Web Savvy Hard times for science are turning out to be good times for publishers of personal bibliographic software. As scientists feel increasing pressure to apply for grants from several agencies and submit articles to multiple journals, the value of bibliographic software rises. These programs, which store detailed reference information and export them in a wide variety of formats, are ubiquitous in scientific offices and laboratories (F. Hoke, The Scientist, Jan. 11, 1993, page 18; June 27, 1994, page 18).
According to the people who write and market these software packages and the scientists who use them, the programs have been undergoing a kind of convergent evolution in recent years. Virtually all offer important central features needed by every scientist. For example, the ability to import data from a variety of sources and to export references in the formats required by dozens of journals are features in most programs. These ...
