faq

Introduction

Your Account

Features

Troubleshooting

Technical Questions

Contacting Us



Introduction

  • What is Connotea?
    Connotea is a free online reference management service. It allows you to save links to all your favourite articles, references, websites and other online resources with one click. Connotea is also a social bookmarking tool, so you can view other people's collections to discover new, interesting content.
  • Why do I need Connotea?
    Connotea is primarily a service to allow you to save links to all the articles and references you come across in your every day research. Connotea is specifically designed to make this as quick and easy as possible, so that it does not interfere with your reading. Because it is entirely web-based, you can save articles with one click, without breaking off from your work, and without needing to re-type the bibliographic information. The articles in your library are then linked directly into the literature itself; you need never search for them again. Additionally, you can easily share your reference lists with colleagues simply by sending them the URL of your Connotea library.
    Secondly, Connotea offers an easy way to locate references you read before. Because you may tag articles with as many keywords as you like, you can use tags which will quickly remind you of the article, and there is no need to worry about what category you placed it in because you can place it in as many as are appropriate.
  • But I am already using another site for social bookmarking, so why do I need Connotea?
    Because Connotea is specially designed for scientists and clinicians, it provides features to make the process easier than using a general social bookmarking tool such as del.icio.us. There are four main ways in which Connotea is tailored to your needs:
    • Firstly, Connotea recognises many scientific journals and websites, and when you save an item to your library, it can automatically pull off the bibliographic information, such as author and journal. Using a general bookmarking service, you would have to save all this information as separate tags, which would quickly get unwieldy. This automatic collection by Connotea makes your record of the item much richer than a simple URL, and means that you can also search your library by bibliographic information.
    • Secondly, Connotea also provides the ability to import and export references in RIS format, meaning you can easily use Connotea to work with your existing desktop reference management software.
    • Thirdly, Connotea supports standards such as DOIs and OpenURL that are used by academic publishers.
    • Fourthly, because Connotea is designed for the scientific community, you will benefit from a More Signal, Less Noise effect. The focus of the content shared through Connotea is considerably tighter than a general bookmarking service, which helps to provide better, more relevant recommendations via the social nature of the service.

Your Account

  • How much does Connotea cost?
    Nothing. Connotea is completely free.
  • Can I change my username?
    If you need to change your username for some reason, you can contact us and we'll do that for you.
  • Can I change my password?
    Yes. Click on Edit my registration in your toolbox, and you may change your password, email address, or any other details associated with your account.
  • I have forgotten my password
    No problem — look on the log-in page for a link that will allow you to reset your password.
  • What will you do with my email address and personal details?
    We will not pass on any of your private details to third parties. Your email address will be used solely to contact you about your Connotea account.

