Paperlib: An Open-Source Academic Paper Management Tool

Paperlib: An Open-Source Academic Paper Management Tool

Summary

Paperlib is an open-source academic paper management tool designed for researchers, addressing common challenges in managing academic literature. It offers robust metadata scraping, full-text search, and smart organization features. The tool also supports extensions for advanced functionalities like LLM-powered summaries and semantic search, making it a powerful solution for managing academic papers across multiple platforms.

Repository Info

Updated on November 20, 2025
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Tags

academic-paperpaper-managementresearch-toolstypescriptcomputer-sciencereferencesopen-sourceproductivity

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Introduction

Paperlib is an open-source academic paper management tool developed by Future-Scholars, designed to streamline the research workflow for academics and students. It addresses common challenges faced by researchers, particularly in fields like computer science where conference papers often lack standardized metadata. Unlike traditional tools, Paperlib focuses on highly accurate metadata scraping, efficient library organization, and seamless export capabilities, making it an indispensable asset for managing academic literature. It supports multiple platforms, including macOS, Linux, and Windows, and offers a clean, modern user interface.

Installation

To get started with Paperlib, you can download the installer directly from its official website.

Important Notes for Installation:

  • Windows: You might encounter a "Windows protected your PC" warning due to the absence of code signing (which is expensive for open-source projects). Please click "More info" and then "Run anyway." The source code is publicly available, and the tool does not collect personal information.
  • macOS: You may need to adjust your security settings by going to "System Settings" > "Privacy & Security" and clicking "Open Anyway" or "Run anyway" for the application.
  • Linux: Detailed installation instructions for Linux distributions can be found on the Paperlib website.

Examples

Paperlib offers several powerful features to enhance your paper management experience:

  • Scrape metadata for conference papers: Easily retrieve accurate metadata for challenging conference papers from sources like ICLR, ICML, and NeurIPS. Scrape metadata for conference papers
  • Smooth paper writing integration: Seamlessly copy-paste references into any editor, including MS Word, with a macOS Spotlight-like plugin. Smooth paper writing integration
  • Summarize and tag papers by LLM: Leverage extensions to automatically summarize and tag your papers using Large Language Models. Summarize and tag papers by LLM
  • Organize your library with tags, folders, and smart filters: Maintain a well-structured library using comprehensive organizational tools. Organize your library
  • Three view modes: Choose from different display modes to best suit your workflow. Three view mode

Why Use Paperlib?

Paperlib stands out as a robust solution for academic paper management due to its unique features and user-centric design:

  • Superior Metadata Scraping: It offers highly accurate metadata scraping capabilities, including support for custom scrapers, making it adaptable to various disciplines and challenging paper formats like conference proceedings.
  • Comprehensive Organization: Organize your library effectively with full-text and advanced search, smart filters, ratings, flags, tags, folders, and markdown/plain text notes.
  • Enhanced Productivity: Stay updated with RSS feed subscriptions for new publications, easily locate and download PDF files, and integrate seamlessly with your writing process using a macOS Spotlight-like plugin and MS Word support for quick reference insertion.
  • Extensible Functionality: Paperlib is designed to be extensible, allowing users to write their own extensions. This enables advanced features such as showing citation counts, LLM-powered paper summaries and tagging, and semantic search queries like "papers written by Geoffrey in 2024."
  • Cross-Platform and Modern UI: Enjoy a beautiful, clean user interface across macOS, Linux, and Windows, complete with cloud synchronization for your library.

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