¶ Importing Citations: Choosing a Method
Citations (your references / studies) are the raw material of a review. VADRR can import them from
several file formats and from PubMed. This page explains the choices and the shared upload steps;
each format then has its own how-to.
Who can do this: Leaders and Contributors can add citations to a project.
¶ Where Citation Imports Live
Open your project and go to Project Info ▸ Citations. This opens the Citation Pool page. On
the right is the Upload Citation File(s) panel; the table on the left lists citations already in
the project (Accession No., RefID, Authors, Title, Publication).
The Citation Pool screen. Click the blue ⓘ icon next to "Upload Citation File(s)" to see the
format guide and download sample files.
¶ The Available Methods
Click the ⓘ info icon next to Upload Citation File(s) to open the format guide. Maximum file
size for any upload is 10 MB.
| Format | Best for | Est. records at 10 MB | How-to |
|---|---|---|---|
| RIS (.ris) | Exports from Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, RefWorks | ~6,000–8,000 | RIS import |
| CSV (.csv) | Spreadsheets following the required columns | ~6,000–8,000 | CSV import |
| PubMed ID list (.txt) | A list of PMIDs to fetch from PubMed | ~1,000,000+ | PubMed ID import |
| EndNote (.enw) | EndNote's own export format | ~6,000–8,000 | EndNote import |
| MEDLINE / PubMed export (.txt/.nbib) | Files downloaded from the PubMed website | ~2,000–3,000 | MEDLINE import |
| Manual entry | Adding one reference by hand | — | Manual entry |
Record estimates assume typical abstracts are included and vary with content length. A sample file
for each format is downloadable from the format guide — use it to confirm the expected structure.
¶ The Shared Upload Steps
The procedure is the same for every file format:
- On the Citation Pool page, find the Upload Citation File(s) panel.
- Drag your file onto the dropzone, or click it to browse and select your file.
- VADRR auto-detects the format from the file extension and pops up a "File Type Detected"
dialog reading "This looks like a … . Do you wish to continue?" Click Continue to upload, or
Cancel if it guessed wrong.
That's it — once you click Continue, VADRR uploads the file and takes you straight to the
preview. (The Upload file button you may see is only a fallback for browsers with JavaScript
disabled.)
¶ What Happens Next: Preview → Start → Email
- After upload, VADRR generates a preview of your file in the background. While it works you'll
see a "Generating Preview…" page that refreshes itself. - The preview shows the first records that will be imported and any errors found in the file.
(If you see "Errors were found in your import file. Please review the details below," fix the
issues before importing.) - When the preview looks right, click Start Import to run the import. You'll see
"Citation file(s) successfully uploaded. You will be notified by email when the citation imports
finish." - When the background import completes, you receive an email, and the citations appear in the
project.
See Import preview, history & notifications for more on tracking imports.
¶ Recommended Next Step
After importing from one or more sources, run deduplication to merge
records that describe the same study.