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From Bibus

Caveats

If someone used another software to manage their references and are switching to Bibus or if they are trying to get Bibus and another piece of software to neatly work together there are things they should know ahead of time to avoid problems down the road. Whether these points are problems or not depends on how the user intends to use Bibus. All of these points were found after importing a database of approximately 480 references from RefWorks into Bibus and then exporting the entire Bibus database to a RIS file.

1. Bibus normalizes the author field to remove periods. So "Matilal,B. K." becomes "Matilal,B K".
2. When importing a RIS record, Bibus saves the AB (Abstract) field in the database, but when exporting a record the abstract becomes a N2 (notes 2) field.
3. When importing a RIS record, Bibus combines the CY (city?) field together with the PB (publisher) field and separates them with ",". Someone who relies on a style in which the city and publisher are separate or on a style which does not need the city will encounter a problem when producing a bibliography.
4. When importing a RIS record, Bibus take the SP (start page) field of a reference as a page range. When that same reference is exported, the page range is split across SP and EP (end page). So if the record originally contained "SP 1-100" the result is "SP 1" and "EP 100".
5. When importing a RIS record, any data associated with the "ER -" tag is silently dropped by Bibus. According to the RIS specification, "ER" is the tag indicating an end of record and has no other defined function. Logically, no data should be associated with it but RefWorks for instance does put library call numbers in this field when exporting a RIS record. Someone who needs interoperability between Bibus and RefWorks and does care about call numbers will find this problematic.
6. When exporting a RIS record, Bibus only uses the JO (journal) field. The RIS specification allows both JF and JO for the journal. This should never be a problem but people using home-made tools might want to make sure that their tools support both fields.
7. When importing a RIS record, Bibus silently ignores the KW (keyword) fields.
8. When importing a RIS record, Bibus silently ignores the M1 (miscellaneous 1) field and probably M2 and M3 also.
9. When importing a RIS record, Bibus normalizes the N1 (notes 1) field to remove any trailing period.
10. When importing a RIS record, Bibus imports the SN (ISSN/ISBN) field properly but does not export it when exporting a RIS record.
11. When importing a RIS record, Bibus silently ignores the T2 (title 2) field.
12. When importing a RIS record, Bibus normalizes the U1 field to remove any trailing period.
13. When importing a RIS record, Bibus combines multiple UR (url) fields present in one record into one field. The RIS standard supports multiple urls per UR field but software incorrectly expecting one url per field may be confused.
14. When importing a RIS record, Bibus combines multiple VL (volume) fields present in one record into one field.
15. When importing a RIS record, Bibus normalizes the VL (volume) fields to remove any trailing period.
16. When importing a RIS record, Bibus silently ignores the Y2 (date secondary) field.