How to Cite and Export Your Work #

When it’s time to write your paper or report, Apex Scholar makes it easy to insert citations and share data with collaborators.

Generating a Single Citation #

1. Go to Resources
2. Find the paper you want to cite
3. Click the quote icon (💬) on its card
4. A modal pops up showing the citation in your selected style
5. Click Copy
6. Paste into your manuscript (Word, Google Docs, LaTeX, etc.)

Choosing a Citation Style #

The citation modal has a dropdown. Pick from:

• BibTeX – use in LaTeX documents (\cite{key})
• APA 7th – common in social sciences
• MLA 9th – humanities
• Chicago (Author-Date) – history, some sciences
• Harvard – various institutions
• Vancouver – medicine, biology

The modal remembers your last selection per session.

Exporting Your Entire Bibliography #

To get all your saved references at once:

1. Go to Settings
2. Click Export Backup
3. A JSON file downloads

You can then use a reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley to import that JSON and generate a full bibliography in your desired format.

(We’re working on a direct “Export as BibTeX” button for the Resources page.)

Sharing Your Data with a Collaborator #

If you want to share your project data (papers, notes, tasks) with a teammate:

1. Export a backup (Settings → Export Backup)
2. Send the JSON file to your collaborator
3. They import it via Settings → Import Backup on their instance

Note: The backup contains all your project data, including private notes. Only share with trusted people.

If your collaborator should have live sync, that will require a future multi-user feature.

Moving Data Between Projects #

Currently, resources belong to the project they were saved in. To move a paper to another project:

1. Switch to the target project
2. Save the paper again from Explore (if still available) or ask a collaborator to share a backup/import
3. Delete the duplicate from the original project

A future update will allow direct transfer.

Exporting to Reference Managers #

Apex Scholar doesn’t yet speak directly to Zotero or Mendeley. But you can go two ways:

• Export backup → import JSON into Zotero (Zotero has a JSON import feature)
• Or, generate BibTeX for each paper and copy into a .bib file manually—tedious but works for small libraries

What About PDFs? #

The Resources page lets you download the original PDFs you uploaded. Those are stored in your Puter cloud. If you want to share a PDF specifically, use the download button on its card.

If you need a public link, consider uploading to a service like Zenodo or Figshare and then updating the resource’s URL.

Keeping Data Safe #

• Regular exports: Monthly exports of your backups protect against accidental deletion
• Store backups in a different location than your working app (e.g., university drive, external hard drive)
• If using E2EE, remember that backups are encrypted too; you’ll need the passphrase to restore them

Known Limitations #

• No direct RIS or BibTeX export yet (coming soon)
• No CSV export of tasks/grants
• No cross-project moving yet

Need Help? #

See Troubleshooting or FAQ.

That covers the basics. Explore the features and make Apex Scholar your own research command center.