# Papers (software)

Papers is a reference management software available for macOS and Windows. It was designed to facilitate the management of bibliographies and references for essays and articles. The software's primary function is to organize references and maintain a digital library of PDF documents.

## Overview

Papers was developed by Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis while studying towards their PhD diplomas at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. The pair worked on Papers to provide an approach to document management that was similar to the iTunes application on macOS, after they were faced with hundreds of digital publications in PDF format. Papers was originally released as a public preview in February 2007, followed by the full 1.0 version a few months later.
In 2013, a new version of the software was released, along with a new Apple app. Both products received a considerable amount of criticism from users, who experienced a number of issues, ranging from lost databases and annotations to incompatibility between mobile and desktop apps. Users criticized Mekentosj and Springer, the developer and owner of Papers, respectively, for releasing a beta version of the software and the pace at which they addressed many issues that rendered the software effectively unusable.
On March 16, 2016, ReadCube acquired Papers from Springer Nature for an undisclosed amount. ReadCube Papers has been available since Fall 2019.

## Versions
### Mac

With the release of Papers 2 in March 2011, Papers provides EndNote style reference citation features. It also allows users to access their library and insert citations across a variety of different applications, whether in documents, presentations, or in web browsers. Papers offers a number of features for collecting, curating, merging and linking articles.
Papers 3, a new version for Mac was released in late 2013. This version introduces a redesigned user interface and Dropbox based syncing, which has subsequently been expanded to other cloud-based repositories.
As of November 1st, 2018, Papers 3 is no longer available for sale and is no longer being actively developed. The new version of Papers is developed by ReadCube. It is primarily used to organize references and maintain a library of PDF documents and also provides a uniform interface for document repository searches, metadata editing, full screen reading and, a variety of ways to import and export documents.

### Windows

Papers 2 for Windows was first released in 2012. A new version, now Papers 3 for Windows, was released late July 2014 following the redesign of the Mac and iOS applications earlier. This version was intended to streamline the user experience and the features available from the Mac application. Papers 3 for Windows also added unified search to its platform. It supported Dropbox syncing between Mac and iOS devices running Papers 3 as well as Papers Online. The Windows version of Papers 3 has been withdrawn from sale and is no longer available.

### Browser

An online version of Papers runs on most modern Web browsers. Users can access their library by signing in through institutional or personal email addresses. Libraries have the ability to sync automatically and have unlimited cloud storage.

### iPhone and iPad

Versions of Papers are available for free from the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad. A version was released with the launch of Papers 3 for Mac and features unified search on the iOS app. The latest version of Papers is available on the Mac App Store. This version includes the article management features, and adds freehand annotations and supports Apple Pencil to the standard annotation features. Papers for iOS can be synchronized via a cloud storage system provided by ReadCube.

### Android

A version of Papers is available for Android users and can be downloaded via Google Play. It automatically syncs to the Papers desktop and web applications. Papers is a NoSQL-like storage for Java/Kotlin objects on Android with automatic schema migration support.

### Papers Online (legacy)

Papers Online was a set of services released in conjunction with Papers 3 for Windows. It worked across a variety of platforms and offered users a means of sharing collections of articles. Papers 3 users could create shared collections, and access them from most devices. Shared collections were accessible by other Papers 3 users as well as individuals who were not currently using Papers 3. This version is no longer available.

## Awards

Papers won an Apple Design Award in 2007, for best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution.