Hi all,

I've just finished my PhD, so perhaps this shouldn't still be a problem, but it is. I tend to print lots of papers, more than I am ever likely to read. Even those I read (which is still rather a lot) end up sitting around once read. So, I've been wondering about reading them on the screen rather than printing.

When I have hard copies, I highlight and sometimes annotate, and then tend to write my own little abstract (with anything particularly interesting for me) at the top, and I then add this little abstract into EndNote, so I can search for it at a later date. I wouldn't be able to do this so easily with reading on the screen, but the advantage would be that I might have at least a bit of space on my desk!

Any tips or suggestions?

Try using Mendeley, you can annotate and highlight text in the pdfs and write a summary in the notes section too. It's free software with web storage available for your pdfs too (you have to pay for extra storage). I've been using it for just over 3 years and it's very rare that I print a paper now.

Plus you can use it for your citations with Word and LaTeX.

I like Mendeley too, although I still tend to print out key papers and keep them because I prefer to read on paper rather than on the screen. Plus I can then move it from the 'new' pile to the 'read' pile and that feels like progress!

It's already been suggested, but I recommend using Mendeley too. I don't think I could have organised my reading material as efficiently without it!