Ten Simple Rules for Searching and Organizing the Scientific Literature
Correspondence: (Login to view email address)
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland
- Document Type:
- Manuscript
- Date:
- Received 16 October 2009 05:03 UTC; Posted 16 October 2009
- Subjects:
- Bioinformatics
- Abstract:
The exponentially increasing number of published papers (1.4 million per year by one estimate) makes it more and more difficult for us to manage the flood of scientific information. Each of us has acquired some protocol to find and organize journal articles and other references over the course of our careers. Most of those protocols are likely to have been formed by old routines or idleness rather than a structured approach to save time and frustration over the long run. Furthermore, with the Web 2.0 revolution, new ways of handling information are emerging (O’Reilly 2005). For example, traditional standalone tools for reference management like EndNote are being supplemented by centralized resources like RefWorks and social bookmarking sites as described subsequently. This fusion of personal and public information offers the promise of efficiency through better organization, which in turn leads to better science.
How can seasoned scientists do better using these tools and those newer to the field start off in the right way? To start to answer that question, I present ten simple rules to master the search and organization of new literature. This is not meant to be comprehensive. It represents the experiences of a few and I welcome your thoughts, through comments to this article, on what you do to keep your references organized.
Discussion
- Votes:
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7 votes
- Comments:
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5 comments
Please also see the paper by Hull et al. for more discussion on this topic.
Nice read.
Though I am not sure how good Google desktop is for this, last time I used it and it slowed down my Machine.
However, on the other hand of course Windows 7 has improved it’s search and Gadgets … again it’s a personal choice.
Useful recommendations.
Good guidelines indeed. The first step (Rule 1) is the most important one in my opinion. Unfortunately, there is a lot of subjectivity involved in selection of search engine(s). Hull et al, cited by Denis can be a good guide for search tool selection. We have also done some work in this regard (please refer to our article in nature precedings). We are currently refining that work.
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Additional information
- License:
- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
- How to cite this document:
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Bauer, Denis. Ten Simple Rules for Searching and Organizing the Scientific Literature. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3867.1> (2009)
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Dan Eisenberg on 16 October 2009 17:02 UTC
Good solid set of recommendations.