I want to organize my literature and notes management in DT.
My idea is the following:
Literature Reference Manager has these features and purpose: - it should easily connect to (Latex)&LyX, therefore it should store the bibliographical information in bibtex-Format.
(If possible it should download the pdf from the web) Store the pdfs in a single folder and rename it with a filename that is “bibtexkey. Author (Year) - Title of paper”.
In Devonthink: Then I want to index the one ‘pdf-folder’ where the pdfs are stored.
And then I need a script (or another solution) to take the filename of each pdf and make a subfolder in the ‘pdf-folder’ with the pdf-name as that subfolder’s name. And into this folder the pdf should be copied.
Then I can use the nice “SKIM PDF Notes to DEVONthink”-Script to read, highlight and annotate the pdfs and store these notes in that same subfolder (with the pdf name) and that has the pdf inside.
(The script is here: web.me.com/robinfrancistrew/Site … think.html)
Has anyone done sth similar?
Do you have recommendations which Bibliography manager to use?
Most important: Do you have an idea how to tell DEVONthink the above idea?
I hope my ideas make sense and help you. And I’d appreciate it if you could give me some hints!
It’s been awhile since I asked the question. Since this I figured out a way by myself.
What I do is I use a combination of Zotero in Firefox + Bibdesk.
Essentially Firefox became Zotero for me. I use it for nothing else but getting publication-info from JStor, Ideas, Amazon etc. into Zotero.
As soon as any information is added to Zotero, the great ‘Zot2Bib’ Addon to Firefox automatically exports the info that Zotero gathered and puts it into Bibdesk. Bibdesk is the software that I use for maintaining my bibtex-file that I use for my academic writing in LaTeX/LyX.
With another Addon in Firefox I save the pdf that Zotero downloaded. This Addon is ZotFile. You can choose the system by which ZotFile renames the attached file. Mine is Author (Year) - Title. And you can choose where ZotFile puts the renamed article. Obviously this is the Inbox of Devonthink.
Bibdesk automatically generates a citation key for the use in LateX. When I check if Bibdesk got the information from Zotero correctly I copy this key and when I put the pdf into a group in DT I copy this key into the name of the pdf-file. This means that the name of an article in DT becomes for example:
CrespoRoser2011# Crespo, Roser (2011) - Borders redrawn- Measuring the statistical creation of international trade.PDF
The reason for renaming the pdf with the citation key as prefix is that when I write something in DT and quote from a pdf by linking to the document I have the citation key - and if I copy it to LaTeX I’ll have the necessary key already there. This is especially helpful if you use a script that copies your Skim-notes into DT and notes the source of the document. Script: web.me.com/robinfrancistrew/Site … think.html
This is the system that I came up with. Now that I see it written down it looks as if it is very complicated. But most of the things happen just automatically by great Zotero and its great addons.
I’m looking forward to any comments and suggestions.