The device? My laptop.<p>The setup on my laptop:<p>- Zotero (<a href="https://www.zotero.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zotero.org/</a>) A software that allows you to easily keep references to academic papers right from your browser. Available as standalone app with multiple browser extension, or directly integrated into firefox. When you are on a paper's webpage, clicking on the button extracts its information, its PDF (if available) and do a capture of the webpage and store everything structured. You can then copy citation directly from zotero, generate a bibtex file, or use libreoffice extension. It also allow to sync between computer up to 300M, and extending the storage is quite cheap.<p>- Zotfile (<a href="https://github.com/jlegewie/zotfile" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jlegewie/zotfile</a>) An Zotero extension that monitor the download folder to let you attach downloaded PDF to existing entries. It also rename PDFs with the pattern you want. And the killer feature: It is able to extract what you electronically annotated on the PDF (Highlights, comments)!!<p>- Okular (<a href="https://okular.kde.org/" rel="nofollow">https://okular.kde.org/</a>) For reading and annotating PDF. Straightforward use, nice annotations tools (F6 to open, double click items to make them permanent). Ctrl-S to save the annotation to file (otherwise stored somewhere in the user home file).<p>All these are open source software and are available on Linux!
A printer.<p>What I need is an e-ink device that lets me take notes on it and is large and fast and shows the images in color. Zooming would make it superior to paper. It's just not there yet. I tried to read articles in NCBI's ebook format on my kindle but you can't hop back and forward easily on a Kindle and note taking is of course not an option.
A dumb old laser printer that doesn't know I've been feeding it cheap aftermarket toner for more than 10 years.<p>It's not a waste of paper if paper is the most efficient way to get my work done. Paper has a large viewport and unlimited battery life, while only weighing a fraction of most electronic alternatives.<p>The only thing that a computer does better is searching, but this problem can be easily solved by having a PDF open on some other device as well. You don't have to choose one or the other.
Print out onto paper, then I can read it anywhere, annotate it and file it away if I will need it for future work. I vastly prefer it to reading on a screen.
Had a library of about 800 articles that I read on a laptop with a large format external monitor.<p>Related question: doing the above had some pain points so I wrote an app to give me the ability to give files and directories human readable names. Read, annotate, and bookmark the pdf within the app. Then be able to search across the whole library on annotations and keywords which would open the pdf to the page and paragraph the annotation referenced. The big thing it does is answer the question: I have read something that I need right now, but where in this huge pile of paper (or directory) is it?<p>I have gotten the app to the MVP stage, is there any other functionality that would be useful, and would anyone else find this useful?
Device is a MacBook Pro running Papers [1] to organize and read references. Works well with over 18,000 references and their pdfs in my database.<p>[1] <a href="http://papersapp.com/mac/" rel="nofollow">http://papersapp.com/mac/</a>
These days I read them in Drawboard PDF on a Surface Pro 4. Easy to write notes on. I keep them in Evernote in notebooks by topic. I'd really prefer a better indexing scheme but that is what I have. As a small product idea I expect that a way to both manage a library of papers and let me write notes on them and let me cite them easily when writing a paper, would be a handy thing to have.
To organise/track papers:<p>I’m currently using Mendeley[1]. Previously, I used Papers[2]. Unfortunately, the latest version of Papers (3.x) is terrible compared to how slick the old version (2.x) was. I’ve tried ReadCube[3], but somehow I find Mendeley easier to work with. I used EndNote[4] before I discovered Papers, and wouldn’t recommend it. I keep all my .pdf files in Dropbox.<p>Discussions/recommendations for papers:<p>In-person, well run, reading groups still seem to work best. Although I’ve seen good discussions on /r/maths and /r/physics on Reddit. ResearchGate[5] is useful for finding recent papers, while Mendeley is good for more historical connections.<p>Reading papers:<p>I’ve tried a Kindle, but having to convert with Calibre adds too much friction to the process, and the result still isn’t that easy to work with. Reading for long periods of time on a laptop or desktop monitor is painful. An iPad with a Retina display comes close, but old school paper printout still wins the day. You can carry paper anywhere and scribble annotations on it with ease. I also find being able to have multiple pages “in view” at the same time is sometimes helpful for understanding. Not easily (cheaply) done with iPads or laptops.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.mendeley.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mendeley.com/</a><p>[2] <a href="http://papersapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://papersapp.com/</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.readcube.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.readcube.com/</a><p>[4] <a href="http://endnote.com/" rel="nofollow">http://endnote.com/</a><p>[5] <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/</a>
I find it much more difficult to read long sections of academic text on a computer or tablet than on paper. When I need to read a paper thoroughly, I print it out.<p>For storage I use Papers (<a href="http://papersapp.com/" rel="nofollow">http://papersapp.com/</a>). Highly recommended if a little pricey.
