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Papers

Papers is an excellent program that I discovered when working on my PhD. It is equivalent to itunes for PDFs. Using only this program, you can search PubMed or browse recent tables of contents. Then you can download the relevant PDF’s directly into the database. You can then use Papers as a fullscreen PDF viewer, with the ability to add tags and notes to the PDF. Journal articles are tracked as read and unread, and the date read is also noted.

 

This program has a number of advantages for me. Firstly, you can dump all the PDFs you have on your hard-drive into this program, and it keeps a track of them all, keeps them in one place and makes sure you don’t duplicate.

 

Secondly, you can use it to identify and add tags to the papers you are interested in. It is very easy to search for certain papers when I am doing a review article, or writing the discussion section of an article. Furthermore, with the use of smart groups and hierarchical folders, I can find review articles that I have downloaded that relate to different areas I am studying (Ever downloaded a review on colorectal cancer when you are doing a breast job, and then lost it forever?).

 

Finally, you can use the program to read PDFs and make notes. I can see the value of this, but it is not the absolute killer part of this app. I suppose I still don’t tend to read PDFs on my machine much, and if I do, then I don’t often go back and read them again (which would be vital for the notes feature to help). I use this feature for PDFs of the surgical training curriculum, however, which I tend to reread and try and keep a track of what I have covered.

 

I find that I can reduce the amount of duplicate PDFs I have, and access them much more easily using this program - it is a must-use for anyone who takes evidence-based medicine seriously.

 

Read more about Papers from mekentosj.com.

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