the scientist's best friend
04/30/07 08:43 PM Filed in: Science
so as a scientist in training i have had my fair share of literature wrestling, with the literature usually kicking the crap out of me, spitting in my face, and mocking me while i cry, bloodied and battered.
the fight usually begins with a pubmed search, at which time pubmed decides that there is no paper, in the 17million papers it has indexed, that fit my criteria, even though i know it was just published in biochemistry, nature, or science. once i find the paper of interest i have to follow a link to another site, which, if it is nice, recognizes i am a Brandeis university grad student and allows me to download the pdf.
at this point i have already taken a right hook followed by an uppercut to the jaw, but at least i am still standing.
so now i must figure out what pdf i just downloaded since the different places from which you are allowed to download all use a different, nonsensical naming pattern. some of my favorites are the random numbers, the name of the website from which you are downloading, or the random sequence of letters and numbers.
so now the literature is just baiting me for the "finish him" move when it rips my head off and throws it at my body causing both to explode.
finally i determine which pdf i want open and print it...my head is flying towards my body in slow motion.
there must be a better way...
i was just wandering around the web when i found this website: http://mekentosj.com/. i already had some of their software (enzymeX and 4peaks), but i noticed that they also had a new program up.
PAPERS!!!
this software is amazing! here is the blurb on the site:
so here are my favorite features:
for all you windows people out there sorry...not for you...mac only!
so now that i have the power of papers you might be wondering what happend in my fight! well lets just be thankful that my head is coming at me in slow motion, otherwise i might not have had time to download, install, and learn to use papers, but since i did; i caught my head, sutured it on, and punched the literature in the face.
this did not bode so well for me since it just called its friends magazines and newspapers and proceeded to beat me into next year.
Hear this literature...i will be ready for you!!!
in about 4.5 years!
the fight usually begins with a pubmed search, at which time pubmed decides that there is no paper, in the 17million papers it has indexed, that fit my criteria, even though i know it was just published in biochemistry, nature, or science. once i find the paper of interest i have to follow a link to another site, which, if it is nice, recognizes i am a Brandeis university grad student and allows me to download the pdf.
at this point i have already taken a right hook followed by an uppercut to the jaw, but at least i am still standing.
so now i must figure out what pdf i just downloaded since the different places from which you are allowed to download all use a different, nonsensical naming pattern. some of my favorites are the random numbers, the name of the website from which you are downloading, or the random sequence of letters and numbers.
so now the literature is just baiting me for the "finish him" move when it rips my head off and throws it at my body causing both to explode.
finally i determine which pdf i want open and print it...my head is flying towards my body in slow motion.
there must be a better way...
i was just wandering around the web when i found this website: http://mekentosj.com/. i already had some of their software (enzymeX and 4peaks), but i noticed that they also had a new program up.
PAPERS!!!
this software is amazing! here is the blurb on the site:
Do you have dozens of PDF files from your favorite scientific articles scattered on your harddrive? Do you also try to desperately organize them by renaming and archiving them in folders? But like the piles of printed articles on your desk, you can't keep up with all the new papers you download, and despite all your efforts it has become impossible to find that one article.
Finally that all belongs to the past. We've been there, trust us, we know. That's why we wrote Papers, our latest application exclusively for the Mac. Papers will revolutionize the way you deal with scientific papers. Search for papers using PubMed, directly retrieve and archive PDFs, and read and study them all from within Papers, your personal library of Science.
so here are my favorite features:- creates an organized folder in my documents with all of the papers organized into folders by year, then into folders of first author, then renames the pdf via journal name_first author_year.pdf
- did i mention it does this automatically
- look up papers already downloaded and fixes their information and then does the aforementioned
- has a built in pubmed search
- built in web-browser
- full screen pdf mode which i might be able to read a pdf on my computer rather than killing thousands of trees
- one place to go for all my paper needs
for all you windows people out there sorry...not for you...mac only!
so now that i have the power of papers you might be wondering what happend in my fight! well lets just be thankful that my head is coming at me in slow motion, otherwise i might not have had time to download, install, and learn to use papers, but since i did; i caught my head, sutured it on, and punched the literature in the face.
this did not bode so well for me since it just called its friends magazines and newspapers and proceeded to beat me into next year.
Hear this literature...i will be ready for you!!!
in about 4.5 years!