I really tried to use a 6'' kindle for that, but it just doesn't work. I tried it with .pdf, but the screen is just to small and scrolling is not really comfortable. When I tried to convert them to .mobi with calibre, all formulas just looked nasty.
Today, I read them on my 14'' ThinkPad with Redshift installed. It does its job well, but it isn't as handy as a Kindle would be.
Kindle DX, the discontinued one with the really big screen. It fits a whole page nicely.<p>One day its battery is going to die, and I have no idea what I'll do then.
Sorry for nitpicking: shouldn't the question be<p><i>What device do you use to read academic papers?</i><p>or<p><i>What device do you read academic papers with?</i><p>Non-native speaker here, so my nitpicking might actually be useless.
Portrait orientation 24" Dell Ultrasharp monitor, with the page fit to screen. I find viewing at >100% scale makes a difference.<p>Zotero + Zotfile + Dropbox keeps my papers synced across all devices. PDF X-change is such a good PDF editor/viewer that I happily pay for it.<p>As as aside: Why do journals permit authors to submit plots and other line art as raster images. Have they no shame?
I use an iPad 1. The very first one.<p>Apps don't support its completely obsolete iOS version any more, but the device itself works perfectly well.<p>I only use it to read academic papers, but it's still fine for that task.
I've just recently started to read academic papers and have fussed a bit with the best workflow. My hardware that I owned when I started the process were a Macbook Pro and Android Samsung Tab e 8.0. I've avoided purchasing any new hardware so far but may end up going with an iPad Pro or iPad Air if I cannot get satisfactory results with my Samsung Tab.<p>My software setup currently includes:
- Zotero -- reference management
- Zotfile -- pulls annotations out of the PDF for saving in Evernote, among other things
- Evernote -- The workhorse of my setup. I use this for both organizing my research projects, task lists, etc and also for notetaking while reading a PDF. This includes pulling annotations out of the PDF with Zotfile and storing them in an Evernote note.
- Google Drive -- for storing my PDFs. Each PDF has an Evernote note linked to it. This allows Evernote to full text search all my PDFs that are stored in Google Drive with OCR, so it will even detect any handwritten notes in a PDF.
- XODO -- I've tried many Android PDF annotation tools and currently XODO has been the best as far as UX while reading/annotating and also stability and integration with Evernote via Google Drive. Ideally I would use the built in annotation tool in Evernote but it is frustratingly slow on my Android device and the UX is suboptimal.<p>I've had a few issues with the Samsung Tab
- It is only 8" so it involves a lot of zooming and panning while reading.
- It has a split screen mode so I can have my notetaking app in one pane and my pdf annotator in the second screen. This works well except that, again, there is limited screen space
- I've struggled with finding an acceptable PDF annotation tool on Android.
I print them out on paper. I have a huge bookshelf full of them which is not ideal...<p>I stare at a screen for way too long otherwise, so my eyes need a break.
Laptop when I'm at my desk, but otherwise I actually use my smartphone. It's a biggish one, and in landscape orientation it's enough to fit the (printed area of) the width of a pdf page in a decent font size.<p>The convenience of just taking the phone out of my pocket and start reading more than compensates for not having a whole page in view.
Notes & tracking: emacs + org-mode. Not ideal, but I can have it and it does 60% of the job out of the box.<p>Storing: filesystem (notes include where I stored it).<p>Reading: E-ink.<p>I started with Pocketbook 622 (a 6", 800x600 display). Worked very well. Can open many formats _natively_ (doc, rtf, djvu etc, check specs for full list). One of the first docs was anatomy atlas from 19century via archive. Rendered only decently, required huge magnification/landscape mode/margin cutting to be of any use. I had varying experience with other pdf/djvu documents - depending how they were created. Some djvus rendered excellently on 6", despite being meant for bigger (close to a4) page size. No problem with rtf/epub and other such formats. Magazines in pdf (a4) very hard to read, not worth it really. Arxiv's pdfs looked good/very good, sometimes they could be reflowed or put into column view, which helped a lot but with reflow I learned math not always shows up properly. Old computer manuals (my hobby, they are just scaned typewritten books) - not good enough.<p>Next model was Inkpad 840 (a 8", 1600x1200 display). What looks good on Pb622, looks good too on Ip840. Magazines look better, but they require a good light for really comfortably reading. Otherwise, I can go with dim night light. This model has backlight, but I don't like the idea of shining into my eyes.<p>Huge plus: sd card slot. I go on for months airgapped.
