software for writing research paper

• JUN 18, 2024

20 Best Academic Writing Software in 2024

by Imed Bouchrika, Phd

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist

Writing is a challenge to almost everyone. Academic writing can be even more difficult than other forms, especially when it comes to tracking sections, research, flow, and grammar accuracy. Add to these deciding whether to use MLA or APA format in your academic paper and how to use such a format. Perfecting research papers, among others, can take hours or days, so you may need research paper writing help. Technology has enabled students and academics to address writing issues adequately.

This guide looks into the difference between academic writing and non-academic writing, the trends in academic writing, and some of the best writing assistant software you can leverage to enhance  writing an academic paper.

Best School Academic Writing Software Table of Contents

Academic writing vs. non-academic writing, academic writing software trends, list of the best academic writing software.

Academic writing is formal and impersonal, aimed at a scholarly audience, while non-academic writing targets the general public. Academic and non-academic writing differ in format, audience, purpose, and tone. Non-academic writing is personal and subjective, unlike academic writing.

What is academic writing?

Academic writing is formal and impersonal, aimed at scholars. It relies heavily on research, factual evidence, and scholars’ opinions. It may come in the form of essays, papers, and dissertations. These pieces have a rigid structure and layout, including an introduction, a clear thesis statement , a topic overview, and a conclusion. Academic writing aims to inform the reader with non-biased information and solid evidence.

Academic writing uses specialized terminology. It requires citations and a list of sources and should be formal and objective.

The typical writing features of academic writing include the following:

• Use of formal language
• No contractions
• Use of the third-person
• Avoidance of interrogative statements; use declarative statements instead
• Avoidance of exaggerations or hyperboles
• Avoidance of sweeping generalization
• Clear, concise, and no repetitions.

What is non-academic writing?

All other types of writing not intended for the academe and targeting the general public instead are non-academic pieces. It is casual, personal, impressionistic, emotional, or subjective writing. It includes newspapers, memoirs, magazines, letters, novels, websites, and text messages. Unlike academic writing, which focuses on a specific field, these pieces are often general and tend to inform, entertain, or persuade readers.

Most non-academic writings lack references, citations, and sources. They’re neither well-researched nor academic. Non-academic writing often lacks a rigid structure and is mostly free-flowing, reflecting the writer’s style and personality.

Students are on the lookout for free essay writing software for the hardest essays, or perhaps even a thesis writing software. However, free program that writes essays can’t do high-quality work because they require professional writing skills. But this is not to say that new writing technologies are not worth using to create excellent academic pieces. Students and academics could benefit from understanding the current trends in academic writing.

Grammar Checker Software

Modern technology develops quickly and yields updates yearly, making competitors obsolete. For instance, what may be the best AI name generator today will no longer be the most popular in a couple of months. Academic and research paper writing apps and tools you can use to better your academic writing are plentiful but could be a bane if not properly used. Writing apps help writers spot errors and improve their pieces, as well as help with writing papers. Perhaps the most popular tool is Grammarly, with 30 million daily active users. Students, teachers, writers, editors, marketers, and salespeople are the frequent users of this program (Lytvyn, 2021)

Quality Content

With the difficulty of identifying authentic and credible online sources, professors are ever more critical of content quality. Students are expected to be critical of their information sources besides simply writing with proper structuring and grammar. They must research a topic and present impressive facts. According to Alostath (2021), 85.7% of the polled graduate students use books and journals as references for their academic writing. Such references add credibility to their content, thus raising quality. As a side note, if you have trouble (or find it tedious) to write your bibliography or references section by yourself, you can check out these reference generator applications. They can make your life way, way easier.

Unfortunately, about 15% of polled college students admitted to paraphrasing or copying sentences or paragraphs without citing the source in their paper. (ICAI, 2021) Perhaps some may be doing this act intentionally, while others simply don’t know when and how to cite sources. Citation generators, which automate citation in research , therefore, are becoming important.

