2 replies to this topic

[blood]

(This isn't really computer-science related, but I wasn't sure what other sub-forum would be appropriate)

There are certain papers I'd like to be able to quickly refer to from time to time. Currently they are all sitting in my downloads folder (all with confusing or uninformative names). I want a better way to hold on to, organise, manage academic papers (pdfs) and references.

I'm on an apple platform (macbook, iPad).

I see a few options.

1) Sente
- pdfs and references are stored in the cloud
- your database is then synchronised across devices (e.g., add a new reference or pdf on your desktop, and it is available for reading on your iPad)
- free mac and iPad apps.
- free cloud account for 100 or fewer pdfs
- if you want to track >100 pdfs/ references, pay around $50 to upgrade, and you can store 5000 pdfs/ references in the cloud

2) Papers 3 (for mac, ipad, windows)
- haven't researched this platform fully... but:
- the options for sync-ing across devices don't appear to be as useful as with Sente
- appears to have much better EZProxy support (useful if you are affiliated with an institution with full-text access to e.g., pubmed)

3) others options?

What software do you use for managing pdfs and tracking references?

[nightlight]

Mendeley is the nicest one I have tried (related tools). The problem that eventually made me stop using it was its intrusiveness, its insistence on keeping my research info in the cloud, even when all sharing options were turned off. Since my work involves some quite unexpected discoveries (with several patents in the pipeline), I didn't want a third party to search and scan through it at will. If there were a fully local package of that sort with equivalent functionality, I would have used it. I ended up creating and maintaining manually a set of local HTML files (using SeaMonkey as html editor) viewed from browser with hierarchy of links. Since the literature in the field I collected has over 10K papers & books (pdf & ps format) the plain folders were becoming inconvenient (since the same file can belong in several clusters). The windows file & folder shortcuts are also not nearly as flexible as HTML links.

While my present method is labor intensive, there is an accidental upside to manually organizing and maintaining such hierarchies -- the meta level thinking and instinctive urge to economize (compress) the busy work involved, often points to interesting connections between problems that wouldn't have occurred at the pure subject level thinking. If I get few weeks of free time, I may end up writing my own literature organizer (that can search & cross reference large collections of pdf, ps, doc, html and text files) producing HTML output since that allows the most generic access from any device. The program would provide private syncing of the data-base across devices over the LAN. Wider syncing would be possible if your ISP & router configuration allow for inbound connections (a local http server would be set up in that case).

[BlueCloud]

look also into Devonthink. That's the one I use.