Multiple collaborators

So I’m loving Paperpile ( so much more than Endnote!!) and planning to sign up but the main issue ( which my colleagues have brought up) is that it may not support multiple collaborators. When I download the Google Drive file after inserting all citations, I notice that when I delete a citation, it doesnt automatically delete the reference. This is a concern for when I submit a paper for publication or for review by my supervisor and they come back to me with changes.

Is there support for this in paperpile? How do people get around this issue using paperpile? Does it automatically fix this if I were to reupload the document? Help!! This is my main issue with Paperpile as it is otherwise an incredible product!!

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One more thing ( Im about to submit my first paper and stressing out about making sure everything is right before I do!)- when I submit my paper in Word format ( with paperpile links), will those links be seen by the reviewers? And when they send i back to me with their feedback, will I be able to reupload the paper and keep the citations/refeences intact?

Thanks and sorry for the bombardment of questions!

Actually that hurts a bit :wink: . Paperpile has been built from ground up to be collaborative. I think it’s the only solution that scales to dozens of authors. However, Paperpile - at least at the moment - is built for Google Docs. That’s also not by chance because Google Docs is famous and popular for its excellent collaborative features.

So if your collaborators open it in Word and find it to be not collaborative that’s not a flaw in Paperpile.

But we are aware of the real-life issues and that we still live in a Word/EndNote world. I’m linking to this thread here were Word support is discussed: Support for Word Online would be a game changer

The links are necessary to be able to export to Word and re-import to Google Docs.

So if you remove the links you can’t import this version back to Google Docs. However, this workflow is possible:

  • Write paper in Google Docs
  • Export to Word and make any edits that are not possible in Google Docs (if any) and save the version ready for submission
  • Right before submission remove the links (In word select the text with links and hit Ctrl-Shift-F9)
  • When it comes back from review re-upload the version before you removed the links.

That assumes that you need to make important edits in Word. If it’s just the corrections of your supervisor or colleagues, you should ask them to review the Google Docs. There is a “Edits” mode in Google Docs very close to “track changes” features in Word.

In that scenario you only would export to Word right before submission. Here it’s possible to get a “clean” copy with our new Google Docs sidebar add-on:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/paperpile/imanmdcibgaflfaibbcmmkifdgllfopm

If you open that and click “Cog > Export” you get an option to create a copy without links.

Thanks Stefan! Let me restate that I absolutely love Paperpile so my remarks are made in good spirit. PP has literally revolutionised my workflow. The collaboration bit is the only hard part ( not your fault) because most collaborators refuse to use Google Docs ( or mine do, at least) so it makes my life abit harder.

This is a major problem and we are aware of it. It’s sad because we have the data from thousands of happy Paperpile/Google Docs users who use it every day. So it’s hard to argue it’s not possible to use Google Docs. It would be interesting to find out why exactly why they don’t like Google Docs.

I recently discovered PaperPile and am currently exploring migrating from Word to Google Docs. I could probably convince my advisor to edit/review manuscript drafts in Google Docs, so that’s not an issue, but the deal-breaker for me is that Google Docs does not have the option to show line numbers. That is an absolute requirement for me.

We are painfully aware of the line number issue. Please have a look at the discussion here:

Thanks! Yeah, I’ve done a ton of forum searching (here and also Google Docs) because I thought surely I was missing something and that was already a feature. But alas, no dice. Journals require native line numbers, not work-arounds :frowning:

3 posts were split to a new topic: Word page breaks cause Paperpile error in Google Docs

Hi Stefan,
My research group’s workflow is currently to plop the MS-Word document in onedrive and collaboratively work on various parts at the same time- typically at the last minute. I am trying hard to move some collaborators to paperpile (they bought a license but having them change their workflows is… a work in progress) and it may make things easier if we have access to the paperpile word plugin AND the word plug in allows us to collaboratively insert and edit citations without them getting messed up in one way or another.

Which brings me to my questions:

  1. Does paperpile and the word plug in allow the above scenario: multiple authors inserting/editing text and citations in real time in MS word?

Keep up the good work,
H