Plagiarism Checkers

Even in tandem with online proctoring software , checking for originality is tough if done manually. Plagiarism checkers, therefore, make the educator’s job easier. As cited in International Center for Academic Integrity (2021), McCabe surveyed 70,000 high school students at 24 United States schools. About a third of the students acknowledged cheating on an exam, 58% to plagiarism, and 95% to some type of cheating, such as plagiarism or copying homework. At UBC Vancouver alone, the cases of academic misconduct are rising , with plagiarism being the most reported. With free plagiarism checkers , educators can easily check these issues.

1. Microsoft Word: Write Like a Pro

Microsoft Word is a popular word-processing program used for writing an essay, a dissertation, or other written academic requirements. It’s a 1983 Microsoft Office application and is a widely-used office program. Its integration with Office 365 and Microsoft OneDrive makes it versatile and allows for collaboration among students and professors. Features could vary depending on plan type, but for this review, the features presented are for Microsoft Word 360 Family Plan.

• One to six users.
• Sharing and real-time collaboration
• Online and offline access
• Available in 20+ languages with advanced spelling and grammar and in-app learning tips
• Thousands of premium templates, fonts, stickers, icons, and stickers
• Dictation, voice commands, and transcription
• Up to 6 TB of cloud storage (1 TB per person).
• Premium desktop, web, and mobile apps
• An ad-free experience
• Advanced security
• Offers free access
• Word for Home starts at $6.99 per month.
• Word for Business starts at $8.25 per user per month.

2. Google Docs: Build the Best Ideas Together

Google Docs is a free online word processing tool ideal for students. It allows for real-time collaboration and syncing, so teams can work simultaneously on one document. Automatic saving prevents data loss. Mobile and laptop access allows you to access documents anywhere, anytime and integrates with all other Google apps.

• Activity Tracking
• Chat/Messaging
• Collaboration Tools
• Commenting/Notes
• Customizable Templates
• Data Import/Export
• Document Generation
• Document Management

3. Scrivener: The Go-To App for Writers of All Kinds

Scrivener is a powerful app for writing, researching, and organizing long documents. It uses a ring-binder metaphor to organize your manuscript, notes, and references. Scrivener will stitch together any-sized text chunks, and the integrated outlining tools let you plan and restructure. Scrivener grows with your project.

• Familiar Text Editing
• Formatting Presets
• Templates and Icons
• Scriptwriting
• Tools for non-fiction
• View Documents Side by Side
• Full-Screen Writing
• Set targets and watch your progress.
• Collections
• Choose your tools.
• Print, export, publish.
• Auto-save and backups
• Write Anywhere
• It offers a 30-day free trial.
• Standard License for Windows/macOS $49.00
• Educational License for Windows/macOS (for students and academics) $41.65
• For iOS, $19.99
• For macOS & Windows $80.00

4. Zotero: Collect in a Click and Collaborate

Zotero is a user and developer-supported, open-source project. It helps you to collect, organize, cite, and share research content. You can collaborate remotely with project members, create web-based bibliographies, and more. Windows, Mac, and Linux support Zotero.

• Up to 300 MB of file storage for a free account with options to upgrade
• Collected in one click.
• Save a book to Zotero by scanning its barcode with an iOS 12 device.
• Automatic Institutional Proxy Detection
• Style Installation and Automatic File Import
• Streamlined Saving
• One-click PDF saving.
• Secondary Translators
• Bibliography: language selection
• Integrated with Google Docs for easy citation and bibliography.
• Storage prices are $20/year (2 GB), $60/year (6 GB ), and $120/year (unlimited).

5. Mendeley: Access Your Library Anywhere

Mendeley is a research paper helper. It helps researchers organize and share research papers and find data. It lets users store, note, and cite references, access cross-publisher articles, and import desktop documents in real-time.

• Up to 1 GB of free online storage, with options to upgrade.
• Reporting/Analytics
• Activity Dashboard
• Alerts/Notifications
• Multi-Device Support
• Document Storage
• File Sharing
• Additional storage prices start at $55 per year for 2 GB.

