Docear is a discontinued academic literature management application that combines reference management, PDF organisation and mind mapping. It was developed to help researchers organise scientific publications and their associated notes, annotations and bibliographic information.
The software integrates functionality from Freeplane and JabRef, allowing users to organise research material visually. Rather than relying exclusively on lists of publications, researchers can arrange documents, references and extracted annotations within mind maps, helping them identify relationships between different sources.
Docear also provides tools for extracting PDF bookmarks, comments and highlighted text. It uses open formats including BibTeX and Freeplane XML, allowing users to retain control over their research data.
Docear is no longer actively developed or supported. Its online services, including research recommendations, registration and backups, are unavailable.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Combines bibliography management, PDF organisation and mind mapping.
- Manage bibliographic references through JabRef integration.
- Organise research material visually using Freeplane-based mind maps.
- Import and organise scientific PDF documents.
- Extract PDF bookmarks, comments and highlighted text.
- Associate document annotations with research topics.
- Organise references, notes and annotations within mind maps.
- Monitor folders for newly added research documents.
- Link documents and annotations to multiple research topics.
- Manage bibliographic information using BibTeX.
- Store research information in open formats including PDF and Freeplane XML.
- Cross-platform support – historical releases were available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: docear.org
Support:
Developer: Joeran Beel, Stefan Langer and Marcel Genzmehr
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Docear is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Reference Management Tools | |
|---|---|
| KBibTeX | Reference management software primarily for BibTeX |
| Zotero | Powerful online/offline research tool for the Firefox web browser |
| JabRef | Graphical frontend to manage BibTeX databases |
| WIKINDX | Bibliography, notes, and article authoring system |
| BibLaTeX | Programmable bibliographies and citations |
| Docear | Academic literature suite |
| I, Librarian | Build an annotated library of scientific PDF articles |
| Citations | Manage your bibliographies using the BibTeX format |
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