Features

  • Can I only save academic papers?
    No. Connotea does offer special functionality for saving academic papers and books, but you can save anything at all that you find on the web.
  • Which sites are supported by Connotea?
    The full list of currently supported sites is here. This list is constantly growing; if you would like to see your favourite site supported, please email us.
  • How can I save a reference?
    Saving a paper to your library is quick and easy. Please see the site guide for an explanation of how to save articles to your library, view comments on a paper, and take advantage of all the other features of Connotea.
  • What about privacy settings?
    You can designate any reference you save as private. This means it will not be visible to anyone except you. Any comments you have made and tags you have associated with the reference will also remain private. Alternatively, you can make a reference private to a particular group of users. This means it will only be visible to you and members of that group. Please remember that the creator of the group may add new members at any time.
  • What are related users?
    Related users are those who have been saving similar things to you. You may find it interesting to browse their collections for relevant material.
  • What are related tags?
    Related tags are those which have been used by other people to categorise links you have in common. For example, if you are saving papers under AvianFlu, and another user is saving some of the same papers, but using the tag Bird Flu, you will see Bird Flu as a related tag. This opens the door for you to discover interesting content which is related to your own but has been tagged differently.
  • What are user groups?
    User groups are simply lists of users. These users may be colleagues, collaborators, or simply members of Connotea who appear to have common interests. Anyone may create a user group and add any member they like. On your personal library page, you will see a list of groups of which you are a member. By clicking on a group, you will see a list of all the references saved by all the members of that group. This is a very convenient way to create collaborative reference lists or keep track of what a group of colleagues are reading.
  • Can I search my saved links by author/title/publication?
    Yes. Simply enter the author, title or publication name into the search box the top of your library page.
  • Can I export my collection of links in Connotea to my desktop reference management software?
    Yes. You can export your links as an RIS file for import into EndNote and other reference managers. For more information, please see the site guide.
  • Can I import my references from another source into Connotea?
    Yes. You can import references via an RIS file into Connotea. Many reference managers and online databases can export collections in RIS format. For more information, please see the site guide.
  • Can I import my bookmarks from del.icio.us/my browser favourites into Connotea?
    Yes, you can import your Firefox bookmarks into your Connotea library. You can't yet import del.icio.us links — this feature is in development.
  • Why am I being asked to copy some text from an image?
    As a protection against the automatic posting of inappropriate links, we occasionally ask users to confirm their post by completing a simple task that an automated poster couldn't. The fact that you have been asked to do this does not mean that we think your posting is inappropriate — you should see this screen only very infrequently. If you are seeing it repeatedly, please contact us.
  • Where can I find more detail about Connotea's features?
    For more information on all the Connotea features, see the site guide.

Troubleshooting

  • Why doesn't the browser button work?
    The browser button produces a pop-up window to save references or view comments. If you have a pop-up blocker installed, or use a browser that automatically blocks pop-ups, the button may not work as intended. To prevent the pop-up from being suppressed, hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the button.
  • Why don't I get bibliographic information for site XYZ?
    Connotea currently supports automatic import of bibliographic data from a range of sites. If Connotea does not yet support a site, it will not be able to automatically collect the bibliographic information for you. You can, of course, still save the link anyway. We are working all the time on adding support for more sites, and when a new site is added, we retroactively import bibliographic information. This means that if you have already saved an article from that site, Connotea will automatically update your old reference with the extra information.
  • Why does a reference give me an error when I try to revisit it?
    A number of websites use session-based URLs. This means that a different URL is generated each time you visit the same page, and there is no permanent link. Therefore, the link you have saved in Connotea will expire immediately, and will no longer be valid the next time you try to go back to it. An easy solution to this problem is to save the DOI of the paper instead of the URL. This will provide a permanent link for you to follow back. For help on how to save a DOI, please see the site guide.

Technical Questions

  • Does Connotea work on my operating system/browser?
    Connotea works on all browsers and operating systems. If you are experiencing problems using Connotea in your browser, please contact us.
  • Is the code to Connotea open source?
    Yes. See the open source release. If you are interested in working with the code, you may be interested in joining the Connotea Code Development mailing list, which is aimed at anyone who is working with the code to develop plug-ins and patches for the public instance, or creating their own private instance of Connotea.
  • I would like another site to be supported by Connotea. Can I help by writing a plug-in?
    Yes! Please contact us at connotea@nature.com.
  • Can I help with Connotea development in another way?
    Yes! Please contact us at connotea@nature.com.

Contacting Us

  • Who created Connotea?
    Connotea was created by members of the New Technology department of the Nature Publishing Group. The majority of the programming was undertaken by NeoReality. The initial idea behind the site came from del.icio.us, the general bookmarking service. Connotea takes this concept, and tailors it specifically to the needs of clinicians and scientists.
  • Who can I contact if I have an idea for the site?
    There are two ways to contact the Connotea team with suggestions. You may email us directly at connotea@nature.com with any suggestions or questions. If you prefer, you may join the Connotea discussion list, and post your comments there, where the developers of Connotea and other users of the service can read and reply to them. You can also view the archives of the mailing list, to look at previous comments and questions from users.
  • Who can I contact if my question is not answered here?
    Please email us at connotea@nature.com.