Introduction to Me
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 5:58 pm
Hello! I thought to make an introduction as I join.
I am just starting with Bookends for macOS (BE) and iPadOS (BoT). I have used Mendeley and Papers3. I write in LaTeX, so my bibliographies are also always filtered through BibDesk.
I am moving to BE+BoT primarily because I will drop Papers3. I had hopes that Papers3 would replace Mendeley to share citations with collaborators who use Windows. I also appreciated the "find similar" feature of Papers3 as a tool to collect journals that followed a certain topic. In the meantime, Papers3 as it currently stands no longer supports the find similar feature properly, and the development of the Papers3/ReadCube Mac/Windows hybrid is just taking too long. I am also moving more to the iPad for review and markup of journals, and I have learned tangentially that annotations in Papers3 are not carried across well if at all to other PDF apps. Finally, I am rather particular about having robust syncing of documents and about how the markup/annotation tools are placed on the iPad, with an almost religious preference for having a toolbar accessible on the left side of the landscape page (for me as a right-hander) rather than at the top or bottom of the page.
That all said about Papers3, I will keep Mendeley because I need a way to share citations with my research team (who use Windows computers).
So, what is important to me? Here are a few thoughts:
* Mendeley will remain as my place to share citations. After a long spell of holding duplicate local databases in both Papers3 and Mendeley, I will strip Mendeley of all local storage. I need a way to move those local citations out to my new local storage in BE+BoT databases.
* Papers3 will go bye-bye. It has been a robust application to store my local database. Indeed, more so than Mendeley, Papers3 has been my starting point to write publications and proposals. I have a structured set of folders in it. I need a way to move my local citations out while coordinating the same folder structure as desired.
* Since I am combining two local databases, I need a proper approach to merge them.
* I am pulling together and moving resources collected over a few decades. As I do this, I need an approach that allows me to distinguish at one end those journal articles that I will likely never read again (archived) versus at the other end those that I will need to have accessible at any immediate future moment (active).
* My active set will contain articles that have to be shared to team members on Windows. I need to be able to share them as seamlessly as possible to Mendeley.
* My active set will contain articles that I want to mark up *exclusively on my iPad*. The annotations tools of BoT need to be up to the tasks I have in mind.
* I will need to be able to pull out citation sets to BibDesk.
* Finally, I am reviewing other tools that I might want to bring to the mix after the annotation process, specifically DevonThink and perhaps MarginNote. The intent is to improve upon my meta-analysis of the collection of annotations as much as do at analyzing the individual journal articles. I hope in the process of indexing over or copying over the annotated journals from BoT to maintain a "link back" to the source journal article within the annotation itself.
I have been lurking here for a week or so during a trial period of BE and BoT. I have found answers to some of my questions. I have found some things that I want to explore further. Finally, I have found some things that I want to share as possible new insights.
That's my introduction. It's a lot. I hope to take things one step at a time.
I am just starting with Bookends for macOS (BE) and iPadOS (BoT). I have used Mendeley and Papers3. I write in LaTeX, so my bibliographies are also always filtered through BibDesk.
I am moving to BE+BoT primarily because I will drop Papers3. I had hopes that Papers3 would replace Mendeley to share citations with collaborators who use Windows. I also appreciated the "find similar" feature of Papers3 as a tool to collect journals that followed a certain topic. In the meantime, Papers3 as it currently stands no longer supports the find similar feature properly, and the development of the Papers3/ReadCube Mac/Windows hybrid is just taking too long. I am also moving more to the iPad for review and markup of journals, and I have learned tangentially that annotations in Papers3 are not carried across well if at all to other PDF apps. Finally, I am rather particular about having robust syncing of documents and about how the markup/annotation tools are placed on the iPad, with an almost religious preference for having a toolbar accessible on the left side of the landscape page (for me as a right-hander) rather than at the top or bottom of the page.
That all said about Papers3, I will keep Mendeley because I need a way to share citations with my research team (who use Windows computers).
So, what is important to me? Here are a few thoughts:
* Mendeley will remain as my place to share citations. After a long spell of holding duplicate local databases in both Papers3 and Mendeley, I will strip Mendeley of all local storage. I need a way to move those local citations out to my new local storage in BE+BoT databases.
* Papers3 will go bye-bye. It has been a robust application to store my local database. Indeed, more so than Mendeley, Papers3 has been my starting point to write publications and proposals. I have a structured set of folders in it. I need a way to move my local citations out while coordinating the same folder structure as desired.
* Since I am combining two local databases, I need a proper approach to merge them.
* I am pulling together and moving resources collected over a few decades. As I do this, I need an approach that allows me to distinguish at one end those journal articles that I will likely never read again (archived) versus at the other end those that I will need to have accessible at any immediate future moment (active).
* My active set will contain articles that have to be shared to team members on Windows. I need to be able to share them as seamlessly as possible to Mendeley.
* My active set will contain articles that I want to mark up *exclusively on my iPad*. The annotations tools of BoT need to be up to the tasks I have in mind.
* I will need to be able to pull out citation sets to BibDesk.
* Finally, I am reviewing other tools that I might want to bring to the mix after the annotation process, specifically DevonThink and perhaps MarginNote. The intent is to improve upon my meta-analysis of the collection of annotations as much as do at analyzing the individual journal articles. I hope in the process of indexing over or copying over the annotated journals from BoT to maintain a "link back" to the source journal article within the annotation itself.
I have been lurking here for a week or so during a trial period of BE and BoT. I have found answers to some of my questions. I have found some things that I want to explore further. Finally, I have found some things that I want to share as possible new insights.
That's my introduction. It's a lot. I hope to take things one step at a time.