Extract text from Bibliographic data files (REFER)
To convert REFER References to another format, you need EndNote or other Text software.
To convert other file formats to the "Bibliographic Data" file type, you need software like EndNote or a similar tool.
A .REFER file contains structured bibliographic citations stored in the Refer/BibIX format. Originally developed for the Unix-based refer tool, this format is now primarily used as an interchange format for citation managers like EndNote.
The file consists of plain text records where each line begins with a % tag followed by a field identifier (e.g., %A for Author, %T for Title, %D for Year).
Common user friction: While human-readable, .REFER files are not natively supported by modern word processors like Microsoft Word or strictly enforced by newer tools like Zotero, which prefer the industry-standard RIS format. Users often encounter these files when exporting legacy databases or restoring old backups, finding them unusable for immediate citation generation.
Best conversion targets:
Convert.Guru analyzes your REFER file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted EVY, WOL and BRH files.
If you want to convert REFER file to , you can use EndNote or similar software from the "Bibliographic Data Interchange" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to REFER, try EndNote or another comparable tool in the "Bibliographic Data Interchange" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our REFER converter.