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Organizing Scientific Papers

The award-winning Papers for Mac (OS X only) is an application that makes it easy to organize science papers and journal articles, integrating smoothly with sources like Google Scholar, JSTOR, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed to automatically pull metadata information. Articles that you already have can be quickly integrated. The program allows you to create a personal, digital library of science papers that is easy to search, annotate, and rate.

Papers is also available as an independent application for iPhone and iTouch but can be used to synchronize with the desktop version. Papers for iPhone has a sophisticated viewer and the same browse, search and annotation features as the desktop application.

For faculty and students that have numerous PDF files and want a product that can put everything in one easy-to-access place, Papers can be very helpful. Unfortunately, many may balk at the pricing for the desktop application, which can be downloaded for a free trial, but costs $40 for use. The mobile application is $15 and there is no bundling option.