6. EndNote: Focus on Research

EndNote is a citation manager that organizes your citations in a searchable database. It formats footnotes and endnotes in your chosen style (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), automatically formats citations, and click-inserts references in Word documents. Format an annotated bibliography.

• One-click full-text access
• Read, annotate, and search library PDFs.
• Organize references automatically
• Automatic reference and link updating
• Deduplicate library content
• Insert in-text citations.
• Build a bibliography.
• Update your bibliography’s styles.
• Cloud-based research is always available.
• Integrate your online, desktop, and iPad apps.
• Share your library.
• Write-only or read-only library access
• Multitask with Tabs
• Track teammates’ library changes and activities.
• Matches to relevant journals
• Facilitate large-scale literature reviews.
• A 30-day free trial
• A student license is a $115.95 one-time purchase.
• Full License is $249.95 one-time purchase.

7. Citavi: Designed for Individuals and Teams

Citavi combines note-taking and reference management. It helps researchers organize, collaborate, take notes, and write and manage citations. Annotate PDFs to save project ideas. Create draft outlines and write faster and more efficiently. Individuals or teams can use Citavi. Its tools boost work efficiency, divide tasks, and secure data.

• Content Management
• Reporting & Statistics
• Access Controls/Permissions
• Drag & Drop
• Search/Filter
• 30-day free trial
• Price ranges from $44.50 (Citavi Desktop and Web Bundle Student, upgradable to subscription) to $519 (Citavi 6 for Windows Commercial, Perpetual)

8. Nuance Dragon Anywhere: Fast Dictation and High Recognition Accuracy

Nuance Dragon Anywhere is a cloud-based, professional dictation solution for mobile professionals. It lets you customize words, create boilerplate text, and dictate and edit documents by voice on your mobile device. Your document can be shared and customized with Dragon desktop so you can work seamlessly anywhere.

• Correction menu
• Train words
• Select/Correct
• Evernote and Dropbox sync.
• Multi-window workflow
• Sync with Dragon desktop
• Document management
• Form filling
• Import documents
• Customize the vocabulary
• 7-day trial
• $150 annual subscription

9. Turnitin: Upholding Academic Integrity

Turnitin provides online plagiarism detection. It provides academic writing help that partners with schools to promote honesty, consistency, and fairness across subjects and assessments. Our products uphold the integrity and improve learning performance for educational institutions, certification and licensing programs, students, and professionals. Turnitin can check for originality and citations. Turnitin’s database grows as more instructors use it.

• Identify risks and conduct cohort analysis
• Reports within the context of assignments
• Check for similarities with the Turnitin content database.
• Reveal text manipulations
• Verify the originality of the work.
• Check for text similarity and grammar.
• Citation assistant
• Draft Coach
• Contact sales for pricing

10. Copyscape: Maintain Content Originality

Copyscape is a trusted online plagiarism detection tool. It helps users avoid duplicating content before publishing it online. Copyscape also identifies sites that have copied or quoted your content without permission. You can make changes if similarities are found.

• Copy-paste originality checks,
• Upload Word and PDF files
• Private index
• Batch search
• Case tracking
• WordPress integration
• Remove sites owned by subscribers.
• A plagiarism warning banner for users’ websites to deter copycats.
• Free tool for comparing web pages or articles
• Guide on plagiarism.
• 3c per 200-word plus 1c for every 100 words.
• The standard subscription is $4.95 per month for up to 10 pages.
• Copysentry Professional is $19.95 per month for up to 10 pages.

11. Grammarly: Write with Accuracy

Grammarly analyzes text for errors. It can distinguish between clear, compelling writing and sloppy, unprofessional writing. The free version covers grammar, punctuation, and spelling; the premium version adds stylistic and best-writing-practice suggestions.

