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┌───────────────────────────┐ │ JEPRS(tm) Version 2.5 │ └───────────────────────────┘ 1. What is JEPRS? JEPRS (pronounced "Jeepers!") is the Journal and Editorial Personal Reference System. What does that mean? That means that you now have an easy to use, menu-driven program to keep track of reference citations to the (scientific) literature. Anyone who writes extensively, such as a scientist, and needs an up-to-date list of references, needs JEPRS. Briefly, JEPRS allows you to: 1. Add references to your database (either directly or by importing a MEDLINE, BRS/Colleague, ERIC, Psyclit, or comma-delimited formatted file), 2. Search through those references with an easy but powerful search menu, and 3. Format those references for output to a text file, printer, or word processor file in virtually any format imaginable, including boldface, italics, underlining, superscripts, and subscripts. More information on specific features is provided below. 2. Why use JEPRS and not some other program? I have seen people use any of three different types of programs to keep track of their references. These include 1) a word processor, 2) a generic database system, and 3) a specialized reprint management system. Let me explain why JEPRS is better than all of the above. 1. A Word Processor. The main advantage of using a word processor is that you can pre-format your references and fairly quickly import them into your document which is written with your word processor. You can also perform simple searches rather easily. The disadvantages are that 1) once you type up your references in a set format, you have to reformat all of them whenever a new format is required; 2) While simple searches are easy, try combining terms, such as author "x" and journal "y"--you generally can't do it!; 3) You cannot import references from any of the online database systems. 2. A Generic Database, such as dBASE. While these systems can be quite powerful, they are also fairly complex to use, and setting one up is no mean feat for a novice. Searching is generally more powerful than with word processors, but many don't provide for case sensitive and case insensi- tive searches. But their main drawback is their lack of formatting capabilities; most were written for tabular data, and thus are hard pressed to provide line-oriented output with text features such as boldfacing, italics, etc. And like the word processor, you cannot import references from MedLine directly into your database. 3. Specialized Reprint Management Software. All of the commercially-available ones I know of cost in the $100-$500 range, and these generally aren't the kind of programs carried by your local software discounter. In any case, beware of their pricing! More than one of the commercial programs have different "levels" of pricing, sometimes allowing you only 100 or so references in your database at the lowest level. In a similar vein, almost all the commercial programs charge EXTRA for the ability to import references from MedLine files. There are several shareware programs that are less than $50, but virtually all of them have severe limitations. Most of them are simply compiled dBase programs and are therefore limited to the functions found in the dBase language. Thus they often have crude (if any) formatting capabilities; most do not allow complex searches, such as "Find all papers written after 1985 written by Jones or Smith or Johnson that appeared in the Journal of Cell Biology with keywords DNA or protein". Pretty dismal, eh?! Well, now there's hope. JEPRS combines the best of all these features in one program. A program that can run on any PC that has 512k or more of memory and 2 floppy drives or a hard disk. A program that has on-line help, with the push of the F1 key. A program with pull-down menus and pop-up dialog boxes. A program that can do a complex search (like the one in the previous paragraph). A program that allows up to 30 USER-DEFINED output formats. A program that costs less than $50 (including printed documentation). Here's a quick questionnaire you can use to compare your current program with JEPRS version 2.5: Topic Question: JEPRS: Your Program: ============= ================================ ========== ================ Ease of Use: Pull-down menus & pop-up dialogs Yes ________________ Can use a mouse for menus Yes ________________ User-savable configuration file Yes ________________ On-line, context-sensitive help Yes ________________ Size of documentation files >100k ________________ Requirements: RAM memory 512k ________________ Hard disk required No ________________ References: Maximum references in database 10-64,000 ________________ Space for title, authors, journal, volume(issue), pages, year, type (journal, book/chapter, or abstract), editor, publisher, keywords Yes ________________ Importing: Imports comma-delimited, MedLine, BRS/Colleague, ERIC, Psyclit Yes ________________ Exporting: Exports MedLine and comma-delimited Yes ________________ Searching: Case sensitive searches Yes ________________ Case insensitive searches Yes ________________ Simple search by author, title, etc Yes ________________ Complex searches, including AND/OR/NOT Boolean logic Yes ________________ Sort search results by author, journal or year Yes ________________ Able to modify search after complete Yes ________________ Can the references be edited after being found in a Search Yes ________________ Formatted Output: Can formatted output be sent to any combination of screen, text (ASCII) file, printer, and word processor file (WordPerfect 5.x & PC-Write) Yes ________________ Does the program support underlining, boldface, italics, superscripts, and subscripts Yes ________________ How many USER-DEFINED output styles are available 30 ________________ Can the program output authors: Initials followed by last name Yes ________________ Last name followed by initials Yes ________________ (Last name followed by initials) for the first author, followed by (initials and then last name) for each subsequent author Yes ________________ Can formatted output be sorted by author, journal, or year Yes ________________ Word Processor Compatibility: Can the program produce word processor files (including PC-Write 3.0 and WordPerfect 5.0/5.1) Yes ________________ Can the program look in your word processor file, find the reference in your database, produce a word processor output file, and then go back and replace the reference #s with an author/year or sequential number citations Yes ________________ Value: Is the author a member of the ASP (Assoc. of Shareware Professionals) Yes ________________ Price for registration < $50 ________________ Does registration include: The latest version of the software Yes ________________ A 60 page laser-printed, spiral- bound manual Yes ________________ Customer support for at least 6 months following purchase Yes ________________ 3. JEPRS'S FEATURES. Allow me to go into a little more detail about JEPRS's features. This section describes some of the more useful things about the program. 1. ADDING REFERENCES. You enter the data for each reference citation on a well-laid out screen. There is space for Title, Authors, Journal, Volume, Pages, Year, Citation Type (Journal, Book, or Abstract--each can be formatted differently!), Publisher, Editor, and Keywords. 2. IMPORTING. Instead of typing each reference in by hand, you can import them from MedLine, BRS/Colleague, ERIC, Psyclit, or comma-delimited formatted files (produced by, for example, PaperChase or Current Contents on Diskette). You can import all references at once, or one at a time (in which case you can edit or delete them before adding them to the database). [Note that JEPRS itself directly imports MedLine and BRS/Colleague files; a free utility (called "Med2Go") is included that converts the other file types into MedLine files which can then be directly imported into JEPRS.] 3. EXPORTING. You can export any or all of your references in the MEDLINE or comma-delimited formats. 4. FORMATTING. You can define up to 30 formats of your own choosing for formatted output. Output can be sent to any combination of screen, printer, text file, or word processor file. References can be sorted by author, journal, or year before formatting. Output can be underlined, bold- faced, italicized, super- and sub-scripted (depending upon your printer or word processor). For printer output, you can specify: lines per page, characters per line, indenting, numbering of references, numbering of pages, a header for each page, a title for the first page, and pausing after each page to allow you to insert a new sheet into the printer. You can format your references differently depending on whether they are an Abstract, Journal article, or Book (or chapter). Here's another unique feature of JEPRS--Let's say you want your output for books to look like this: Differentiation of Muscle (1989), Edited by J Jones, Joe-Bob Press. But let's say one book doesn't have an editor; most programs would make your output look like this: Differentiation of Muscle (1989), Edited by , Joe-Bob Press. JEPRS, however, allows you to have "conditional phrases", so that you could define the output so it would look like you wanted it to: Differentiation of Muscle (1989), Joe-Bob Press. JEPRS also allows you such luxuries as listing authors by: a) initials first followed by last name, b) last name, comma, initials, or c) last name, comma, initials for the first author, and initials followed by last name for each additional author. You can also specify whether you want multiple authors connected by "and" or by "&" (or anything else you choose, up to 10 charac- ters). And each of these can be different for every one of the 30 formats you are allowed to define. 5. WORD PROCESSOR COMPATIBILITY. New with version 2.5 of JEPRS is the ability to read and write word processor files (including PC-Write 3.0 and WordPerfect 5.0/5.1). You can now do the following: Create a word processor manuscript file that has JEPRS codes in it (for example, {J#158} ). Then exit your word processor and start up JEPRS. Go to the Format Menu, and specify Input=Word processor file and Output=Word processor file. After pressing Go, JEPRS will look through your word processor file, find the references (such as {J#158} ) in your JEPRS database, send them to a word processor file (such as WordPerfect 5.1) in the currently defined Format Style, and then go back to your word processed manuscript and replace the JEPRS codes (such as {J#158} ) with either an author/year citation (such as "Wright, et al., 1989") or sequential numbers ("1", "2", ...). 