I have spent a considerable amount of time during the past 40 years reading and highlighting documents. The methods have changed. Early on, I would highlight articles in journals or books I owned and create index cards referencing these articles with summary information and a citation. As technology came on the scene, I switched my card file over to various database applications. Most recently, I have stored pdfs of articles (highlighted and annotated using various tools) and referenced these articles using various bibliographic systems (I pay for Endnote, but also use other systems – ReadCube, Mendeley).
I have encountered a new “system” I find very impressive. It is not free, but $3 a month is far less expensive than what I pay for Endnote).
PaperPile is a cloud-based system that works through a chrome browser (including a Chromebook). As I said, it will cost academics $3 a month, but you can give it a try at no cost. Paperpile saves bibliographic information in its own servers and sends pdfs uploaded in association with bibliographic entries to a folder it establishes in Google drive. Converting an existing system is fairly easy (I pretty much just pointed PaperPile at my Mendeley site and everything happened automatically).
PaperPile recommends metapdf (same company) for highlighting and annotation of the pdfs stored in Google drive.
It is too early for me to decide if these tools will be my focus. Working with tools in implementing long-term writing projects is really the only way to make such a choice, but the service looks very promising.
My first impression is that this service or something similar will be a significant challenge to expensive products such as EndNote. I see this as similar to the Google challenge to Microsoft Office. The issue has nothing to do with the quality of MS Office or EndNote. The issue is really the cost for quality products with many capabilities that are not necessary for most users.