• Grammar and Punctuation
• Spell Check
• Writing Style
• Create your style guides and dictionaries
• It integrates with Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and more.
• Use the add-on as a browser extension, desktop, and mobile.
• $30.00 a month with discounts for a quarterly and yearly subscription

12. Hemingway Editor: Write Bold and Clear Pieces

The Hemingway Editor helps you write without distractions. It identifies common errors that degrade prose: confusing sentence construction, overuse of weak adverbs, excessive passive voice, etc. It uses different colors to highlight errors quickly. Yellow indicates long, complex sentences, red means hard-to-read sentences, blue refers to weak adverbs, green is passive voice, and purple is overly complex words.

• Format text
• View readability score, estimated reading time, and length
• Work analysis, highlighting potential problem areas.
• Copy and paste your work into the free version
• Save or export/import only on the desktop version
• Publish straight to Medium or WordPress
• Import .docx files
• $19.99 one-time purchase fee for the standalone version

13. ProWritingAid: Write Smart

ProWritingAid is a premium grammar checker and style editor. This editing software helps users eliminate errors, optimize word choice, and edit faster. It checks blog posts, articles, books, editor’s notes, and more. ProWritingAid is web-based on Windows and Mac and supports Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Scrivener.

• Thousands of grammar, spelling, and readability improvements
• Writing reports (e.g., vague wording, repetitiveness, over-dependence on adverbs, sentence length variation, over-complicated sentence constructions, passive voice, and more)
• Style suggestions
• In-app suggestions, explanations, videos, and quizzes
• Word Explorer and contextual thesaurus
• It integrates with MS Word/Outlook, Google Docs, Scrivener, Open Office, and Final Draft.
• Charts and graphs provide insights into readability, sentence variation, and more.
• Free version
• $20 per month or get discounts of 67% for a yearly subscription
• $399 one-time payment for lifetime access

14. Ginger: Write with Confidence

Ginger is a grammar and spelling checker that catches common and uncommon errors. It gives you the tools to sharpen and tighten your academic paper and educates you about errors and corrections. This grammar tool and spell-checker help you become a better writer while saving you time and headaches.

• Grammar checker
• Spell check
• Sentence rephrase
• Personal trainer
• Text reader
• Text-to-speech
• Smart Word Prediction
• Change the theme and colors in the software
• Works with Microsoft, Mac, IOS, Android, Safari, Edge, and Chrome
• Cloud storage
• The subscription price starts at $7.49 per month

15. Quillbot: Write Like a Pro

Quillbot is an AI editing tool for academics and publishers. It includes a paraphraser, summarizer, grammar checker, and plagiarism checker. Google Docs, MS Word, and Chrome extensions allow you to use Quillbot more efficiently.

• Summarizer Tool
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Grammar Check
• Citation Generator
• AI-Powered Thesaurus
• Compare Mode
• Extensions for Microsoft Word, Google Docs & Google Chrome
• Plagiarism Checker
• Premium plans start at $19.95 for the monthly subscription. Discounts are available for semi-annual and annual subscriptions.

16. SciSpace (formerly TypeSet): Discover Scientific Knowledge

SciSpace helps find, format, publish and spread research. The software helps find images, tables, and charts. Access professional editing and plagiarism checkers. Free PDFs of scientific articles.

• Native English editing and proofreading
• Check for plagiarism with Turnitin
• Direct submission of formatted manuscripts
• Reference automation
• 100,000+ journal templates
• One-click formatting
• Upload Word manuscripts and peer-edit
• Add images and graphs
• Copyediting
• Use LaTeX math
• Integrate with Mendeley, Zotero, and Endnote
• One-click citations and bibliographies.
• Generate Ithenticate’s similarity report in-app
• It starts at $8 (billed annually) for the Researcher plan and $6 (billed annually) for the Team plan.

17. Check-Plagiarism: Deep Plagiarism Detection

Check-Plagiarism is a free plagiarism detection tool ideal for students wanting to ensure the uniqueness of their academic work before submission. This online plagiarism checker works on advanced AI technology that detects plagiarized text in the given content. The checker is accurate enough to identify instances of paraphrased plagiarism as well. It has plenty of other features as well that help to make this tool a good fit for both academic and non-academic writers.

