Aigaion

For Aigaion, the "sea-goat" of Greek mythology, see Hekatonkheires.

Aigaion is web-based reference management software. It structures a bibliography using topic tree oriented publication management. Publications may be annotated to briefly outline the publication's relevance. Aigaion is built on the BibTeX format.

Main features

Aigaion aims at making bibliographic information easily accessible. The following features help the user in accomplishing this.

Categorization of publications

Aigaion offers different methods for categorizing publications. The main feature that distinguishes Aigaion from most other reference management software is categorization of publications in a (user-created) topic tree. Each publication can be assigned to one or more (sub-)topics. All publications that are assigned to a (sub-)topic can be presented in publication lists. Each user can subscribe to topics in the topic tree and unsubscribe from topics that are irrelevant for the user.

The second method for categorizing publications in Aigaion is using one or more keywords to describe a publication. Aigaion offers context sensitive information that helps the user in using consistent keywords. All publications that are assigned to a keyword can be presented in publication lists. Each author and topic display offers a keyword cloud showing the keywords that are assigned to publications of the author or topic.

Publication lists can be viewed with different sortings (e.g. sorted on Author, Year, Journal).

Annotation of publications

Another feature that distinguishes Aigaion from other reference management software is that one or more annotations can be added to each publication. These annotations can either be privately used by each single user, or can be shared between all users. References to other publications are automatically recognized and replaced by hyperlinks to the respective publication.

One or multiple internal or external attachments can be added to each publication.

Import and export of publications

Aigaion offers the following import and export features:

• Import and export of BibTeX and RIS data.
• Formatted export to TXT, HTML or RTF in common citation styles (such as APA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE).
• Export per email.

Other features

Aigaion is suitable both for individual users and for users groups. It offers the following user management features:

• Set individual user rights, from read-only access to administrator access.
• Manage user groups.
• Easy integration in other websites using single-sign-on mechanisms.

Aigaion is platform independent, written in PHP/MySQL. It offers multi-language support and an active group of users contributing to the different supported languages.

History

Aigaion is mainly written by PhD students who could not find a reference management software that suited their needs. The main features that have been available since the first release in 2005 are the topic tree and the possibilities for annotations. As of the 2.0 release, Aigaion is based on a MVC architecture using the codeIgniter PHP framework.

Aigaion is widely used at universities and scientific projects.

See also

• Comparison of reference management software

External links

• Aigaion homepage; New location
• amiproject example of using Aigaion embedded in another website