Do you keep hard copies of your own papers?

[murmuration]

Doing a bit of office clear-out, and I've come across a loose-leaf folder where I had kept nice, plastic-encased copies of my publications each in their own little slot. I think I used it to hand out copies when people came to visit. Based on the contents, I last updated it 6 years ago.

I'm thinking I should probably just recycle it all, as I have PDFs of everything, but I'm having trouble with getting rid of them. It includes 'reprints' provided by the journal back from my postgrad days. This was something I thought was important before, but obviously not recently.

What do you do? Do you have hard copies of your papers, or do you just do it all electronically?

[janinlondon]

Have recently thrown out all the reprints and hard copies, as have everything in PDF now. SUCH a relief!

[Impostersyndrome]

I keep mine, though in my case it's copies of the entire journal issue or book, so a bit more substantial. But no, I couldn't bring myself to chuck them. There's something nice about having a nice physical copy to hand, say, to a student you want to read your work.

[Parietal]

no. i only keep books.

[MedSchoolRat]

No, easier to download only when needed.

[WillCrossThatBridge]

I agree that paper copies are not needed, only pdfs.

Pity the boss doesn't seem to agree.... glares at massive filing cabinet full of paper copies of papers nobody has wanted in years