• Copy-paste content for checking
• Upload pdf, doc, docx, and txt formats as input
• Exclude quotes from the check
• Exclude URLs from the check
• Deep searching
• Downloadable report
• Help with citations
• $4.99 per week
• $15 per month
• $100 every 6 months (Semi-Annual)
• $135 per year (Annual)

18. Paraphrasingtool.ai: Designed for Students and Scholars

Paraphrasingtool.ai is an AI-driven paraphrasing tool designed especially for students, and academic scholars.  It includes eight paraphrasing modes, multimedia input support, a text summarizer, Babu Writing Assistant, and powerful plagiarism scans. With seamless integration options for platforms such as Google Docs, MS Word, and a convenient Chrome extension, this tool gives users an uninterrupted content rewriting experience.

• Eight Paraphrasing Modes
• Tone Customization
• Text Summarizer
• Multilingual Support
• Audio and Image paraphrasing option
• Extensions for MS Word & Google Docs
• Integrated Plagiarism Checker
• Babu Writing Assistant
• Free to start
• Premium plan starts at $7 per month (54% savings for annual subscriptions)

19. Wordvice AI: Upgrade Your Writing

Wordvice AI is a complete online writing assistant featuring a suite of revision tools for academics and students. Functions include proofreading, paraphrasing, text summarization, language translation, and plagiarism checking. Wordvice AI currently offers MS Word add-in for use on PC and Mac versions, but additional extensions are in development.

• AI Proofreader
• AI Paraphrasing Tool
• AI Text Summarizer
• AI Language Translator
• AI Plagiarism Checker
• Instant feedback and explanations of writing errors
• Extensions for Microsoft Word
• Access to professional proofreading services
• Basic Plan (Free)
• Premium Plan at $19.95 per month (semi-annual and annual plans with discount)
• Team Plans available at customized rates

20. Caktus: The ultimate AI homework helper

Caktus  is an AI-driven platform tailored for students, offering tools for creating and rewriting academic content to enhance learning and productivity. Caktus is trained with the world's largest collection of academic papers and provides personalized insights, research assistance, and grammar support. By utilizing advanced machine learning and natural language processing, it offers tailored study assistance and intelligent automation for various academic tasks. 

• Paragraph Generator
• Paragraph Rewriter
• AI Text Humanizer
• Conclusion Writer
• Essay Rewriter
• Sentence Expander
• Essay Writer
• The base Plan starts at $6.67 per month and the Pro Plan starts at $8.33

Academic Writing with Accuracy and Integrity

Quality research writing and many other forms of academic writing are no easy feat. The gathering of references alone could be exhausting. However, academic writing is one form that everyone will deal with since it’s what schools require. As such, finding ways to complete your academic writing easily without sacrificing accuracy and integrity is vital.

What is the best application to create a research paper? Academic writing trends are geared toward stricter regulations on plagiarism on top of content accuracy, quality, and grammar and mechanics. As such, the best academic writing software like plagiarism checkers, citation generators, and grammar checkers are your partners in creating outstanding academic papers. This is particularly crucial in the age of elearning wherein students are largely unsupervised as they go about researching and writing papers. The best online learning platforms unquestionably do so much, but this part of online education will remain a matter of concern for educators and other vested organizations alike.

