Review for CiteULike, a Web 2.0 application.
CiteULike is a Web 2.0 application that enables users to bookmark and organize academic research for later use. While non-academic material can be put into the application, the makers are quick to point out that they prefer refereed articles and that non-scholarly articles will not be displayed in user searches, though they can be placed in the individual’s library. The application was developed with a specific purpose, and the developers are keen to make this distinction between refereed and non-refereed sources clear. I think the designers of the site were spot-on with the decision to disallow non-refereed articles on the site, while also allowing people to use them in their own libraries. This ensures that articles found when searching other peoples' libraries is also refereed. Many journals and databases have already been cleared with the site, including many of the articles I accessed through Google Scholar and Rowan’s databases. You can view the list of sites who’ve been cleared with CiteULike, and whose citations will fill in automatically with the addition of the url, on the front page. Also, CiteULike can be used by people who speak many different languages, using the UTF-8 Internet character encoding method.
The front page is a little busy, but not distractingly so. Most importantly, the site is easy to use. The ads aren't too obtrusive on the left side of the page. 
Also, CiteULike's FAQ page is very thorough and useful, including some information from the site's principal creator, Richard Cameron.
CiteULike's Journal Search page is clear and uncluttered, making its purpose recognizable. The Search function for the site works well though it's important to follow the "search syntax." After a few tries, I had no problems searching this way.
According to its primary developer, Richard Cameron, CiteULike was created with the aim of taking some of the “drudgery” out of research. I think Cameron succeeded with his goal. While not all scholarly information can be found online as yet, this tool is certainly helpful in culling the parts of it that are. This is done by first copying the url from the page or pdf and pasting into CiteULike. CiteULike then stores the bibiographic info when you save the article on the site if it's a site that CiteULike has cleared. If CiteULike does not know the site used, the user can insert the article’s vital information, which doesn’t take very long.
Like everything else about the site, tagging is very flexible in CiteULike. You can tag the articles any way you'd like, and add as many as you'd like. I tagged items by author and topic, and it proved useful for me. Other people may opt to tag things differently; and that’s fine too: The application is designed to be customizable and helpful to the individual. I believe the “folksonomy approach”, as Tim O’Reilly calls it, to categorizing information, allowing individuals to tag information at their discretion, works well for the site.
A good way of looking at CiteULike might be to think of how Diigo or Delicious would be if they were designed primarily for storing scholarly information. Whereas those more common social bookmarking tools are designed to socially bookmark websites, CiteULike is designed to hold all the vital info about the source. The link, the title of the article, author, date of publication, and the journal in which it is found can all be easily added to an entry (if the information doesn’t pop up on its own).
One of the coolest things about CiteULike is that it's social, in that you can look up what other people are reading who have similar interests to your own. Users can search for articles of interest, you can find who else has it in his or her library. Then, you can search that person's library to see if they have any other articles stored that could be of interest to you. Also, the site allows the user to join groups of people who have similar interests. It is possible to form new groups as well.
CiteULike can be a valuable resource for anyone doing scholarly research. This would include graduate students primarily but some undergraduates as well. The site is well-designed and simple to use. I imagine anyone with just marginally better-than-novice web skills to be able to use CiteULike without much problem. If familiar with Google, and Diigo or Delicious, I imagine that should be all the training one would need to start using CiteULike. Actually the site looks a bit like Google with its search bar in the upper middle of the screen. While I think the home page could be little less busy, the primary navigational tools are well-implemented, easy to see and easy to use. Instead of adding the list of approved scholarly sources under the page where the urls are pasted, I would prefer that the list opens when the user hovers the mouse over it. I think the information is a little more cluttered than it needs to be, but it’s not such a sever problem that it affects the usability of the site. With this in mind, I can understand the designers' decision to put the names of all the approved journals on the front page. This is probably helpful for people who are new to the site and want to be sure their journal of choice is supported.
Here is a group I found on just a search I conducted with the terms "instructional & design." CiteULike implements a search syntax I was unfamiliar with previously, and may take a few tries to get accustomed to. One could complain about this, but I won't because there is a help box right on the page that explains how to get the best results when searching the site. 
This is one of the single most useful applications I have seen for my own purposes. The tool is invaluable for storing, collecting, and organizing research. While I've used Diigo before, and it's great, CiteULike works better for searching for academic information. It's great to have a virtual stop to collate and organize research. Whereas we once needed to trudge to the library and dig up stacks of books, much of that leg work is no longer needed with the advent of CiteULike. Cameron dreamed that his application would help make that a reality. While that reality isn’t here yet, that’s just because not all the world’s research is available online yet. You can't fault CiteULike's creators for potentially making research more productive.
CiteULike is an excellent tool for staying on top of recent literature in your field of choice. Again, you can't access all the articles that are published in journals, but you can access whatever is posted online. Building on the idea of "wisdom of the crowds", CiteULike allows users to tap into what other people are using. This is like having other people do the research for you. Searching out online research is much easier than it once was thanks in part to CiteULike. I fully expect to use the site heavily as I begin my work on my thesis work this semester. It would behoove anyone else in Information Architecture to check the site out who will be working their theses as well.
My CiteULike Library:
