Paperpile Reviews

Browser integration and ease of use (Desktop-based using local libraries are harder to maintain when using multiple locations/computers as background sync is buggier). It is also better set up for collaborative writing/editing since it works well with Google Docs. Lastly, sharing libraries/reading lists is much easier, which makes it well suited in a collaborative or teaching environment.

Metadata issues when importing preprint papers (bioRxiv in particular)

In-app highlighting and commenting is vital and works well enough. Integration with google drive is nice. The program is light-weight and not too slow. It's easy for the program to find papers and PDFs from a given webpage.

I wish the highlighting and commenting had a bit more flexibility. I wish there was a "compact" view so more papers would fit on the screen in the listed papers view. I wish the "website" link for each paper linked to the publicly accessible link or DOI, not the paperpile link.

Paperpile integrates well with the web and makes it very easy to download and attach articles

Search could be much more full-featured (allow more search criteria). There are some bugs with highlighting pdfs. There needs to be a public API for integration with Roam / Obsidian / Logseq

We appreciate the feedback, Marc, and can't help but agree - our development has been rather slow, at least in terms of user-facing features, and continues to be uncertain at times. The good news is that we intend to release several new features / updates soon, and a more robust search (with more criteria and full-text search) is at the top of the list. I've also added your +1 to the topic of a public API on our internal tracker!

To look for research papers, I mainly use the browser. When I want to save research papers to a database, I only use Paperpile. Paperpile makes it easy to add papers to a database without navigating away from the page that I am currently browsing. Paperpile also makes it for me to sort the added paper using tags I created for the project of interest. This tagging feature is most useful when I am in the middle of writing and want to quickly look for a paper of interest. This is especially helpful if I forget the exact paper, as clicking on the tag allows me to quickly scan for the paper I want. I would also like to mention how easy it is to export citations in a Bibtex file, which makes it easy for me to cite papers when I write using markdown.

I would like the ability to create hierarchical tags. For example, if I were writing a review on COVID, I would like to sort papers by treatment, prognosis, etc. This functionality is available with folders, but not with labels.

Thanks for this thoughtful feedback, Patrick. The request for hierarchical tags has come up before, so I've added your +1 to the topic on our internal tracker for the team's consideration!

This might sound silly, but part of why I chose paper like is how it looks. I just figured that if I was going to be spending hours and hours reading documents from some sort of pdf manager, I wanted it to look nice. But honestly, the PDFs look crisp and clean, the comments, highlights, and are wonderful. Tags are great, folders are great. I love being able to add papers straight from Google scholar search results, or even better, are that I already have it so that I don't end up with so many duplicates.

I think making and viewing notes about the article from a global view on the main page could be better. I hardly use it because it's not very easy to see if I even had made a note.

That's quite the compliment, Christopher - thanks for sharing your experience. An overhaul of our note-taking system has been planned for a while and should see the light of day soon(ish), so you can expect some improvements in that regard. Other former (and current) Qiqqa users have also sung praises for their more advanced features, so it's already on our radar.

I really like how easy it is to tag documents for better organization and searching. I also find the Chrome extension extremely beneficial for quickly importing new papers/references

One recommendation would be to implement better Touch support for in-browser experience, especially using a stylus to hand write annotations. I use primarily 2-1 Chromebooks, so I don’t care much for the mobile app. I also wish I could use the built-in PDF viewer/editor as a standalone application, rather than having to first import the document to Paperpile. This would be to keep work/play purposes separate.

Thanks for the nice feedback, Ethan! We do hope to implement better support for touch / stylus features - the request is on our list so I've added your +1 to the topic. I'm not sure if we have plans to offer the PDF viewer as a standalone app, but it's not unlikely (it actually used to be one) after we take it from beta to general availability.

The PDF annotation tools make Paperpile excellent. The software allows users to easily highlight, comment, search, and export annotations. The citation manager tools are likely a user's reason to subscribe to Paperpile, but the PDF features make it far superior to simple citation generators and eliminates the need for a separate PDF software.

The main issue is in organizing citations because users cannot upload a paper directly into a folder, so there is a risk of misplacing it. The program has difficulty detecting data from uploads but the information is easy to correct.

