Reference Manager

Few weeks into your PhD and the desk is full of papers. As time goes by, the number of papers grows, indefinitely... having a good software to manage your references can spare you a lot of time: when you want to go back to a paper or when you want to insert the references into your new working paper or teaching slides. I find JabRef a very good software. To begin with it's free. Then it works on all platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). Personally I find that JabRef is the perfect companion of any Latex/BibTex user but non-Latex users can also find it useful.

I have all my papers (read and to be read) listed and organized by groups. Entering the details of a new paper is easy as long as you can download the BibTex source code. These days all major e-journals, as well as NBER and Repec databases let you download it. [in JabRef there is also a function to import references directly from Jstor and Google Scholar] Adding a reference to your paper is also simple: there is a dedicated button that let you choose between several text editors: WinEdt, Lyx, Emacs, Wim. Just click on the icon and the reference is automatically added.

If you, like me, no longer print papers but read and edit them in their pdf version (using Adobe Standard or similar) there is an easy function that links the reference to the pdf file. All you have to do is to make sure that the file name corresponds to the reference Bibtexkey.