Key Insights

• Difference Between Academic and Non-Academic Writing : Academic writing is formal, impersonal, and aimed at a scholarly audience, whereas non-academic writing targets the general public and is more casual and personal.
• Grammar Checker Software : Tools like Grammarly are widely used to improve grammar, style, and accuracy in writing. Such tools are essential for maintaining the quality of academic papers.
• Quality Content : Academic writing must be well-researched and credible. Using books and journals as references significantly improves content quality.
• Plagiarism Checkers : These tools are crucial for maintaining academic integrity by detecting and preventing plagiarism. Turnitin is a popular choice among educators.
• Citation Generators : Automating citations can save time and ensure proper referencing, which is critical in academic writing.
• Collaborative Tools : Software like Google Docs allows real-time collaboration, making it easier for students and researchers to work together on academic papers.
• Comprehensive Writing Tools : Applications like Microsoft Word and Scrivener offer robust features for writing, organizing, and formatting academic papers.
• What is the primary difference between academic and non-academic writing? Academic writing is formal, structured, and aimed at a scholarly audience, focusing on factual evidence and research. Non-academic writing is casual, personal, and targets the general public, often aiming to inform, entertain, or persuade.
• Why are grammar checker tools important for academic writing? Grammar checker tools help ensure that academic papers are free of grammatical errors, enhancing clarity and professionalism. They also provide stylistic and best-writing-practice suggestions to improve overall writing quality.
• How do plagiarism checkers contribute to academic integrity? Plagiarism checkers detect copied content and ensure that all sources are properly cited, preventing academic dishonesty. They are essential for maintaining the originality and credibility of academic work.
• What are citation generators, and why are they useful? Citation generators automate the creation of citations and bibliographies, ensuring that all references are formatted correctly. They save time and reduce the risk of citation errors in academic writing.
• Can collaborative tools like Google Docs be used for academic writing? Yes, Google Docs allows real-time collaboration, making it ideal for group projects and research papers. It also integrates with other Google apps, enhancing productivity and accessibility.
• What are some of the best comprehensive writing tools for academic writing? Microsoft Word and Scrivener are highly recommended for academic writing. They offer features like real-time collaboration, extensive formatting options, and tools for organizing research and references.
• How do tools like Grammarly enhance the quality of academic papers? Grammarly provides detailed feedback on grammar, punctuation, style, and clarity. It helps writers improve their writing by suggesting corrections and enhancements, ensuring that academic papers are polished and professional.
• Why is it important to use well-researched and credible sources in academic writing? Using well-researched and credible sources adds validity and reliability to academic papers. It demonstrates thorough research and supports arguments with solid evidence, which is essential for scholarly work.
• What are the advantages of using plagiarism checkers like Turnitin? Turnitin helps educators and students detect plagiarism and ensure proper citation of sources. It also provides detailed reports on text similarity and originality, aiding in the maintenance of academic integrity.
• How can citation generators save time for students and researchers? Citation generators automate the process of creating citations and bibliographies, reducing the time spent on manual formatting. They ensure accuracy and consistency in referencing, which is crucial for academic writing.

References:

• Alostath, K. (2021). Graduate Students’ Challenges in Academic Writing. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.20113.92008
• ICAI. (2021). Facts and Statistics. International Center for Academic Integrity. https://academicintegrity.org/resources/facts-and-statistics
• Lytvyn, M. (2021, April 1). A History of Innovation at Grammarly. A History of Innovation at Grammarly | Grammarly Blog. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/grammarly-12-year-history/

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Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

Available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and iOS

Just need to create a quick bibliography? Try ZoteroBib .

Meet Zotero.

Collect with a click..

Zotero automatically senses research as you browse the web. Need an article from JSTOR or a preprint from arXiv.org? A news story from the New York Times or a book from a library? Zotero has you covered, everywhere.

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Zotero helps you organize your research any way you want. You can sort items into collections and tag them with keywords. Or create saved searches that automatically fill with relevant materials as you work.

Cite in style.

Zotero instantly creates references and bibliographies for any text editor, and directly inside Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. With support for over 10,000 citation styles, you can format your work to match any style guide or publication.

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Zotero can optionally synchronize your data across devices, keeping your files, notes, and bibliographic records seamlessly up to date. If you decide to sync, you can also always access your research from any web browser.

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Zotero lets you co-write a paper with a colleague, distribute course materials to students, or build a collaborative bibliography. You can share a Zotero library with as many people you like, at no cost.

Zotero is open source and developed by an independent, nonprofit organization that has no financial interest in your private information. With Zotero, you always stay in control of your own data.

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Get expert help from Scribbr’s academic editors, who will proofread and edit your essay, paper, or dissertation to perfection.

