Papers:
- iTunes:
- Price: $14.99
iMedicalApps did a review of Papers for iPad where we thought it was an excellent utility for managing a mobile medical literature library. Its simple and straightforward UI makes managing a PDF literature library easy.
The ability to manage multiple collections of articles mean it is easy to keep PDFs separate, for example “Grand Rounds” PDFs and “Journal Club” PDFs. It is possible to search each of these collections individually and share papers using a range of options such as email or even over Wi-Fi with nearby Papers users. Papers can import PDFs from anywhere on your iPad which is useful, although these can only be sorted into various collections which is not always the most efficient way of handling large quantities of documents.
The main features of Papers that are worth noting are:
- Straightforward and simple to manage large numbers of academic papers
- Wireless syncing with desktop version of Papers
- In-built search engines ensure finding relevant academic papers is easily facilitated.
- Ability to annotate PDFs using basic annotation features such as highlighting and comments
- Dropbox integration to import PDFs (although not to sync/export over the air)
Summary:
Papers is a slightly more basic medical library management app which has a decent UI. PDFs can be imported from a number of sources such as Dropbox, in-built search engines, or other apps on the iPad. Papers offers the ability to sync its collections wirelessly to its desktop companion app and this includes any annotations made ‘on the go’. This app is perhaps more suitable for physicians who are not in need of a highly advanced literature management app.
Continue reading to see the final conclusion regarding recommendations for PDF management apps for healthcare professionals.
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Thanks for this review – very interesting, and it will be helpful to me as we decide which PDF manager(s) to incorporate as export options in the next release of our PubMed search app (www.pubsavvy.com). A couple of observations – most users of medical literature need to manage citations as well as pdfs (to create bibliographic listings, etc). While Sente and Papers sound impressive, I’m not sure I’m seeing something yet that will replace my use of EndNote on the desktop (perhaps I am just being timid). I wonder when apps will come for Zotero and Mendeley…
Using Dropbox to manage PDF libraries will be tempting for a lot of people, but seems like it won’t work that well unless you have an ironclad naming convention to prevent storing lots of duplicates. Now when you download from journals, they all have their own file naming system, which is pretty annoying – especially if you don’t also have the standardized citation information attached to the pdf as metadata, or by bringing it in to a reference manager program that has the full citation. PubMed ID is nice for de-duping, and of course that’s what we use in PubSavvy since we are dealing only with that source, but once you get into managing articles from multiple sources you face a whole other host of issues. Looking forward to checking out your recommendations.
Great review! Exactly what I needed. I will certainly come back to your site…Many thanks!
Stephan
Thanks for this review – very interesting, and it will be helpful to me as we decide which PDF managers to incorporate as export options in the next release of our PubMed search app (PubSavvy). A couple of observations – most users of medical literature need to manage citations as well as pdfs (to create bibliographic listings, etc). While Sente and Papers sound impressive, I’m not sure I’m seeing something yet that will replace my use of EndNote on the desktop (perhaps I am just being timid). I wonder when apps will come for Zotero and Mendeley…
Using Dropbox to manage PDF libraries will be tempting for a lot of people, but seems like it won’t work that well unless you have an ironclad naming convention to prevent storing lots of duplicates. Now when you download from journals, they all have their own file naming system, which is pretty annoying – especially if you don’t also have the standardized citation information attached to the pdf as metadata, or by bringing it in to a reference manager program that has the full citation. PubMed ID is nice for de-duping, and of course that’s what we use in PubSavvy since we are dealing only with that source, but once you get into managing articles from multiple sources you face a whole other host of issues. Looking forward to checking out your recommendations.