Managing a personal reference list by computer.

Abstract

Either of these programs will accomplish the task of storing and organizing a personal bibliography. Reference Manager is more widely used, but more costly. Although it contains more input formats than Papyrus, most of the common formats used in medicine are supported by both programs. Importing is the best way to establish a personal database with many references, since it avoids manually typing the data. The import interface in Reference Manager is simpler to use at first, and faster than Papyrus's, but either program accomplishes the task with relative ease. The authors of Papyrus are receptive to updating import formats and adding new formats to their libraries as requested by users. Why not use MEDLINE alone instead of downloading and maintaining a personal reference list? These programs are more useful than MEDLINE in their output formatting capabilities. The most useful output feature is the generation of bibliographies for manuscripts, and both programs accomplish this task nicely. Papyrus includes fewer specific journal formats than Reference Manager, but both programs permit the user to add detailed output specifications to their personal journal lists.