Thanks for the feedback! Glad to read our PDF annotator has proven useful for you. We intend to enable direct upload/import to folders as part of upcoming general updates. Reference data is coded in PDF files by publishers - we are only able to parse what is already there, which sometimes isn't much. If some information is detected, though, our Auto-Update (Shift-A) feature could accurately match with online sources.

Easy to import content found online and easy to cite within docs including google docs. i also like the feature where you can highlight the title and copy and paste it turns it into a full citation. additionally, i like that if i attach a PDF that is named with random letters/numbers, it turns it into a proper title with the author once attached.

Wish i could directly share links/PDFs to articles as one-offs with users rather than having to create a folder. wish it was easier to highlight the title to copy and paste it to turn it into citation format- sometimes it is finicky.

Thanks for the nice feedback, Sarah! You can actually select individual articles and hit Shift-S to get a link / share via email (or click the Share option that appears in the top menu bar). Rather than copying selected text, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C in your library copies selected reference(s) in the full bibliographical form of whichever style is chosen via Settings. Text you select on our interface can be copied via the regular right-click menu. You can check out other keyboard shortcuts by clicking your email on the top right corner > Keyboard Shortcuts, or simply hitting the ? key. Hope this makes sense - let us know otherwise!

I love the fact that its so easy to setup without any issues. Love the chrome extension and add to paperpile button. Customer support exists unlike other free apps and is awesome. I like how they are developing the app for iOS. The PDF support is getting better.

I wish it was offline as well. I would like to see some more advanced PDF features like multiple papers view. Safari extension maybe?

I like the idea ease of use, especially for importing paper metadata. It also makes it easy to collaborate with other Paperpile users.

My biggest complaint is that you cannot search the text of papers.

Thanks for the feedback. Implementing full-text search from the library is in our near future, along with some other advanced search functionalities. More details to come on our next newsletter!

The integration of paper storage with Google Drive is really nice and keeps my computer from getting clogged. It's also well-integrated with all of the word processing softwares I use (Overleaf, Google Docs, and Word).

I really wish it didn't require the Chrome plugin. There are a number of reasons that I'd prefer to use other browsers, but Paperpile requires Chrome so I'm stuck with that. The sharing of papers and/or collaborative writing is not as straightforward as it could be.

Thanks for the nice feedback, Matthew! We do have short-term plans to support other browsers like Safari and Firefox. In the meantime, Paperpile runs in any Chromium-based browser (like MS Edge, Brave, Vivaldi) in case you'd like an alternative to Chrome. We've also had plans to improve our sharing/collaboration features for a while; hopefully we'll be able to push them to production soon.

Excellent reference management, can search online while inserting reference, works with word and google doc

Can’t highlight in pdf but that’s okay, also not free

Glad to read Paperpile has been so useful for you, Pritha! Highlighting and annotating PDFs is actually possible with our beta viewer, which you can activate from the top right corner of your library by clicking your email > Settings > Browser Integration > PDF Viewer and selecting 'Viewer with annotations (beta)'.

The ability to easily add, manage, and edit references for medical journals is by far its biggest advantage. Compared to other existing reference managers, this is the best value.

References occasionally do not populate correctly, and is less useful for web pages or other online content (although this is less important for what I do). The biggest issue right now is working with references in between Google Docs and in Word. Word compatibility is still lacking, although it has improved.

Thanks for the nice feedback, Mike! We're continuously working to expand our data detection capabilities. Our Word plugin (https://paperpile.com/word-plugin/) includes the ability to convert from/to Google Docs - do you find it is still not working properly? If so, we'd like to hear more via chat or email (support@paperpile.com).

Easy to use, quick to find and save new sources

At first paperpile got confused about which google profile to use, which was frustrating. I think this has since been worked out.

Thanks for the feedback, Rena! Indeed, this is one of the limitations our integration with Google brings. We intend to implement alternative sign-up options soon; this will make us more independent from the Google environment and less prone to this type of issue.

I switched to paper pile and love it. I love that there is an iPad app that I can annotate my papers, I love the tags (so things don't have to fit in just one category), and I love the easy chrome interface since I can access it on any machine.

Sometimes the iPad app doesn't sync right away (whereas chrome is always synced).

Ability to directly download full articles and store in the cloud. Easy to cite articles

Not all articles are directly downloadable. Integration in Word is still in beta but working.

