tags with the newly created ID.
7. Customize the reference type mapping. For example, if in Reference Manager you used the reference type Thesis/Dissertation for internal docuements, you can alter the default mapping so that these references are imported in Citavi as Report or Gray Literature. To do so, edit the contents under the <ReferenceTypeMapping> node. Within this node you will find additional sub-nodes with the following structure:
   
   To change an existing node, enter a new value for the referenceType attribute. For the example above, this would be UnpublishedWork.
   To add a new node, copy a line and enter the internal name of the Reference Manager reference type (see this table) as the requiredPattern attribute. Enter the internal Citavi reference type as the referenceType attribute (see this table).
8. Customize the field mapping. For each reference type, decide which Reference Manager fields should be imported into which Citavi fields. Perhaps in Reference Manager for the reference type Thesis/Dissertation you were using the field Classification Level (= Misc1) to designate the confidentiality of a particular document. In Citavi you might want to use the field Custom Field 1. To do so, edit the contents of the <FieldMappingTable> node. Within this node you can find the field mapping for each reference type. Each available field has a node with the following structure:
   
   To customize the mapping, enter a new value for the fieldType attribute. In the example above you would enter CustomField1. The internal field names in Citavi can be found in this table.
   If a field mapping is not defined for a reference type, the mapping for the defaultReferenceType is used. The defaultRefernceType is defined in the <ReferenceTypeMapping> node and is the reference type Book by default.
9. Before testing the import filter, change the file extension back to .CitaviTX.
10. Import the file you exported from Reference Manager. In Citavi click File > Import > Another reference management program > Add filter and then select your customized filter.