Comparison of the Medline (txt), Medline (XML), and RIS format

The Medline (txt) format can be used by a simple text document. Here, you have to write the field names at the beginning of each line. The Medline (xml) format is a XML document. The field name has to be written between < and >. For further information visit https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/licensee/elements_descriptions.html. Medline (txt) and Medline (XML) always take the type "article". RIS works similar to Medline (txt) with the difference that different fields are supported and the file extension is "ris".

In other sources, you might encounter "MedlinePlain" as synonym for "Medline (txt)" and "Medline" as synonym for "Medline (xml)".

Table with fields

Field	Medline (txt)	Medline (XML)	RIS
Abstract	AB	Abstract / AbstractText	AB
Affiliation	AD
Article Date		ArticleDate
Article Identifier	AID	Article
Article Title		ArticleTitle
Author	AU	AuthorList	AU/A1
Author Identifier	AUID
Book Title	BTI		BT
Chemical List		ChemicalList
Citation Subset		CitationSubset
Collection Title	CTI
Collaborators			A3
Comments Corrections List		CommentsCorrectionsList
Corporate Author	CN
Copyright Information		CopyrightInformation
Create Date	CRDT
Country		Country
Data Bank List		DataBankList
Date Completed	DCOM	DateCompleted
Date Created	DA	DateCreated
Date Last Revised	LR	DateRevised
Date of Electronic Publication	DEP
Date of Publication	DP		Y2
Delete Citation		DeleteCitation
DOI			DOI
Edition	EN
Editor and Full Editor Name	FED		ED
End			ER
End Page			EP
Entrez Date	EDAT
Full Author	FAU
Full Personal Name as Subject	FPS
Gene Symbol	GS
General Note	GN	GeneralNote
Grant List		GrantList
Grant Number	GR
Investigator Name and Full Investigator Name	IR/FIR
Investigator List		InvestigatorList
ISO Abbreviation		ISOAbbreviation
ISBN	ISBN		SN
ISSN	IS	ISSN
ISSN Linking		ISSNLinking
Issue	IP	Issue	IS
Journal Issue		JournalIssue
Journal Title	JT	Journal	JO/JF/JA
Journal Title Abbreviation	TA
Keywords		KeywordList	KW
Language	LA	Language
Location Identifier	LID
Manuscript Identifier	MID
Medline Title Abbreviation		MedlineTA
Medline Date		MedlineDate
MeSH Date	MHDA
Mesh Heading List		MeshHeadingList
MeSH Terms	MH
Misc			M1-M3
NLM Unique ID	JID	NlmUniqueID
Note			N1
Number of References	RF
Other Abstract and other abstract language	OAB/OABL	OtherAbstract
Other Copyright Information	OCI
Other ID	OID	OtherID
Other Term	OT
Other Term Owner	OTO
Owner	OWN
Pagination	PG	Pagination
Personal Name as Subject	PS
Personal Name as Subject List		PersonalNameSubjectList
Place of Publication	PL
Publication History Status	PHST
Publication Status	PST
Publication Type	PT
Publication Type List		PublicationTypeList
Publisher			PB
Publishing Date		PubDate
Publishing Model	PUBM
PubMed Central Identifier	PMCR
PubmMed Unique Identifier	PMID	PMID
Registry Number	RN
Reprint			RP
Start Page			SP
Substance Name	NM
Supplemental Mesh List		SupplMeshList
Secondary Source ID	SI
Source	SO
Space Flight Mission	SFM
Status	STAT
Subset	SB
Title	TI	Title	TI/T1
Transliterated Title	TT
Type			TY
URL			UR
User Text			U1-U3
Volume	VI	Volume	VL
Volume Title	VTI
Vernacular Title		VernacularTitle
Year			PY/Y1