ReadCube is a

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is a company that focuses primarily on the manufacturing, support, research and development of—most commonly computing, telecommunication and consumer electronics–based—technology-intensive products and ...

that develops reference management software. It is currently available as a web-based platform, on mobile operating systems

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android, and as a desktop application. The legacy ReadCube and Papers applications are no longer being actively developed. The original ReadCube

desktop application Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...

was available for free, selling premium services such as storage in the online library. In contrast, Papers was a software sold for a one-time payment. ReadCube Papers is now a yearly subscription-based model.

History

ReadCube was created by Labtiva, a Boston-based company. A desktop version was publicly launched in October 2011 with investment from

Digital Science Digital Science (or Digital Science & Research Solutions Ltd) is a technology company with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company focuses on strategic investments into startup companies that support the research lifecycle. Overl ...

, a division of

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

. Shortly after, ReadCube Web Reader was integrated with the website of ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' in November 2011. A pilot program for ReadCube Access was launched at the University of Utah in September 2012, followed by a public release in

Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in scien ...

journals in November 2012. That same month, version 2.0 of Web Reader launched with several significant changes. In February 2013, ReadCube launched across more than 117 journals published by Wiley. In April 2014, Labtiva released ReadCube Pro: a product similar to Web Reader with cloud sync capability and enhanced notation and viewing features. On 2 December 2014, ''Nature'' announced that it would allow its subscribers and a group of selected media outlets to distribute links that provided limited "free" access to journal articles through ReadCube Web Reader. While it does provide some free articles, it is not a completely

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

scheme due to restrictions on the users' ability to download, copy, print, or distribute the content. On March 16, 2016, ReadCube acquired Papers from Springer Nature for an undisclosed amount. In September 2023, ReadCube Pro officially rebranded as Papers. An on-site announcement stated: "ReadCube will be the brand dedicated to our enterprise clients, and Papers will be focused solely on students, independent researchers, and academia."

Products

ReadCube Enhanced PDF for articles published by

, Frontiers and

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

and any articles uploaded into the ReadCube Papers cloud. ReadCube Checkout is a service that offers rental, cloud, and downloadable article access options outside journal subscriptions. This checkout functionality is offered for the majority of journal articles on several publisher pages. Literature Review is a software designed to help teams monitor and analyze published literature.

Notes and references

{{Reflist, 2

History

Products

Notes and references

See also