The article reflects on sociology, research, and paper publication, emphasizing their interconnectedness. It discusses research significance, methods, and accessing papers beyond academia. It underlines papers’ role as knowledge sources and pathways for public learning.

The article introduces Paperlib, a free and open-source academic paper management tool. It elaborates on the author’s requirements for literature management tools in organizing, reading, discovering, syncing, and citing papers. It thoroughly analyzes how Paperlib meets these needs and compares it with other tools like EndNote and Mendeley.