6. SEARCHING. This is another area where JEPRS shines. Many menu- driven programs try to simplify your life by giving you a "form" to fill in for your searches. These other programs allow you to search, for example, for ONE AUTHOR and ONE JOURNAL at a time, which is OK many times. But what if you wanted to search for one of SEVERAL AUTHORS in SEVERAL JOURNALS, and even do complex searches with parentheses and AND/OR/NOT logic? JEPRS can do complex searches like: "((Wright and Lin) or (Weintraub and Lassar)) or ((Science or Nature) and (Myogenesis or Differentiation)) not <1986". Try that on any other program! In addition, references are displayed as soon as JEPRS finds them, in a condensed, single-line format. Want to see the entire reference? Just press <Enter>. Want to edit it? Just press <F4>. You can page through the found references using the arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn. You can mark any references with an asterisk ('*') for output to printer or file. You can even modify your search if it hasn't found quite what you were looking for. Searches can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive, and can be displayed sorted by author and year. 7. GLOBAL DEFAULTS. JEPRS has a number of options on each menu. But the nice thing is that they all have pre-set defaults, so if you don't want to change them, just press Go to start the action. On the other hand, JEPRS is very user-definable. There are a variety of options you can change and have saved in a configuration file; this file is loaded every time you start the program, so you can tailor JEPRS for yourself. This Global Defaults Menu is available from most major menus within JEPRS and allows you to do such things as: turn beeping on and off; select or modify a printer definition; select or modify an output format; turn blinking on and off; turn colors on and off (useful if you have a color video card and a single- color monitor); send a form-feed to the printer; or temporarily go to DOS to issue a command. 8. THE ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS. JEPRS' author is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). The ASP is a group of shareware authors that have banded together to promote shareware as QUALITY SOFTWARE. To become a member of ASP, authors must submit their programs for review and, once accepted, must agree to abide by ASP's rules. These rules include minimum standards for a variety of aspects including documentation and customer support. For example, all authors are required to include the following statement in their documentation: "This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve Mail message to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536." _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER 4. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? This is probably the best news of all. It's not $495 or $195 or even $95. It's $39.95 (+postage & handling). You get the latest version of the software, a printed manual, and free customer support (by telephone, mail, & CompuServe Mail) for six months following your purchase. And what makes your investment worry free is that JEPRS is shareware. "What's shareware?" you ask. Shareware is NOT free software, but it is software that you can TRY OUT for free. Try JEPRS at no risk for 60 days. If you don't use it after the trial period, you owe me nothing. If you do like it, register using the order form (ORDER.DOC), or just send $49.95 (plus $4 postage in the United States, $10 postage overseas) and specify a 3.5" or 5.25" disk. That way, I have an incentive for continuing to update and improve JEPRS. And you get great software at a great price. ******************** NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW ! ************** See the "WhatsNew.Doc" file for new information on the COMPETITIVE UPGRADE OFFER. You have a chance to get JEPRS for only $24.95 plus postage. ***************************************************************************** If you have any questions, complaints, or suggestions about the program, please write: Louis M. Miranda P.O. Box 822894 Dallas, TX 75382 ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF CONTACTING THE AUTHOR: 1. CompuServe ID# 73567,471. 2. Telephone 214/368-0636. 3. If you attempt to contact the author and there is no reply or your letter is returned by the post office, you can reach the author through the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). Contact the ASP at: Association of Shareware Professionals 545 Grover Road Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 You can also contact the ASP through CompuServe. Just enter GO SHAREWARE at any CompuServe ! prompt. <*** End of File ***>