Papers is a great Macintosh program to manage the PDF files of scientific papers on your (Macintosh) computer. I’ve mentioned several times that I like the program and I interviewed the author Alex Griekspoor back in October. Today the iPhone version of Papers was released and it is a great companion for those moments when you really have to look up that particular Nature paper while discussing the release of calcium from intracellular stores in the bar.
As a thank you for beta testing the iPhone version, Alex Griekspoor is giving me three copies of Papers for Mac (or rather three serial numbers, Papers can be downloaded and used for 30 days without registration). As I already own Papers, and in the spirit of some recent poetry here on Nature Network (and elsewhere in the bloggosphere, answers to question #11), I’m giving these serial numbers away to the best poetry about using the iPhone for finding, reading or writing science papers. Please post your poetry in the comments section of this blog post, the submission deadline is next Thursday at 8 PM.
I am no poet Martin, so I will not even try. But thanks for the update on Papers! Now all I need is an iPhone to go with it:)
Martin – are you giving away any iPhones too?
Ha! Ha! I’d write a poem if I thought I was in with the chance of an iPhone!
I don’t have an iPhone at the moment, but maybe the reg. numbers work on the old fashioned stationary macs…
Anyway, the competition is pretty nonexistent at the moment, and I are feeling fruity this Friday, so here goes:
iPhone.
iNeed.
iSearched.
iPhound!
© Slacker enterprises 2009. (After writing, I realised that the last line has an ingenious double meaning)
I’m giving away serial numbers for Papers for Mac (which some of us probably already own). Apparently it’s not easy to do that for the Papers iPhone application (at least if you don’t live in the US, UK or the Netherlands).
Even if you think
That my poetry’s fine
I’ve already paid
My five ninety-nine.
I’ve long been a fan
Of Mekentosj’s Papers
And used it a lot
In my researching capers
I’m delighted to find
(As Martin’s made known)
That Papers now works
On my lovely iPhone
So now on the bus
I can quickly consult
The paper reporting
Your latest result!
I am quite clueless when it comes to smart phones (I still have a phone without a camera), but how does that work with subscriptions? is there a way to access you university subscription from your iPhone?
Please Note: This may be obvious if you are not a smart phone novice.
Caryn,
that is the part I haven’t figured out yet. You can download freely available (e.g. open access) fulltext PDFs of references directly from Papers for iPhone. You can then also email or directly share them from your iPhone. For subscription journals it might be easier to download them to Papers for Mac and then synchronize them with Papers for iPhone.
Does the iPhone have any "openVPN"http://openvpn.net/ type software available for it yet? Or can you set up a proxy server on it?
Both of these methods should allow you to access content through your University subscriptions, assuming the uni has a system set up to allow this.
I was wondering that myself, Mike. That is how I normally access papers from home.
Mike,
with Papers for Mac both VPN and proxy servers work pretty well. The iPhone has VPN built-in, but so far I haven’t been able to make this work with Papers for iPhone.
At SciBlog’08 I spoke to Alex Griekspoor
I told him “Now Papers, that’s great, but I want more.
I use two OSs – both PC and Mac,
And Papers for Windows – now that’s what I lack.
So when is the release of Papers for Windows?
Using Papers for Mac I’m pdf-less when at home.”
He laughed and he said “Well we’ve no plans just yet,
Our vision is everyone using OS X”
So, after my 30-day trial had expired,
I gave up on Papers, abandoned it, retired,
If I had an iPhone maybe Papers would have won
But there is no version for my Sony Ericsson.
Erka, thanks for more interesting poetry. Papers for iPhone doesn’t require Papers for Mac to work properly. I also don’t expect a Papers for Windows version in the near future, it’s too much of a Mac program. More likely would probably be an integration with another service (Connotea, Mendeley, etc.) that also works with Windows.
Erica — ‘OS X’ rhymes with ‘when’, not ‘yet’…
Do limericks count? It’s all I can do, really.
Oh I’ve got no reason to moan,
Except for a 3G-free zone.
I can find my citation
During perambulation,
iLove it as much as miPhone.
Should someone tell Richard that Erika is spelt with a ‘k’, not a ‘c’?
Yes, that’d be great. Thanks Mice.
When
pedaristspedants collide ;)Cath, limericks definitely count.
PDF files of papers on the iPhone are handled similarly to music (MP3 or AAC). You manage your papers on the Mac and then synchronize the collections you like most to the iPhone. This way you always have your most important PDF files with you. Similar to music it will probably not be all PDF files of fulltext papers (I don’t know the limit of what Papers for iPhone can handle, I currently have 1600 papers in Papers for Mac). In addition to the synchronization with the Mac version, you can directly import citations and PDF files. But Papers for iPhone also works great without any internet connection.
PDF files are unfortunately not made to be viewed on a small screen such as the iPhone. So the iPhone is probably not the best tool to read fulltext papers. But looking up information in a paper or reading the abstract works fine.
For the next version of Papers for iPhone I want to be able to read the Journal Table of Contents RSS feeds. And I want more ways to share a citation or fulltext paper. You can now email a paper or share it with a nearby Papers for iPhone user. Papers for Mac exports groups of citations in common formats such as .ris or BibTex and in the so-called Papers archive format. I want to be able to do the same with Papers for iPhone.
surely you can do that in Safari on the iPhone already?
Of course you can use a RSS reader to read Journal Table of Contents (TOC) – I use NetNewsWire for iPhone. But I want to do that from Papers (Mac and iPhone) so that I can directly import the interesting papers (as citation or fulltext). The workflow of finding, reading and storing a scientific paper is still far too complicated: RSS Reader → Journal Home Page → Download PDF → Import into Papers. And when you write something: Papers → Export to Endnote → Import into Microsoft Word. This should become easier, and combining the Journal TOC RSS with your bibliography software (Papers or others) should be one of the easier things to do.
Sure, but does Papers on the Mac (i.e. the desktop) actually read RSS?
If it does, then I think that’s a fair feature request.
Reading the Table of Contents RSS feed is a feature request for both (Mac and iPhone) Papers versions.
Ah… ok. As you were, then.
We have three winners in the Papers poetry contest. First price (a 5 user license) goes to Stephen Curry, second and third price (1 user license each) go to Erika Cule and Cath Ennis. I will send you three more information by mail.
I believe the expression is… w00t!
Many thanks Martin!
iWon! Thanks Martin! Can’t wait to get started.
Congrats Stephen, Erika and Cath!! Enjoy Papers!
Thanks Martin (and thanks Alex for the congratulatios)!
I’m playing with it right now – what a great piece of software! THanks again Martin!
Cath, thank Alex for that.
I finally learned to do screenshots with the iPhone, so this will give you a better idea of how my typical PubMed search looks like with Papers for iPhone: