For a while I've really wanted to have some sort of database that would allow me to keep track of papers relevant to my research. Basically, right now I just download papers I find that are of interest, and put them in a hierarchy of directories by subject. This has a couple of problems: 1) It takes time to do the organizing. 2) The subject matter of papers is not hierarchical, it's more of a web. 3) There's no easy way to store metadata about the paper (e.g., author & title) such that it can be browsed through without opening every paper. 4) No convenient way to track read/unread status. 5) It's not searchable. I'm hoping there's a piece of software one can use on Linux to help with this sort of thing, either software specifically for this purpose or one that could be adapted without very much work (or much programming expertise). Surely some of you bright academics have tried to find a solution to this sort of problem before. :-) I'm also open to web services for these purposes, my only hesitation is that I may then end up with my info locked into it with no possibility to migrate later.
I've come up with some idea for solutions, but none seem all that good: 1) I could simply keep a spreadsheet (or text file) with each paper's associated information (bibliographic info, read/unread status, tags/keywords) and the file name of the paper (if it exists). 2) Try to use my BibTeX bibliographic database and Pybliographic GUI to keep track of all the info about papers and, again, point to file locations (not sure how feasible this is). 3) Hope I can find a URL for the abstract of each paper and use del.icio.us to bookmark and tag each one. Make sure to put all bibliographic info in the notes section. Of those, #1 seems like the most plausible solution but far from ideal. Regards, Nick
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
