I have kind of lost my enthusiasm for trying a large number of new apps and programs. I see this as a sign of maturity. After a significant amount of experimentation I have identified categories and made choices within categories. There is a cost in switching and there need to be significant benefits before a switch is worth the effort.
Here is a thought – if you do similar work to what I do, making an effort to identify categories I recognize may be as important as listing my “go to” apps. Here is an example – “storage and organization” of pdfs. Most folks probably have little need to purchase and learn systems for organizing a collection of pdfs, but I would bet most academics immediately recognize this challenge. I need to store and organize hundreds, maybe thousands, of pdfs. These are mostly journal articles I have downloaded as part of the research and writing process. I highlight and annotate these documents and then work from them in the writing that I do. You really need more than a file folder (virtual) into which you throw this stuff.
My original choice in this category was a product called YEP. This product allowed me to keep track of all of the pdfs on my computer. I actually preferred an older version that would copy a designated pdf into a YEP folder system rather than the newest approach which simply tracks all pdfs anywhere. From time to time I trash random pdfs I find floating around which I sometimes later regret. The only problem with this system was that it was specific to a given device. I had to decide where I would locate my resources – home, office, desktop, laptop.
I abandoned YEP to use Mendeley. The major advantage of Mendeley for me is cloud storage. Device-based versions of Mendeley synch through a common cloud account. This ends up being a great advantage I find outweighs other issues. I find that Mendeley has less than ideal highlighting/annotation tools. I also have issues with the pricing model. Simply put, there are not enough categories. I want more than free, but the jump to the lowest paid version is what I regard as substantial. I want more capacity, but not the other capabilities that come with the upgrade are not of great value to me.
Anyway, this post was prompted because of an announcement that Elsevier (major journal publishing company) has made an offer to purchase Mendeley. A feature of Mendeley I do not use but which might make sense to a publishing company is the potential for a social connection. Think of it as a way to suggest “other scholars who read xxxxx also read yyyy”.
I do hope this is not another of those situations in which a service I use gets purchased and then is no longer available – I still have not forgiven Apple for purchasing and killing lala.