ReadCube

**ReadCube** is a company developing technologies for researchers, including ReadCube Papers, Anywhere Access and others for publishers.

It is part of the Digital Science's portfolio.

The ReadCube Papers app suite is under development based on the original ReadCube and Papers applications.
It is currently available as a web based platform (Web App) and on Mobile operating systems iOS and Android.
The ReadCube Papers' page announces that the desktop applications should be coming early 2019.

The legacy ReadCube and Papers applications are not developed anymore.

The original ReadCube desktop application was available for free, selling premium services such as storage on the online library.
In contrast, Papers was a software sold for a one time payment.
ReadCube Papers now moves to a pricing system of monthly payments, without any free option anymore.

## History

ReadCube was created by Labtiva, a Boston-based company. A desktop client was publicly launched in October 2011 with investment from Digital Science, a division of Macmillan Publishers. Shortly after, ReadCube Web Reader was integrated with the website of *Nature* in November 2011. A pilot program for ReadCube Access was launched at the University of Utah in September 2012, followed by a public release on Nature Publishing Group journals in November 2012. Also in November 2012, version 2.0 of the Web Reader launched with a number of significant changes.

In February 2013, ReadCube launched across over 117 journals published by Wiley.

In April 2014, Labtiva released ReadCube Pro and with it a new UI with several new features. Some of these features, including SmartCite - ReadCube's citation and bibliography formatting tool, the inclusion of multiple highlighting colors, and several view options come for free with the new update. A few, including a cloud sync function which allows .PDF files to be synced across desktop machines or to the ReadCube iPad app, a metrics pane that shows where an article is being spoken about online, and a "Watched Folders" feature that automatically imports and indexes PDFs come only with ReadCube Pro.

On 2 December 2014, *Nature* announced that it would allow its subscribers and a group of selected media outlets to distribute links providing limited "free" access to articles from its journals through ReadCube Web Reader. While it does, to an extent, provide free online access to articles, it is not a true open access scheme due to its restrictions on users' ability to download, copy, print, or otherwise distribute the content.

On March 16, 2016, ReadCube acquired Papers from Springer Nature for an undisclosed amount.

## Features

ReadCube Papers is mainly accessible through its Web App, with some of the features of the previous ReadCube applications.

**ReadCube (legacy)** previously available for Windows and macOS.

* Consolidated display of all imported articles into a library
* Customizable lists to organize articles
* Integrated search functionality with Google Scholar, PubMed, and Microsoft Academic to find and download new research material
* Personalized recommendations of literature based on searches and library content
* PDF viewer with notes and text highlighting
* Supplements and references in one place
* Full-text search across your entire PDF library
* Hyperlinked references
* Easily export citations to EndNote and other reference managers
* Can sync your library between multiple devices
* Can manually add and edit citation data
* Can watch specific folders for changes & automatically import PDFs
* SmartCite allows users to format citations and create bibliographies

**ReadCube Papers Web Reader (legacy)**, previously available on nature.com for articles published by Nature Publishing Group, Frontiers and John Wiley & Sons.

* Fast viewing of article PDFs within the browser
* Clickable in-line references with direct links to articles
* Integrated view of the supplement, associated news, and editor’s comments
* DOI lookup allows users to navigate directly to articles
* Includes a ReadCube Web Browser, which sends articles from web browsers directly to the ReadCube Papers library
* Draw, highlight and take notes
* ReadCube Access provides options to buy or rent individual research articles