Free Mind Scholar

FreeMind Scholar is a mind mapping tool centering on the special needs of researchers and is based on the well-known FreeMind. As such, FreeMind Scholar owns all features of the classic FreeMind plus some more. FreeMind Scholar provides you with all the functionality that the classic FreeMind offers you and that is actually a lot.  

In its existing version, FreeMind Scholar offers two main functions besides the extensive functionality of FreeMind. 

1. FreeMind Scholar lets you to allot BibTeX keys to the mind map's entries. This way you can structure thoughts and consequences of academic articles in a mind map and directly reference to their origins.
2. FreeMind Scholar allows the import of PDF bookmarks via drag & drop. The standard FreeMind only enables to drag & drop complete PDFs into the mind map.

FreeMind Scholar is built in Java and should run under Windows (95, etc., XP, Vista), Linux and Mac OS. All you require is to set up Java 1.6 or later which is obtainable for free. FreeMind itself is also 100% free and published under the GNU/GPL license.

Free Mind Scholar

Free Mind Scholar allows you to assign BibTeX keys to the mind map's entries. This way you can structure ideas and results of academic articles in a mind map and directly reference to their origins. The allocation of BibTex keys to the mind map entries may happen even automatically: 

If you have linked an entry in your mind map to a PDF file and you link to this PDF file in your reference management tool, too, Free Mind Scholar automatically assigns the BibTeX key from your reference management software to the mind map entry. Currently Free Mind Scholar supports only the BibTeX format (we use JabRef) but the support of other reference management tools such as Endnote and Zotero are on the top of our priority list.

Free Mind Scholar enables the import of PDF bookmarks via drag & drop. The standard Free Mind only allows dragging & dropping complete PDFs into the mind map. However, when we read a book or a paper in PDF format, we usually highlight all important passages and create a bookmark within the PDF (we use Foxit Reader 3). 

Up to now, we typed the same information into our mind map which means twice the work: Creating a bookmark within the PDF and typing the same (or similar) text of the bookmark into the mind map. Now, we just import the PDF bookmarks into the mind map and save almost half the time.