Huge minus: maybe it is just me, but reading html docs almost always sucks one way or another.
What to look for: external hard case so I don't have to be oh so wary. It was a PITA trying to find case for Ip840 thanks to its nonstandard dimensions. I settled down with some oversized tablet case.
Ip840 feels a bit slow and awkward (compared to Pb622) but I got used to it. If I had to buy again, I would have had a closer look on Kobo models too. Kindle does not cut it for me - requires too big commitment.<p>All of this just MHO, of course.
I tried using docear for a while but couldn't get into a good groove with it so I'm still stuck in ad-hoc mode with a side of zotero. Has anyone found a good workflow with docear and mind sharing? It seems like it could be pretty powerful for projects with a lot of literature reading (like a PhD...)
I'm a big fan of e-ink devices for reading - I've gone through Nooks and Kindles.<p>This upcoming one looks interesting - 10.3" E-Ink tablet, with a stylus - and they claim they've got input latency down to 55 ms:<p><a href="https://getremarkable.com/" rel="nofollow">https://getremarkable.com/</a>
<a href="https://blog.getremarkable.com/better-paper-better-thinking-432d8a283300#.kp7wkjftl" rel="nofollow">https://blog.getremarkable.com/better-paper-better-thinking-...</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34I27KPZM6g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34I27KPZM6g</a><p>The YouTube video above shows them drawing with the device at 0:40 - I asked, and apparently that's the actual device in use.
Laptop, but in all honest I am still waiting eagerly for a good and fast enough e-ink second monitor, reading on a Kindle is such an improvement over a regular screen but the sluggishness is horrible ...
My laptop, I use SumatraPDF with bookview (Ctrl+8).<p>Seeing two pages side by side, like a book, even on small screens makes a huge difference for me. Also the ability to switch between documents easily (ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab) is really handy, when I am researching a topic.<p>I haven't figured out the annotation and highlighting part yet. I just copy and paste important parts into an Emacs org-mode document and summarize the article I read.<p>It's also easier to remember, what I tought when I read the article at the time, if I take extensive notes.
Let me piggy-back on this question: What platform do you use to discuss / recommend / get recommendations of academic papers?<p>(I see Mendeley mentioned for example; there's some overlap here)
I'm a little surprised at the number of people that are saying "paper" or "printer". I agree. The technology to read complex technical topics online just isn't there yet, remarkably. I do plenty of reading online as I'm working on stuff, and I read recreationally (fiction and non-fiction) almost entirely on a Kindle. But for some stuff, there's just no substitute yet for paper. High contrast, portable, annotatable, and persistent.
Macbook:<p>- Bibdesk (<a href="http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net" rel="nofollow">http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net</a>): archiving papers (automatic rename / custom citekey generation), Google Scholar bibtex extraction, and bibtex interface w/ TeXShop<p>- Google Drive: storing archive ... it's not a great archive solution because of google's special system of renaming files, however stuck with it because of work<p>iPad:<p>- Goodreader: fast PDF renderer<p>I wish there was a bibdesk app for the ipad linking to goodreader.
A Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (2015?) with Xodo PDF Reader. The screen is very good and big enough to read and highlight/comment PDF's, even for todays standards. Xodo also saves the annotations directly back to the original PDF. Using Dropsync/Dropbox for syncing with the PC.
[Boox M92](<a href="https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Boox_M92" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Boox_M92</a>)
It is great to study academic papers or read any pdf document.
Off topic: I expected to see more iPad instead of laptop as a response.<p>Would the reason be economical, information density (more real state on a modern laptop/desktop) or something else?
Ubooquity to organize them, tablet to read.<p><a href="https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/" rel="nofollow">https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/</a>
i read arXiv on my android smart-phone using Xodo PDF viewer , which lets me highlight and underline in color.<p>Reams of paper saved and I can read anywhere... but I can't do scratch-work on my cell phone!
not a kindle.<p>their stupid idea to make it just small enough to not fit a page from a pdf, and the completely broken scrolling killed it. even tried the larger one. same problem.<p>they may have prevented the two people that would have read a pirated pdf of a novel instead of buying it from amazon. but it cost them the entire academia market.