ReadCube

ReadCube was created by Labtiva, a Boston-based company. A desktop client was publicly launched in October 2011 with investment from Digital Science,[5] a division of Macmillan Publishers. Shortly after, ReadCube Web Reader was integrated with the website of Nature in November 2011.[6] A pilot program for ReadCube Access was launched at the University of Utah in September 2012, followed by a public release on Nature Publishing Group journals in November 2012. Also in November 2012, version 2.0 of the Web Reader launched with a number of significant changes. [7] In February 2013, ReadCube launched across over 117 journals published by Wiley.[8]

In April 2014, Labtiva released ReadCube Pro and with it a new UI with several new features. Some of these features, including SmartCite - ReadCube's citation and bibliography formatting tool, the inclusion of multiple highlighting colors, and several view options come for free with the new update. A few, including a cloud sync function which allows .PDF files to be synced across desktop machines or to the ReadCube iPad app, a metrics pane that shows where an article is being spoken about online, and a "Watched Folders" feature that automatically imports and indexes PDFs come only with ReadCube Pro. [9]

On 2 December 2014, Nature announced that it would allow its subscribers and a group of selected media outlets to distribute links providing limited "free" access to articles from its journals through ReadCube Web Reader. While it does, to an extent, provide free online access to articles, it is not a true open access scheme due to its restrictions on users' ability to download, copy, print, or otherwise distribute the content.[10][11]

On March 16, 2016, ReadCube acquired Papers from Springer Nature for an undisclosed amount.[12]

Papers (software) available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

Papers was purchased by ReadCube in March 2016. The release of the new Papers after the merger became available on the web and mobile apps on November 1, 2018. The desktop version (for Mac and Windows) will be released in the Fall of 2019.

Features include:

• Search & Download
  • Built-in search engines
  • Personalized recommendations
  • Related article feeds
  • Institutional proxy support
  • Web importing via browser
  • 1-click PDF downloads
  • Advanced search filters
• Organizational Management
  • Easy importing tools from your desktop/other reference managers
  • Auto article meta-data matching
  • Full text library search
  • Advanced sorted & filtering
  • Manual & smart collections
  • #keyword tagging, labels & article ratings
• Enhanced reading and annotating
  • Enhanced PDF viewing
  • Hyperlinked inline references, high-res figure browsers & auto-fetched supplements
  • Advanced article metrics (incl. citations, field & relative citation ratio, and Altmetric)
  • Inline and sticky notes, highlighting and drawing tools
  • Text to speech tool
• Collaboration
  • Up to 5 private shared collections (PDFs/references)
  • Collaborate with up to 30 Papers users per collection
  • Share references, PDFs, notes, tags and PDF annotations
  • Article discussion summary
• Citation Tools - SmartCite
  • Insert references from personal / shared libraries or use built-in search engine
  • 8000+ citation styles supported. Customize & import your own
  • Quick-copy of citations in bibtex, ris
  • Export reference list for use in third party citation tools like EndNote and Overleaf
  • Supports Word 2016+ and Google Docs
• Cross-platform syncing
  • Unlimited cloud storage for your personal library
  • Sync your entire library including notes, lists, annotations, and highlights across all of your devices
  • Supports Desktop (Mac/PC), mobile (iOS/Android) and Web.

ReadCube (legacy) previously available for Windows and macOS.

• Consolidated display of all imported articles into a library
• Customizable lists to organize articles
• Integrated search functionality with Google Scholar, PubMed, and Microsoft Academic to find and download new research material
• Personalized recommendations of literature based on searches and library content
• PDF viewer with notes and text highlighting
• Supplements and references in one place
• Full-text search across your entire PDF library
• Hyperlinked references
• Easily export citations to EndNote and other reference managers
• Can sync your library between multiple devices
• Can manually add and edit citation data
• Can watch specific folders for changes & automatically import PDFs
• SmartCite allows users to format citations and create bibliographies

ReadCube Enhanced PDF, available on nature.com for articles published by Nature Publishing Group, Frontiers and John Wiley & Sons and any articles uploaded into the ReadCube Papers cloud.[13][14]

• Optimized PDF Viewing
• Clickable in-line references with direct links to articles
• Integrated view of the supplement, associated news, and editor’s comments
• DOI lookup allows users to navigate directly to articles
• Includes a ReadCube Papers Web Extension, which sends articles from web browsers directly to the Papers library
• Draw, highlight and take notes
• Full Reference List
• Figure Browser

ReadCube Checkout

ReadCube Checkout is a service that offers rental, cloud and downloadable article access options outside journal subscriptions. This checkout functionality is offered for the majority of journal articles on several publisher pages. Individual readers make the choice to select the level of access that best fits their needs.[15]

• Comparison of reference management software
• Nature Publishing Group
• Metadata discovery