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Detect and resolve unintentional plagiarism with the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker, so you can submit your paper with confidence.

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Generate accurate citations with Scribbr’s free citation generator and save hours of repetitive work.

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This makes citing far more manageable than when I was in high school back in 2009. Some sources may have to be manually entered, but overall, it's a great sourcing tool

Incredibly helpful for a late in life…

Incredibly helpful for a late in life student whom never had experience in writing research papers. Understanding the importance of citations and annotations has made me a better student. Not getting the citations typed in incorrectly saves me so much times and anxiety. Thank you!

Scribr is fabulous to use

Scribr is fabulous to use. it is very helpful.

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Everything was perfect!

very good website

Everything you need to write an A-grade paper

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Bite-sized videos that guide you through the writing process. Get the popcorn, sit back, and learn!

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Accessible how-to guides full of examples that help you write a flawless essay, proposal, or dissertation.

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Time-saving templates that you can download and edit in Word or Google Docs.

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We believe that every student should have the right tools for academic success. Free tools like a paraphrasing tool , grammar checker, summarizer and an  AI Proofreader . We pave the way to your academic degree.

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Scribbr specializes in editing study-related documents . We proofread:

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Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker is powered by elements of Turnitin’s Similarity Checker , namely the plagiarism detection software and the Internet Archive and Premium Scholarly Publications content databases .

The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

19 Academic Writing Tools (that are completely free!)

A selection of tools for academic writing – from collaborating, time-tracking and project management to finding the perfect phrase or translation. We are continuously updating this list (latest update: April 2023).

I often get asked about my favourite academic writing tools. That’s why I compiled this scientific tools list for you with 19 great tools to support your academic writing. You can use all these scientific research tools for free and some of them have paid versions with additional features.

Just one word of caution: Exploring new academic writing tools can be a time-suck and distract you from getting your actual writing done. If you are one of those people who spend hours signing up for new software for academic writing and getting it set up, only to abandon the tool a few days or weeks later – then be careful reading this scientific tools list, and don’t get overenthusiastic. 😉

By the way, I don’t have any affiliation with any of the academic writing tools listed below, and none of these are affiliated links.

Here, we go, 19 tools for academic writing and scientific research I recommend in no particular order:

ACADEMIC Writing tools

1. writefull.

This proof-reading tool for scientific texts is powered by AI and big data. You can integrate the Writefull app into Word or Overleaf for free. A reader of the blog brought my attention to this tool (thank you so much!) and I’ve only recently started using it, so I can’t give you a full-blown review just yet but so far the results are promising. Writefull is owned by Digital Science, a company that has released several Open Science apps, such as figshare, Overleaf and Altmetric. 

2. Phrasebank

Created by Dr John Morley from “The University Language Center” of Manchester University, the Phrasebank is a database of common phrases used in papers, dissertations and grant proposals – a real goldmine!

The phrases are organised both by the common sections in a paper such as the Introduction, Methods, Results or Discussion section. For example, in the tab for the Introduction section, one can find entries for “establishing the importance of the topic for the world or society” or “identifying a knowledge gap in the field of study”. If you click on the latter, you can find among others the following suggested phrases: “It is still unclear whether…”, “However, the behaviour of X has not yet been investigated” and “Causal factors leading to X remain speculative”.

You can also look for phrases by choosing a general language function. Some of the choices are “being cautious”, “describing trends”, “signalling transition”.   

The Phrasebank is very useful to get inspiration for new wording but I do not endorse all entries. Sometimes you find language that is a bit clunky or overly complicated so do use your own judgement when you browse this academic writing tool. PS: You can also download the Academic Phrasebank as PDF or Kindle file.

3. Thesaurus.com

If you’re looking for synonyms, thesaurus.com is the best online thesaurus I’ve found so far. It divides the synonyms based on different meanings of the word and indicates the relevance of the synonym by using three shades of orange.

Just one word of caution: Don’t fall into the trap of using too many synonyms in your academic writing. Being precise is so much more important than varying the words you are using in your writing. In particular for field-specific terminology, I advise against using synonyms .

