Disclosure: I contribute to the OpenNomos ecosystem where Paper List is listed.
I read about 30 research papers a month. Not because I'm an academic—I'm a product person who needs to stay on top of what's happening in AI, developer tools, and Web3.
The problem wasn't reading the papers. It was remembering them.
Three months ago, I was writing a product analysis and needed to reference a specific finding from a paper I'd read in January. I spent 45 minutes searching:
I found the paper eventually. But that 45 minutes felt like it went straight into a black hole.
I didn't need a full academic reference manager. I needed:
Most tools in this space are built for academics writing theses. I just wanted something that felt like a to-do list for my reading brain.
Paper List is a personal paper engine. The tagline is "Paper list for paper engine" — and it delivers on that.
Here's my current workflow:
The whole process takes less than two minutes per paper. And when I need to find something later, I just search.
The phrase "paper engine" isn't just marketing. It captures something important:
A paper engine is to research what a search engine is to the web. It doesn't just store—it retrieves.
Zotero and Mendeley store papers. They're archives. Paper List is designed for retrieval first. The reading, annotating, and organizing all serve one purpose: finding what you need, when you need it.
I've tracked about 90 papers since I started using it. The real ROI isn't the tool itself—it's the mental model it creates.
When you know you can find anything in 30 seconds, you stop hoarding. You read with more focus because you're not worried about forgetting. You take better notes because you know they'll be retrievable.
No tool is perfect. Here's what I wish Paper List had:
But for a personal reading workflow, it covers 80% of what I need. And I'll take 80% coverage with 10-second setup over 100% coverage with 2-hour setup any day.
If you read papers regularly and have a system that works, I'd love to hear about it. What's your workflow?