How do you manage your reading list(s)?

[desanto]

What kinds of systems do you have for storing and using lists of papers you want to read (for research rather than teaching)? I have an ineffective collection of TOC alerts languishing in my inbox, a few things I’ve printed out, and pdfs dumped in random places on various computers, i.e. no system to speak of. Help!

I hardly have any time to read. Instead, I rely on google scholar alerts, and do semi-systematic review of whichever angle of my topic when need arises.

And twitter - as in a fairly small field.

Very old school. I print the abstracts and keep them in a folder. I don't save the PDFs, it is too easy to download again any time. Faster than sorting and saving.

I use a reader app - readcube. I could never go back to paper printing. I can also share easily. I particularly like the fact it looks at my reading library and makes suggestions about other papers I might like.

PDFs saved to a folder on my laptop that syncs with Dropbox, so they're always backed up and I can access them elsewhere if desperate or if laptop gets fried.

I annotate as I read using Mac preview, so all my notes and comments are saved as I go (and are searchable).

Files are named with authors' names and a few keywords to make for easy searching. I wish I'd started off using the full reference as the filename but that ship has sailed...

I print papers or save them to my ipad. When I read them I make notes in a book, a proper book not tear-out sheets. Then dispose of the paper.

At the moment I am starting a new project so reading 2 papers every morning on pain of death. Getting up at 5am to do it sometimes if no other time available (it's necessary so I don't look like a dinlo when I give a talk in a month or so).

Oh I forgot to say the benefit to me of a proper book is that once a year or so I go over my old books (on no.4 now) and read them all idly. Sparks lots of thoughts (I map out ideas in the same books sometimes, doodle future grant apps etc)

I can't retain any information I read to readings sake - no neurological deficit, I just can't remember things! So I only read when I'm writing and then I have folders for each paper and relevant readings in my Dropbox. I'm trying to use mendeley more too but mostly I can't do screens and need to print out each paper repeatedly because I lose them/spill tea on them

Bookends. It's brilliant - you can create 'smart lists' using keywords. I have a 'general reading' keyword smart list that anything I import for general reading goes into. I also have other smart lists specific to projects I'm working on, courses I'm teaching, etc. It saves the pdfs of the articles to wherever you want - I save them to my dropbox so that I can access them anywhere.