Lack of Citation Capabilities in Mobile Word Processing Apps Highlights Dichotomy Between Ease of Use and Security in Android
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Lack of citation capabilities in mobile word processing apps highlights dichotomy between ease of use and security in Android Wenfa Ng Novena, Singapore, Email: [email protected] Abstract Cite while you write is an essential tool for scientists to cite the literature they referred to in their manuscript and is present in all desktop reference management software such as Endnote, Zotero, and Reference Manager. Incorporated as a plugin in major word processing software such as Microsoft Word and LibreOffice, the feature is also present in some web-based citation management tools such as Endnote Basic and WizFolio. However, the ability to cite an article is missing in almost all Android word processing apps such as Microsoft Word, WPS Office, Google Docs, Polaris Office etc. Not available as a plugin or as an interface between the word processing app and the many reference management apps available on Google Play store, the ability to seamlessly (i.e., with a few clicks) bring a reference item in a reference management app to a citation in a word processing app is not present in Android. From another perspective, can one build a citation using a reference management app and cut and paste it into a word document in, for example, Word app, through the Android clipboard? The answer is very difficult to impossible depending on the modifications made to Android by specific manufacturers. But the more fundamental problem with the lack of citation capabilities on mobile devices is in the need to partition (or sandbox) interface or communication between apps and the need to restrict the types of information shared between apps. Take for example the “Share” button on many news app, the button opens a communication link between the news app and one of the cloud-based file sharing service apps such as Dropbox. Such a feature requires the communication link to be highly protected through encryption. In the case of cite while you write, my personal guess is that a plugin from a reference management app would require significant number of high level app permissions requiring a large communication link between the word processing and reference management apps; a feature hard to achieve within the bounds of the Android kernel architecture, which place security at a premium. Due to the need to restrict app level communications, opening a data channel between the reference management and word processing app for citation information to flow is also difficult from the security point of view, which partly explains why almost all reference management apps are built to collect reference information from a variety of sources such as SSBN, barcodes, URL etc from direct text input, pulling in of information from a database (colwiz), and optical image recognition of a camera photo of barcodes. Collectively, a cite while you write feature is a very useful tool for mobile word processing apps and is a significant addition to a busy scientist’s writing tools given the ease and versatility of referencing something important while reading a news app on mobile devices, especially tablets. However, possible limitations on app communications in the Android operating system likely hinders the development of a plugin for citation in word processing apps, an area that requires the collective imagination and consensus on how to think about security in mobile apps in the next iteration of the open source operating 1 system. Specifically, there will always be conflicting demands on security and ease of use; how to be secure and yet provide seamless functionality? But, can we also rethink how we allow apps to have an open architecture for importing new sub-functions from other apps or open a data channel to them? What is the impact of such an open architecture on app function, and more importantly, app level and operating system security? Keywords: citation, reference management, cite while you write, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, word processing, plugin, security, app permissions, Subject area: science communication, Conflicts of interest The author declares no conflicts of interest. Author’s contribution The author encountered difficulties in using mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Kingsoft Office Writer and Google Docs (all from Google Play store) to cite scientific articles in the word processing documents, and did a small study of the problem by investigating if citation apps available on the Android platform are capable of serving as citation plugins in any of the above mentioned apps. The result is no citation app has the “cite while you write” function and none of the word processing app has facility to include a citation plugin in the way the desktop versions of the app is able to. In fact, none of the citation app can include a citation in the word processing app, and these apps mostly serve the function of pulling in references from the Web or a database search into a library available to be sync across multiple desktop and mobile devices. Funding No funding was used in this work. 2 .