Whenever you run refdb-mode commands which create output (as opposed to status messages which are displayed in the echo area), two windows open and display the results. The *refdb-output* buffer displays the command results proper, e.g. the bibliographic data which the commands in the submenu create. refdb-mode tries to infer the proper major mode for the type of data, e.g. it will load ris-mode for RIS data and nxml-mode for any of the XML formats. The modeline shows the major mode used as well as the character encoding. The *refdb-messages* buffer keeps a log of the result summaries, e.g. the number of retrieved references.
If you want to preserve search results displayed in the *refdb-output* buffer for later use, simply rename the buffer: M-xrename-buffer . This temporary buffer is not associated with a file, although you can of course write it to a file using C-xC-w. Your next query will generate another buffer called newname*refdb-output*. You can repeat this process any number of times to preserve an unlimited number of query results.
Commands that require additional data will prompt for these in the minibuffer. You can use the minibuffer history to recover any previously used input. In most cases you can also use minibuffer completion (tab or space key) to fill in the remainder of an argument or to choose between alternatives.