LinkedPapers

Getting Started

Becoming a member

To use the bookshelf functionality or to add a post to a paper you need to be a member. This, of course, is free of charge.

You can use the “Sign Up” option shown top right of the screen to become a member.

The only personal details we require are an e-mail address (to which we can send a confirmation mail), a password and a user name. Please be aware that, for quality reasons, it will not be possible to change your user name once you’ve created your account.

We respect and protect your privacy at LinkedPapers; see for more information our privacy policy.

After you have filled in the required information and clicked the “sign up!” button, a confirmation mail is sent to the e-mail address you provided. By activating the link in this mail you activate your account and become a member of LinkedPapers. If your confirmation mail does not appear in your inbox within 10-15 minutes after you’ve signed up we suggest to check your spambox, it might have ended up there by mistake. If not, please send us an email using the contact option shown in the menu on top of the page, we will fix it.

Searching PubMed database

LinkedPapers uses the Pubmed database as its source for life science papers.

LinkedPapers offers you several features which make it easy and efficient to search for papers.

Expandable Abstracts

This feature enables you to quickly scan your search results for papers of interest. In your search results the first two lines of each abstract (if available) are already shown. If you want to see the whole abstract just click the icon on the right of the abstract and it will appear. After reading you might want to collapse the abstract, this is just a matter of clicking the same icon again.

Show more articles

Instead of using the old fashioned next and previous buttons we just offer the option to ask for more articles. Clicking “show more articles” at the bottom of the search results will instantly give you an additional 25 papers, without ‘discarding’ the first set of papers.

Shortcut to full text

By clicking the title of a search result you are immediately directed to the page where you can most probably find the text or PDF you’re looking for. To download the PDF you’re looking for a license or payment might be required. If no link to the article is provided by Pubmed, LinkedPapers offers you three alternatives:

• Visit the journal's website
• View the article on PubMed
• Search Google for the article

Of course you can also go back to your search by just closing the window.

Link to Journal

Each search result contains the title of the journal or book this article has been published in. By clicking the titles you (in 9 out of 10 cases) link directly to the most recent issue of the corresponding journals. In the future LP will further optimize this feature, working towards a 10 out of 10 success rate.

Filter for ‘Free text’ and ‘Reviews’

If you would only like to search for free text articles or reviews, just use the filters provided by LinkedPapers. They’re shown on the left side of the page and will appear as soon as you’ve performed a search.

Adding search results to your bookshelf

LinkedPapers offers you a personal bookshelf where you can store and organize your articles. It works by means of a simple labeling system. You can enter your bookshelf by clicking the bookshelf link shown on the right side of the page.

If you’re searching LinkedPapers and find a result you would like to store in your bookshelf there are three options.

The first option is to use the “add to bookshelf” icon x shown in the top right position of each search result. By clicking this icon the result is added to your bookshelf.

The second option is to use the “add a label” icon x shown in the top right position of each search result. By adding an existing or new label, or saving without a label, the result is stored in your bookshelf. More information on labeling of results can be found further on.

The third option is to add a note to the result. If you click the x icon, shown in the top right position of each article, a dialog box will open, enabling you to add a personal note. These notes are for personal usage only and will therefore not be visible for others. Adding a note will automatically store the result in your bookshelf.

Import from EndNote and PubMed

You can also import Pubmed articles you’ve stored in Endnote by clicking “import from endnote”. This link is shown in the lower left part of the page. Just follow the instructions and in no time you will have your Endnote Pubmed articles available in your personal bookshelf.

The final option to add articles to your bookshelf is to use the import PMID’s functionality. PMID’s are unique identification numbers added by Pubmed to each article. Each search result in Pubmed shows this ID number. The link to this functionality is shown in the lower left part of the page and again you just need to follow the instructions and in no time you will have your Pubmed articles available in your personal bookshelf.

Your Bookshelf

When you enter your bookshelf the articles you’ve added to it are shown.

Organizing your articles via labeling

LinkedPapers provides you with a very simple and straightforward labeling system to organize your articles.

Creating new labels

In your bookshelf section you can create new labels by clicking “+ add label”.

Write a label, click OK and it’s added to your bookshelf. You can now add this label to any article, as long as you’re logged in.

Adding labels to articles

As you will see, each article is provided with a set of icons in the top right position. The icon provides you with the option to add labels to individual article. Clicking this icon opens a dialog box. If it’s the first time you visit your bookshelf, no labels are shown.

You can start adding labels by using the “add new label” entry field. Write a label, click save and the label icon of this article turns gold.

If you already added labels before, these will be shown as a list provided with check boxes. You can add one or more of these labels by activating the preferred checkboxes and saving.

Searching your bookshelf

There are three ways you can search your bookshelf.

The most simple solution is to use the bookshelf search box. Just enter the terms you’re looking for and LinkedPapers will, straight away, check for articles matching your search. Besides the articles, also the notes, comments and labels are searched.

Filters

If you would like to select for a specific category of articles you can use one of the filters, shown on the left.

• “All” will provide you with all your articles.
• “Unlabelled” will provide you with all articles containing no labels.
• “With notes” will provide you with all articles to which you have added notes.
• “With comments” will provide you with all articles to which comments were added by you or other people.

Labels

If you would like to see all articles containing a certain label you can activate specific labels by clicking them. You can also search for articles containing multiple labels. You can do this by typing these labels into the bookshelf search box.

Deleting and editing labels

At a certain point you might want to delete or edit labels. If you look at your bookshelf section you will see two icons ( and ) added to each label. The icon offers you the possibility to edit labels. Clicking this icon will show you the current label and give you the option to rename it. Be aware that by renaming a label all articles with the old label will be relabeled with the edited label. The icon offers you the possibility to delete a label. When you click this icon you will be asked whether you want to delete this label. If you delete a label, it will be removed from all the articles which contained it. If it was the only label added to a certain article, this article will be moved automatically to “unlabelled”.

Deleting articles from your bookshelf

To delete an article from your bookshelf you just click the icon.

Adding notes

As you will see, each article is provided with a set of icons in the top right position. The icon provides you with the option to add personal notes to individual papers. These notes will only be visible for you. To add notes you will need to be logged in. Adding a note is very simple. Click the icon and a notes dialog box will pop up. Use the entry field to add your note and save when ready; it will always be possible to add changes later.

Adding posts to articles

A unique feature of LinkedPapers is that it offers its members the possibility to add posts to individual articles. All members are free to add their opinion, question or suggestion as long as its on topic and civil (see User Agreement). Posts not meeting the User Agreement will be removed.

As you will see, each article is provided with a set of icons in the top right position. The icon provides you with the option to add a post. To prevent misuse/abuse of this feature the option to add posts is restricted to members only. Members willingly breaching the User Agreement might be blocked from further usage of LinkedPapers. By clicking the icon a post section will appear below the article. You can now write your post in the entry field. Saving your post will add it to the article. Please be aware that posts will be visible to all users and that for quality reasons it will not be possible to make further changes to your comment afterwards, neither will it be possible to delete you post.