Thanks for the kind words, Ivan. We intend to take our Word plugin out of beta soon. Article availability is a trickier matter but we're striving to improve that too by working on a database of our own - I think there might be some mention of this project on our newsletter this fall.

It is very easy to organise papers in this software. Firstly, there are many methods to find papers. You only need to type doi, link or name of the papers you want. Secondly, the paperpile can download these paper directly, which is very convenient for us. Finally, we could highlight the pdf directly using paperpile, which helps us reading quickly.

There are several things can be improved. Firstly, is there any method to download and organise supporting information of articles directly by paperpile? secondly, when editing the pdf of papers, the position I want highlighted will move to the position with one row above. This problem is really annoying sometimes. Finally, during the pandemic, people are working from home. However, even after using vpn, it fails to download papers directly in the paperpile. Hope you guys can solve these issues.

I like how easy it is to use especially with the chrome add on I am able to just add any paper that I need for my research. It has definitely made my PhD life a lot easier. The integration with google docs is also very convenient and allows for quick creating of references.

It is a bit difficult to edit 'folders' for different projects, however that is a small issue.

We appreciate the feedback, Hermanth. Please feel free to drop us a line via chat or email to describe the difficulty you've experienced editing folders - we'd be interested in hearing more about your experience.

1. It's portable across different devices. 2. The auto-completion of reference is accurate for majority of the times.

1. I usually organize papers with tags. This is not well represented offline. Was wondering if there are better ways for organizing them. 2. Making notes in papers is not convenient.

The software is low cost and allows you to store your papers on your own google drive storage. Your storage capacity is dictated by google drive free space which is second to none. The citation plugin for google docs is great! The integration with google scholar makes it easy to import references into Paperpile and the auto syncing with the iOS app makes it easy to read and mark up PDFs on the go.

Every once in a while is glitchy and requires a reload of the field before software will work.

Works seamlessly with Google Docs. Best way to collaborate with colleagues, even those who without Paperpile accounts. Indexing of .pdfs very easy and efficient.

Can be a little clunky when integrating citations from co-authors into a document.

Thanks for the feedback, Chris! Please feel free to reach out to us via chat or email if you experience any clunky/laggy behavior you'd like to report or simply discuss - we'd be happy to troubleshoot.

Paperpile is a lifesaver for organization of many journal articles. Being a resident with weekly journal club and the need to know multiple different journals; this program is invaluable. You are able to keep all your journal articles in one place and organize them how you would like. You are also able to make notes on the articles or highlight important parts which is great! Love this program!

Setting up the proxy for your university so you can search journal articles right from Paperpile can be challenging.

Your feedback and enthusiasm are much appreciated, Katie! Thanks for reaching out via chat about the proxy configuration - hope things are running smoothly.

I am able to compile all my references into specific folders. I can search for specific papers I need. It seamlessly connects with Google Drive and Google Docs. The software also completes citations very well.

The only downside is that I have to pay, but I believe it is worth it.

Thanks for the wonderful feedback, Emma!

Save papers easily. Annotation and sharing are easy.

I have a difficult time managing my own folder and the shared folder. The paper search is horrible! Please improve it. I can't find where a certain paper is if I forgot which folder I have put it in. When someone shared several papers with me, I can't just collect them by clicking one button and save all of them as one of my folder. This feels very inconvenient.

Thanks for the feedback Catherine! Improvements for our search functionalities (including general & targeted folder search) are actively being worked on - there should be a beta soon. As for saving papers from shared folders, selecting the ones you need and dragging them to the desired folder should automatically save them to your library and add them to that folder. Please feel free to reach out via chat or email (support@paperpile.com) if you find that doesn't work as expected or have any further comments to share.

- Overall design, and easiness to use is perfect - Especially Paperpile app for the iPad is very useful - Reading, editing and highlighting the papers - Ability to access the data from a paper if available

- The lack of desktop app for MacOS - Reliance to Google Chrome

Glad to read you're so pleased with Paperpile, Kivanc! We intend to continue building on the foundation we've laid to offer an increasingly seamless experience across platforms. A desktop app is a solid long-term goal, towards which our Word plugin has been an important first step. Support on other browsers like Safari and Firefox is something we should have good news about much sooner than that. In the meantime, Paperpile runs in any Chromium-based browser (like MS Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, etc) in case you'd like an alternative to Chrome.