After graduating in philosophy and Yugoslav studies at the University of Zadar in 1974, he received a PhD at the same institution in 1986, with a thesis on the Kajkavian dialects of Gorski Kotar.
[citation needed] His chief scientific interest is in dialectology and in the history of Croatian.
He has published approximately a thousand bibliographical units, including several books: With Dunja Fališevac and Darko Novaković, Lisac edited the anthology Hrvatska književna baština (2002–2005).
He currently serves as an editor of the magazine Čakavska rič and also collaborates on the publications of the Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute.
He edited reprints of many of the works of Croatian writers and philologists, including (Faust Vrančić, Jakov Pletikosa, Stjepan Ivšić, Vinko Nikolić, Zlatko Pochobradsky).