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May 3, 2010
PubPDF: Easily Download PDFs for Articles Found in PubMed!
Many of you have eagerly embraced PubGet (Illinois.pubget.com) as a way to easily view and obtain PDFs from your PubMed searches (see Biotechnology Information Center News, October 2009). Here’s another option: PubPDF. (Currently only available for PCs; not Macs.)
PubPDF, from Quosa, will enable you to immediately view and download PDFs for articles you’ve located via a standard search of PubMed. Once the PubPDF plugin is installed to work with your browser (Firefox or IE) you will immediately see on the PubMed search results screen an Acrobat (PDF) icon in front of all the titles of articles to which we have access! You can click on the icon to view the article. Or, you can select multiple articles (click on the box in front of the citation) and download the PDFs using a file-naming structure that you choose (e.g., author name – date – journal abbreviation).
Watch the Video
First, watch the short video ,”Introducing PubPDF”: http://quosa.com/quosa-labs
Install the PubPDF Plugin
Firefox Users:
Go to: http://pubpdf.com
You will see a message advising you to download the Coral IE Tab. Click on the link and select “Add to Firefox.” Follow the instructions to install. You will need to restart Firefox to complete the installation of Corel IE Tab. When you restart Firefox, you will get this message: “Please turn on "Coral IE Tab". To do this in Firefox: Click on Tools / Addons / Coral IE Tab / Options. Under the Sites Filter tab add the site http://pubpdf.com/ and Click Add.
IE Users:
Go to: http://pubpdf.com
You will need to allow a small Active X add-on to install. The add-on is QB Plus ActiveX Component, from Quosa, Inc. You may receive a security warning or window, but you must allow this add-on for PubPDF.
Customize PubPDF for Use at the U of Illinois
To use PubPDF in conjunction with PubMed, you will now use http://pubpdf.com as your PubMed URL. You will notice that most of the window looks like the standard PubMed window; but there is also a small toolbar above the PubMed window:
In the PubPDF toolbar:
** Click on the dropdown arrow to the right of the box that says Pubmed, and choose Set PubMed Home Page. Enter this for your homepage: http://tinyurl.com/28yurj9. This tells PubPDF to use the U of I library definition for PubMed. You’ll want to specify that you want to use the U of I PubMed URL so you retain the option to obtain articles through our “Discover” links when PubPDF doesn’t locate the PDF of an article for you. (If you prefer, instead of the tinyurl you can type in this longer URL: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/proxy/go.php?url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?otool=uiuclib&holding=uiuclib,f1000,deepblue)
** Click on the ellipsis (…) (to the left of the folder icon) to specify the folder into which you wish to have downloaded PDFs saved and to specify the naming convention you wish to use for the downloaded PDFs (e.g. First Author_Publication Year _ Journal Abbreviation).
Using PubPDF
To use PubMed with PubPDF, start at http://pubpdf.com/.
Run your search. Notice the Adobe PDF icons that appear in front of most citations! Click on an icon to view the PDF.
To download PDFs: Select citations and click on the Sigma (∑).
To download citations to EndNote: Select PubMed citations and click on “Export”.
If you need an article that does not have the Adobe icon in front of the citation, click through to the PubMed abstract view of the citation; you will find the familiar U of I Discover button that will help you locate the article you need.
Note: Use the PubPDF “back” and “forward” buttons to navigate…not your browser’s back / forward buttons.
Tip: Scopus, a multidisciplinary database that covers both the sciences and social sciences, also has an option to download and name PDFs (up to 50 at a time)! No additional plugins are necessary to use the download feature in Scopus.
Questions? Contact Katie Newman, Biotechnology Librarian, 2130 IGB, florador@illinois.edu, 217-265-5386.
Posted by Katie Newman at 10:58 AM