What features would a user require from a Citation generation app

Question

I'm attempting to create a mobile application that allows users to convert a DOI from a research article into a Citation. The user will be able to select any valid Citation styles and the generated Citation can be any of the following formats html, text, asciidoc, rtf, and fo.

My issue is I have no access to real users of such an app, eg. users that require the creation of citations.

Is there any users of this site that could give use cases of how such an app could benefit them.

What features would be required in the app to be of value?

Due example, would being able to import an Endnote database and create citations of any valid style be of use?

Currently, the two use cases supported are

1). Mobile device user "discovers" a DOI while browsing the web, they can share the DOI with my App, which consumes the DOI and generates a citation in the selected "default" CSL 1.0.1 style in all five formats described above e.g. html, text, asciidoc, rtf, and fo.

2). The user imports an entire Endnote database into the App, the App generates a citation in the selected "default" CSL 1.0.1 style in all five formats described above e.g. html, text, asciidoc, rtf, and fo, for each database entry.

Would the users want to select a CSL style each time they generate a Citation? Or would allowing the user to set a "default" Csl style be acceptable.

Answer 1

Your goal is great. Keeping track of references, formatting bibliographies and fitting them to the style of particular publications is a pain.

Consider the following. Firstly, I first looked at software to do this in the early nineties. It did what it said it would do but it was a pain to use. I suggest looking at what is available and the reviews of it.

Consider what platform users might be accessing. I am never going to write anything of length on a mobile platform. Maybe because I'm old, but my mobile phone and my tablet aren't going to be the place I compose and edit my work. Of course I use mobile apps that link to my desktop work, but I compose almost exclusively on a desktop. (I can touch type. I've never been quick on a phone, and don't get me going about typing on an iPad or handwriting on a touchscreen.) It might be useful to have a mobile app that lets you edit information.

What would be really useful is an app that links to existing data repositories. For example, if the user was able to scan the barcode of the book and get all the citation information. This sort of thing does exist in Britain. Making it available to people could be a marketable idea.

You would need to make the citation templates editable. There are small variations between publications and universities. (I assume these are your audiences.)