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Interesting that this has appeared here now, since it's been around for quite a while (I first saw colleagues using this nearly 7 years ago). I've only heard good thing about it, though I've never used it myself (not being much of a mac person).

Other similar services include Mendeley [0] (now owned by Elsevier, I believe), gPapers [1] (less functionality, looks defunct), and good ol' bibtex files.

[0] - http://www.mendeley.com/

[1] - http://gpapers.org/

9 comments

There's also Zotero [0] which is open source, cross platform and integrates nicely with all major browsers.

[0] http://www.zotero.org

> Mendeley [0] (now owned by Elsevier, I believe)

Similarly, note that Papers is owned by Springer.

Yes, my enthusiasm for the product went down considerably after the acquisition happened. It feels like the cartel asserting control.

But I still use Papers! It is really effective for downloading a lot of papers fast to get up to speed on a new topic area. It's also cool to have all my papers and notes synced between devices. Download at work and read wherever.

I'll speak up for bibtex files, while I was writing my doctorate I was adverse to spending time choosing between the different apps, so I kept an extra window with my master bibtex file (all the papers I read) open. This forced a beneficial habit of really critically reading and labeling to summarize each citation - 'This is why I find this paper important'. It probably would've been quicker to just throw em all in a citation manager, but I got great feedback in a "you really know your area, well-cited work" way when defending.

Don't forget Zotero (open source).

And Sente too: http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/site/SenteForMac.html

Colwiz is another not yet mentioned: https://www.colwiz.com/

Also Qiqqa (http://www.qiqqa.com/)

How does Qiqqa compare to Zotero? According to an old (2010) post by the author of Qiqqa (https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/13326/qiqqa-and-pdfs/):

  It's Jimme here. I am the guy building Qiqqa.

  Qiqqa is not trying to be a reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley. 
  As I do my PhD I am building something that is excellent at helping me (any anyone else who wants to use it)
  READ, UNDERSTAND and DIGEST the papers in my library using Computational 
  Linguistics techniques, and not LOCATE/DOWNLOAD/COLLECT the papers.

  Zotero's incredible strength lies with its ability to download reference matter from hundreds of sources - and that is something Qiqqa would never need to compete against. 
  It is great to see a community at work writing the hundreds of parsers and scrapers of the various online libraries.

gPapers terms itself the "iTunes for PDFs" but it seems more of a "Rhythmbox for PDFs" (i.e. huge usability problems).

I like jabref, but it doesn't have papers' ability to grab a bibliographical entry for a PDF...

What does papers provide over Mendeley?

I haven't used Mendeley since I started using Papers, about 3 years ago. Mendeley at the time seemed to have an uncertain future and less than stellar performance. I find the Papers experience overall much better designed, though the 3.0 release, status post Springer's purchase of Mekentosj, still has some warts. Specifically, I found the PDF interaction is much better and with 3.0 the sync and mobile support is great.

That is a very relevant question, since Mendeley is free.

Reading the Web site the only advantage that I found is that it allows you to use your Dropbox account to sync the files, while for Mendeley, if you want more space than a free account offers, you have to pay.

The cost is incidental for many users, considering what is at stake -- basically, continued professional competence due to keeping up to date with the state of research.

How does Mendeley help to keep up with the state of research? I thought it just lets you manage the papers you read. Does it actually give you access to paywalled papers?

By the way, as a non-academic, I've always wondered how I could keep up with the latest developments in the field of information security/cryptography. Are there simply some key journals that one has to keep track of, or are there other more frequently updated sources that one should read?

I'm saying that the $50 or whatever that Papers.app costs versus the $0 Mendeley costs is not a factor for many rational actors (if those exist ;-). The real cost is the time and focus to find and read the articles. This swamps the $50. The $50 should not be a factor.

If one or the other app happens to have features, tradition, or lock-in, in its favor, so that it will better turn your time and focus into increased subject mastery, that's what really matters.

I've found that having my papers organized by subject matter, searchable, and always available on any device, is a huge advantage in learning new stuff.

Over the years, it adds up, and you end up knowing more, which is helpful in lots of ways. To be crass -- it could be the difference between a 4% raise and a 5% raise for someone making $100K/y ($1K in the first year). That's a big deal.

Aim for journals with a high-impact factor. Researchers are encouraged to publish there. Unfortunately there's usually a pay wall for those. For free stuff you can check open-access journals. Some open journals also have a high impact factor and there's recently been a push for publish to publish only in open access journals.

Also, in some computer science areas conference papers can be another useful resource.

Good point, I forgot to mention that.

Thanks. Is there any way to efficiently track the releases of these journals, or at least interesting articles in the fields I'm interested in?

Mendeley does not give you access to paywalled papers. You have to download them yourself.