Reference Management Software

opinion guy

Hi,

Just wondering what do people find useful for managing references. I have thousands of papers I want to catalog, tag and have in a searchable database - I'm just not sure whats the best software to do it with.

I HATE Endnote. Zotero not functional enough and browser based which I hate. I've been playing with Mendeley which has the features I want - thou I feel like there are some privacy issues seeing as you have to sign up online for full functionality. I'm also somewhat concerned about long term durability - i.e. will these programs still be supported in 10, 20, 30 years time ? Does the pdf format itself allow tags searchable by your operating system perhaps?

Anyone have a solution to this before I invest time and effort into it ?

Mr. Gunn

opinion guy wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering what do people find useful for managing references. I have thousands of papers I want to catalog, tag and have in a searchable database - I'm just not sure whats the best software to do it with.

I HATE Endnote. Zotero not functional enough and browser based which I hate. I've been playing with Mendeley which has the features I want - thou I feel like there are some privacy issues seeing as you have to sign up online for full functionality. I'm also somewhat concerned about long term durability - i.e. will these programs still be supported in 10, 20, 30 years time ? Does the pdf format itself allow tags searchable by your operating system perhaps?

Anyone have a solution to this before I invest time and effort into it ?

Opinion Guy, your library on Mendeley remains private by default. You have to explicitly make something public in order for anyone to see it. Your data is stored in an open format and is available for export in a variety of standard formats such as BibTeX, .XML, and .RIS, so you won't lose anything if the company goes under.

Any further questions, feel free to contact me. Contact info in profile.

5uspect

I use Jabref. Works great.

opinion guy

Mr. Gunn wrote: »

Opinion Guy, your library on Mendeley remains private by default. You have to explicitly make something public in order for anyone to see it. Your data is stored in an open format and is available for export in a variety of standard formats such as BibTeX, .XML, and .RIS, so you won't lose anything if the company goes under.

Any further questions, feel free to contact me. Contact info in profile.

Woah there ok your creeping me about a little Mr Mendely guy - I'm starting to feel stalked - did my Mendeley install tell you I posted that ??? :P

Thou to be serious I did find it quite pushy when 2 days after downloading it one of your staff personally emailed me to remind me to sign up. Really I almost deleted the thing on the spot when I got that only for it seemed like a good product and I am in need. This is the problem - I don't want to be on your server account system, but in order to fully use the program and its clever tricks to captcher data from the web I have to be. I'd rather the web side of it was an option. I don't want my references listed on your server (at least not by default - I'd like the option for back up purposes but it shoudl be opt in not opt out). On that point - my pdf's are onyl uploaded if I select that is that true ?

Mr. Gunn

opinion guy wrote: »

Woah there ok your creeping me about a little Mr Mendely guy - I'm starting to feel stalked - did my Mendeley install tell you I posted that ??? :P

Thou to be serious I did find it quite pushy when 2 days after downloading it one of your staff personally emailed me to remind me to sign up. Really I almost deleted the thing on the spot when I got that only for it seemed like a good product and I am in need. This is the problem - I don't want to be on your server account system, but in order to fully use the program and its clever tricks to captcher data from the web I have to be. I'd rather the web side of it was an option. I don't want my references listed on your server (at least not by default - I'd like the option for back up purposes but it shoudl be opt in not opt out). On that point - my pdf's are only uploaded if I select that is that true ?

Yes, the PDFs are only uploaded if you've enabled that, but even then nothing's public. Unless you choose to make a public collection, your entire library is private by default.

Sorry about the stalker thing. I have a Google Alert set up that tells me when there's a new public mention of Mendeley so that if someone is having a problem or asking a question, I can help them. Call it modern day customer service

opinion guy

Mr. Gunn wrote: »

Sorry about the stalker thing. I have a Google Alert set up that tells me when there's a new public mention of Mendeley so that if someone is having a problem or asking a question, I can help them. Call it modern day customer service

Wow....so google apparently google is evil after all:D :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055798139

Mr. Gunn

opinion guy wrote: »

Wow....so google apparently google is evil after all:D :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055798139

On a serious note, these kinds of things are probably what we talk about the most. How do we help people out without seeming pushy or stalkerish? For example, if someone writes a blog post saying they're having trouble keeping their PDFs organized, it seems like it would be helpful to pop in and mention Mendeley, and most people are happy when I do that. On the other hand, if I were to go join a bunch of message boards and start my own topic as my first post, that would clearly be spam. What it comes down to is that I feel like if people at least know I'm here then they'll know there's a real person to talk to about stuff. The fact that we care enough to do this is intended to be a sign that we respect communities of academics and potential users, knowing that each has their own sense of what's appropriate and what isn't.