Readcube

2012-05-18

Finally, the popularity of the LOLcat explained…

In the opinion of this blogger, it is a universal truth that if one browses the internet long enough, one will encounter a digital artifact, idea, or trend that is simultaneously widespread yet devoid of any explanation for its ubiquity. Indeed, the lack of intellectual, humorous, artistic, spiritual, or any other sort of intrinsic value in the content of a particular meme makes its ever-presence that much more surprising. Well, we needn’t be surprised any longer!

2012-05-08

The Rising Cost of Information Access

According to Harvard University Library’s Faculty Advisory Council, the cost of subscriber agreements between Harvard’s libraries and journal publishers has become prohibitive. Calling the situation “financially untenable” in a recent public memo, the Advisory Council laid out the current state of affairs vis-a-vis subscription costs, explaining that price hikes and bundling agreements have spiked the cost of journal subscriptions. In some cases, this cost increase is as high as 145% over six years, far exceeding both the consumer price index and comparable price indices for higher education and library periodicals.

2012-04-30

As you might guess from the title (and the picture), we’ve made a Google+ page!

Stop on by and give us a +1, and let us know how we can use it to best serve you. Whether it’s our thoughts about the most interesting papers published recently or a regular, scheduled hangout with the ReadCube Team, tell us what you’d like to see in the comments or by email (support@readcube.com).

Best,

The ReadCube Team

2012-02-11

ReadCube now enhances your PDFs!

Hello all,

We’ve released a new automatic update that makes reading articles in ReadCube even better.

As of today, you can enjoy the awesome functionality of the ReadCube Web reader on your desktop. Articles published by Nature, Wiley, PLoS, as well as those available in PubMed Central can now be enhanced with clickable in-line references and automatic fetching of article supplements (when available).

If ReadCube can enhance the article you’re currently reading, you’ll see a pop-up at the upper-right of the PDF, asking you if you’d like to enhance. Simply click the button to enhance the PDF, and watch as the references and supplement magically appear.

We’re very excited about this new, experimental feature, so give it a try, and tell us what you think! In the comments, let us know which journals you’d like to us build an Enhanced PDF experience for next!

-The ReadCube Team

P.S. As always, simply quit and reopen ReadCube, and the update will automatically download and install.

2012-01-09

Happy 2012!

To all our users, fans, and supporters:

As this first week of the new year draws to a close, we’d like to say thanks for all your help in getting ReadCube off the ground. Your support means the world to us, and we hope you’re as excited as we are about what the future holds for ReadCube.

May your new year be filled with happiness and success, and stay tuned for exciting new developments coming soon!

Best Wishes,

The ReadCube Team

2011-11-25

Happy Thanksgiving

We just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and give thanks to everyone using ReadCube all over the globe. It’s been pretty incredible to see the adoption and enthusiastic response since ReadCube became publicly available on October 11. ReadCube is already being used at close to 2,000 universities and research institutions worldwide!

In the spirit of Black Friday, we also wanted to offer a very special, limited time promotion: Download one copy of ReadCube and you can download another copy FREE! Just kidding — ReadCube is already free, so for any of you out there who haven’t given it a try yet, register for a free account today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-07

Thanks!

Thanks to so many of our users and friends for coming out to our launch party this past Friday. We were absolutely floored by the turnout. It was great to see you all!

We’re especially grateful for all the insightful feedback, in person and in writing. We’ll be working hard over the next few days to read through all of your ideas and figure out what new features to build into ReadCube!

Finally, a hearty congratulations to Bill for winning the raffle. Enjoy your new iPad 2!

2011-11-02

Great news: ReadCube has integrated with nature.com!

We’re excited to announce that in association with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), we have released the ReadCube Web Reader on the websites of Nature and 18 other Nature research journals.

The ReadCube Web Reader allows you to highlight and annotate nature.com article PDFs directly in the browser and download annotated articles straight into your ReadCube library. You can also check out related content like Editorial Summaries, Supplements, and News & Views. And thanks to our new technology, references become clickable in the PDF!

See it in action here. To access the ReadCube Web Reader on nature.com, navigate to an article and then click “PDF options” on the article page.

See the full press release.

2011-10-25

Come to the official ReadCube launch party!

All ReadCube users are invited. Come meet the ReadCube team; eat, drink, and be merry!

Give us feedback about ReadCube at the party for a chance to win an iPad 2, to be raffled off at the event.

Please RSVP here

Friday, November 4th from 4:00-7:00 PM
Sherman Fairchild Biochemical Lab, 2nd Floor Conference Room
7 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA

2011-10-18

Happy Birthday, Harvard!

Friday was Harvard’s 375th anniversary celebration. Along with a couple thousand friends, we braved the rain to partake in the festivities. It was great to see some ReadCube users there! Stay tuned for details about ReadCube’s own birthday party, tentatively scheduled for November 4.