Product Overview of CiteULike
CiteULike was a web-based service designed to help scientists, researchers, and academics store, organize, share, and discover links to academic research papers. Here’s a detailed look at what the product did and its key features.
Purpose and Functionality
CiteULike was founded in November 2004 by Richard Cameron and was later supported by Oversity Ltd. The service was built on the principle of social bookmarking, allowing users to save and share citations to academic papers directly from their web browsers. This approach transformed the traditional linear process of gathering, collecting, and sharing research into a more dynamic and collaborative cycle.
Key Features
- Bookmarking and Organization: Users could add references to their personal libraries with a single click using a bookmarklet. CiteULike automatically extracted citation details such as title, authors, and journal name from the web page, eliminating the need for manual entry.
- Tagging System: The service employed a flexible tagging system, allowing users to categorize their references using freely chosen tags. This tagging system helped in creating a domain-specific folksonomy that was meaningful to specialist researchers.
- Search and Filtering: Users could search and filter references by tags, making it easier to find targeted results within the context of peer-reviewed articles. The tags were displayed in a proportionally larger font based on their frequency of use.
- Sharing and Collaboration: References added to CiteULike were public by default, making them accessible to all users. However, users could also mark entries as private. The platform supported groups, often used by labs, research groups, or institutions, to collaborate and build shared libraries of references.
- Export Options: Users could export their libraries in various formats, including BibTeX, RIS, and others compatible with bibliography management tools like EndNote, Reference Manager, and Zotero.
- User Profiles and Networking: CiteULike allowed users to create profiles, list their own publications, and connect with other users through features like “neighbors” (users who bookmarked the same articles) and “groups”.
- Recommendations and Watchlists: The service provided recommendations based on favorite bookmarks and allowed users to maintain watchlists for tracking specific articles or authors.
- Accessibility: Since the libraries were stored on a server, users could access their collections from any computer with an internet connection, making it highly convenient for researchers working across different locations.
Additional Functionality
- Library Management: Users could sort their bookmarks by various criteria such as read/unread status, reading priority, post date, and number of times posted. The service also supported rating and commenting on papers.
- Research Areas: CiteULike allowed users to define their fields of research, facilitating the discovery of new content and potential collaborations with other researchers in similar areas.
Closure
CiteULike ceased operations on March 30, 2019, after providing valuable services to the academic community for over 14 years. Despite its closure, the features and functionalities it offered set a significant precedent for modern reference management and social bookmarking services.