Software

BibGlimpse: The case for a light-weight reprint manager in distributed literature research

Thomas Tüchler¹ , Golda Velez² , Alexandra Graf¹ and David P Kreil¹

¹  Chair of Bioinformatics, Boku University, AT-1190 Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria

²  Internet WorkShop, 2921 South Cottonwood Lane, Tucson, AZ 85713, USA

author email corresponding author email

BMC Bioinformatics 2008, 9:406doi:10.1186/1471-2105-9-406

Published:	1 October 2008

Abstract

Background

While text-mining and distributed annotation systems both aim at capturing knowledge and presenting it in a standardized form, there have been few attempts to investigate potential synergies between these two fields. For instance, distributed annotation would be very well suited for providing topic focussed, expert knowledge enriched text corpora. A key limitation for this approach is the availability of literature annotation systems that can be routinely used by groups of collaborating researchers on a day to day basis, not distracting from the main focus of their work.

Results

For this purpose, we have designed BibGlimpse. Features like drop-to-file, SVM based automated retrieval of PubMed bibliography for PDF reprints, and annotation support make BibGlimpse an efficient, light-weight reprint manager that facilitates distributed literature research for work groups. Building on an established open search engine, full-text search and structured queries are supported, while at the same time making shared collections of annotated reprints accessible to literature classification and text-mining tools.

Conclusion

BibGlimpse offers scientists a tool that enhances their own literature management. Moreover, it may be used to create content enriched, annotated text corpora for research in text-mining.