Your Personal Library of Research
Papers is now officially part of Springer Science+Business media!
Revolutionary Reading · Also available: Papers for iPad
Questions and Answers
Your first question is probably "Why did you decide to become part of Springer"?
A little more than 5 years ago Papers was born in between Alex's PhD and postdoc. It was a simple application designed to do one thing very well: organize your scientific PDFs, in a way very similar to how iTunes organizes your music files. But like iTunes, we have steadily grown Papers to do much more. And with each new version of the program, we realize how much more we could do, and what potential Papers has to help researchers even more.
But there is only so much a small team like ours can do, and a day really only has 24 hours. It hurts having to say no to really good ideas, or having to delay new releases when other things demand priority. That's why we are so excited to become part of Springer. It will help us to take Papers to the next level and will allow us to improve the app, bring you new features faster, and give you better support. All with the same dedication and excitement you are used to get from us. We can't wait to get going!
Of course, that doesn't answer the many other questions you probably have. Below you'll hopefully find the answers to most of them already:
Support/development
Who is in charge of Papers and its development now? Are you going to continue developing Papers or will you no longer be involved?
The same Mekentosj team will stay and work on Papers. We are all very excited about this opportunity and are as committed to Papers and its development as we have always been.
Will there be fewer updates now that you are part of a big company?
Absolutely not! If anything we believe that with Springer behind us we can move faster and deliver more updates.
Who will decide the direction of development?
Becoming part of Springer opens up a lot of opportunities that we are excited to explore. Importantly, though, the existing Mekentosj team will continue to determine what to work on next and where we would like Papers to go.
Are you going to have more people developing Papers?
That is certainly the plan, and it is one of the main reasons we believe that as part of Springer we can take Papers to the next level. If you are interested in joining us to make this happen, be sure to drop us a line!
Are you still providing Papers support and is that going to get speedier?
Definitely. It has always been our goal to answer each and every message you send us. Papers has grown over the years, and particularly in recent years it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the growing number of emails we receive as a result of our growing user base. Not being able to always respond in a timely manner hurts. With more resources behind us, we are determined to improve this.
Are you going to expand to more platforms like Android or Linux now?
The honest answer is maybe. Yes, we will have more resources, which makes it more likely, but at the same time we will only start supporting a new platform if we think such a version makes sense, we can bring a user experience that is great, and for which enough people have shown interest.
Is Papers for iPhone and iPad part of Springer as well?
All versions of Papers are part of Springer now, including the iOS version.
Is Papers for Windows part of Springer as well?
All versions of Papers are part of Springer now, including the Windows version. We only started the Windows version of Papers earlier this year and we are working hard to get it to the same level as the Mac version. This is not a trivial task with a small team and hence another reason we believe that becoming part of Springer will help us to bring the Windows version up to speed much faster.
Licenses/Pricing
Is your pricing going to change, and are you now going to charge monthly or yearly subscription fees for Papers?
We have no intentions to change the price of Papers, nor to change to a subscription-based license. Having said that, we could offer institutions a subscription model if they prefer this over a classic one-off license fee.
Is Papers now going to be free?
No, see above.
Is Papers for Mac going to be available from the Mac App Store?
Our plans have not changed: perhaps in the future, but this will still take a while. At this time the Mac App Store poses too many restrictions, and would force us to remove certain features from Papers.
Are you going to provide institutional licenses?
This is certainly an area where we think we can offer more possibilities soon. If this is something you are interested in, we look forward to hearing from you and encourage you to keep an eye on our website.
Is upgrading from Papers1 still the same price?
Yes, you can still upgrade your Papers1 license with a 50% discount, see this support page.
Do you still provide student discounts?
Yes, undergraduate and graduate students can still apply for the 40% discount from within Papers.
Is my license going to work for future updates, or will I need to buy a new Papers license?
Your license does not change. It still entitles you to all point updates of Papers until the next major release as it always has.
Subscriptions/Content
Will Papers now come with free/discounted access to Springer publications?
No, buying a license for Papers does not mean you will now have free access to all Springer content that before required either a personal or institutional subscription. Of course Springer does offer a lot of Open Access content that is available for free (e.g. their BMC journals and through Springer Open).
Can you still have any papers in your library or is it now restricted to Springer publications?
Papers will keep on working just like before and does not limit you to the content of one or a few publishers only. You can store any publication from any publisher in Papers. Becoming part of Springer is intended to take Papers forward, we will not be removing or limiting functionality.
Is searching via repositories going to stay the same or is there going to be restrictions in search results?
We have no intentions to change things that we believe work well within Papers. If anything, we hope to bring more repositories and search options to Papers in the future.
Are you going to have advertisement in Papers?
No, we have no such plans.
Personal Data
What do you do with my user details?
As always, we only use your details to keep you updated on Papers and - where necessary - to make Papers work (e.g. activating your serial number). We treat any personal information or data with confidentiality, as we always have done.
Are my personal details now available to Springer?
Mekentosj and all its data is now officially part of Springer. However, this does not mean that anything changes in how we treat your information. See "What do you do with my user details?" and "Will my personal details be used for marketing purposes now?".
Will my personal details be used for marketing purposes now?
No. We will not change the way we have dealt with your personal details thus far. We take your privacy very seriously. We will not share your details with any 3rd party and will not use them for any other purposes than to keep you updated on Papers and to make Papers work.
Will you use my personal library for anything?
Only if you give us explicit permission to. We have been asking users for a few months now to contribute their libraries to help us build a database to automatically match your PDFs. Only if you explicitly opt-in, your library will be used, and always anonymously. Also, for those who have already shared their library with us, we won't use them in any way different than what we have done so far.
Future
In which directions are you going to develop Papers? Will we finally see syncing, automatic matching, feature X?
The main reason why we're so excited about this next chapter in the Papers story is that it will allow us to develop Papers faster and bigger than before. The main plans and where we see Papers going have not changed though: there are a number of items we have already revealed on the roadmap pages, and there are a number of other items that we are secretly working on. All we can say is to stay tuned!
Other
What is going to happen to the other mekentosj apps like 4Peaks, EnzymeX, etc?
The mekentosj molecular biology apps like 4Peaks, EnzymeX, iRNAi, LabAssistant, etc. will not become part of Springer and have moved to a new home. They will also remain free. Unfortunately, as has been the case for a while, Papers takes up all our time so we can't promise any updates soon.
What if my question is not in this list?
We'd be happy to answer your questions, don't hesitate to drop us an email or visit our support page.