Although my experience in this field is limited, here are a few points i learnt. You should scribble, underline, highlight, gnaw or circle or whatever to make sure you understand each and every point the author makes. Personally, my productivity is highest on dead tree version but if that's not possible. On my computer, any instant glorification distraction is one alt+tab away does anyone have experience using an ebook reader for academic papers physics, bio chem ? since most articles are available only as high resolution, multi column pdfs my instinct is that a standard kindle may be a no go. Other desirable features would be annotation and easy access to those annotations and access to ebook stores in europe and israel. Most of them are readable if you flip the kindle to landscape mode, but just barely, and the pagebreaks are all screwed up. I don't know about the other e readers, and even the kindle dx is supposed to have better pdf support.

Posted by jeb at am on january 12, 2010 you're out of luck with the kindle, i believe. While it now allows you to read pdfs, there are no zoom features, so the pages have to be squeezed to fit inside the regular screen. The other option would be to turn the pdf into an ebook, using something like mobipocket creator. You might want to see what these new rumoured islate tablets are going to look like. If there's a good pdf reader/annotater included, it might be just what you're looking for. I am using a asus e t91 touchscreen tablet netbook in tablet/portrait mode for just this task. The 9 inch screen is sometimes just a bit too little for large journal pages e.g.

I use a kindle dx for academic articles, and it is pretty good for text, even multiple columns but only okayish for diagrams and tables. Since you can't zoom and scroll, some tables and diagrams work better than others. Multi column text, however, is pretty good, as long as you can deal with slightly smaller than normal size.

I combine it with mendeley, which handles things like naming files, and then i transfer them by hand. Also, good reader for the iphone strips out everything but text, and is surprisingly workable. I've thought about this a little, and i don't think any of the existing ebook readers are really suitable: b amp w, no zoom, no/limited search features etc. A tablet pc has these features and they allow very easy annotation of pdfs with a stylus , but have a shorter battery life, are heavier, and cost more. Personally, i'm hoping that apple will soon announce a tablet, and that i'll be able to install papers either the mac or iphone version on it. It's not a perfect solution, but far better than any of the ebook readers i've seen. Posted by dfan at am on january 12, 2010 seconding jannw's recommendation of the asus t91 series i recently got a t91mt after polling askme with a similar question.

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I agree that screen size can be an issue at times, but the five hour battery life and netbook/tablet convertible design more than make up for that. Perhaps the best thing about using a netbook as opposed to an ebook reader is that in addition to reading and annotating the pdfs, i'm also able to keep them all organized through zotero and synchronized through dropbox, so i can access the annotated versions of every paper i've ever read here on my work computer, too. It is not available in the us due to fcc noncompliance, so you'll have to score one off ebay. It is a terrific e reader, has the e ink screen, natively reads pdf and supports zoom functionality. Posted by jnnla at 1 am on january 12, 2010 the kindle is too small but the kindle dx which can be read sideways seems to handle scientific pdfs just fine.

My husband is a computer scientist amp reads a lot of double column pdfs on his kindle. I'm really interested in this too, though, as i've been looking for a good.pdf reader for a while. I use the sony ereader for this, and it works decently, not as good/easy as w/ paper, but doable. I'd suggest taking a sample paper on an sd card or usb drive to a sony store and trying it out, if you can, to see what you think. Does anyone have experience with the irex readers? specifically the dr10 ? posted by herzigma at pm on january 14, 2010 i just ordered a sony reader daily edition for just this purpose. You'll find an extensive video overview of how it does with academic/technical pdfs here: my criteria include being able to read academic pdfs with complex layouts without having to zoom or use reflow which destroys layout and being able to annotate pdfs preferably with a pen.

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And since complex pdfs can slow readers down, a good page turning time, as well as the ability to jump around easily, are also nice. I currently have the kindle dx which is very good but it has no annotation capabilities for un converted pdfs. I've also tried the original irex iliad but i found it to be too slow and its screen wasn't quite large enough. I think the dr10 has gotten mixed reviews the ds800g seems to have gotten good reviews but i don't think is available in the us now ever? here's an unboxing with comparisons to the sony reader daily edition: keep in mind that there a ton of readers coming out this year.

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The business/academic holy grail is the plastic logic que, due in april but very expensive: then there are tablets. I'm far too bothered by the screen backlighting and the sluggish performance of tablets small and light enough for me to comfortably use as an e reader. Not to mention the user interface problem, which has essentially hampered the wide adoption of tablets for anything since their adoption.