This is a hot tip for researchers who need to transcribe interviews (hello, social scientists!), who like to record research ideas or those who like to write by dictating text into their phone. Otter is an AI-based transcription tool that works for English language recordings. The quality of the transcriptions is comparable to other transcription services using AI, meaning they are often not accurate and can give nonsensical, even comical results — especially when the recorded voice has a strong or unusual accent. Still, the automated and quick transcriptions (real time transcriptions are available too!) can be a good starting point and are a huge time saver. What’s cool about Otter compared to its competitors is that they give you 300 minutes of transcriptions per month for free!

There are many online dictionaries but Linguee is my favourite for academic writing. It suggests a translation on the basis of previous translations published on the internet.  Therefore, this dictionary is especially great if you’re looking to not only translate a word but a certain turn of phrase or idiom. Linguee translates to and from English in over 20 languages. An essential academic writing tool for all non-native English speakers!

ACADEMIC WRITING TOOLS FOR Collaboration AND CO-WRITING

6. authorea.

The magazine “ TechCrunch ” describes Authorea as “a Google Docs for scientists”. On the academic writing platform, you can write, edit, and insert citations, figures and data. And it’s great for collaborative writing: Co-authors can access the same text at the same time, track the changes they made, insert comments and even live-chat during writing sessions. Documents can be imported from LaTeX and Word and exported as LaTeX, Word and PDF documents. You can also submit your article as a bioRxiv preprint straight from the Authorea platform. This software for academic writing is free for up to ten documents with limited sharing options.

7. Overleaf

Overleaf is to LaTeX users, what Authorea (see tool #6) is to Word users: an online editor that allows you to access and collaborate on your writing projects from anywhere. You can, for example, invite others to comment on your work. Overleaf offers some other neat collaborative writing features, such as a track-changes function, but – unfortunately – only on the paid plan. LaTeX may seem a bit intimidating at first but you actually get the hang of it quite fast (and feel like a coder 😎). Also, in my experience, you save a lot of time formatting your text (and feel smug about it when you talk to Word users 😁).

Slack is a chat tool that you can use in your lab or with your collaborators. Used in the right way, it allows you to save time by cutting down on emails and create a group atmosphere even if the members are not working in the same location. You can easily add files to the chats and create different channels for subgroups or certain topics. There also exist virtual communities on Slack you can join, such as the New PI Slack community for Assistant professors around the world. 

Loom is a great scientific research tool when you want to share a quick video with a colleague, student or collaborator. This could be a recorded presentation or lecture, your comments on the paper of a co-author, or a tutorial on using a piece of software. You can record your screen, camera and microphone. The neat thing is that after you’re done recording, Loom auto-generates a link you can share.

Academic writing tools for Productivity and project management

Toggl is a time-tracking app that you can install on your phone and computer. There’s only one way of knowing how long certain writing tasks typically take you, and that is by tracking the time they took you to complete . Time-tracking has another great advantage: You can identify time-sucks in your day. And these may be less obvious than you think.

I like to use Toggl for time-tracking because it’s quick to use and integrates with various other scientific research tools I am using. You just need to click the big red power button to start or stop a recording and assign tracked times to different projects. This scientific research tool has paid plans but for most people the free basic plan will be sufficient.

Are you easily tempted to check your phone when you really should be writing? This app called Forest may be just right for you then. Once installed on your phone, you can start planting a virtual tree whenever you want to focus. It grows from a little plant to a full-grown tree. When you pick up your phone and leave the app, the tree dies. This way, you can build your forest representing the time you have spent on focused work (or quality time with your family and friends…). I’m not using Forest myself, but I’ve heard that it works really as an academic writing tool well for some people. Give it a go!  

12. Focusmate

As Forest (see tool #11), Focusmate is an app to help you stay focused. Instead of  gamification, the concept of Focusmate is based on social accountability. Here is how it works: You schedule a 50-minute virtual co-writing session with another Focusmate member, turn on your webcam when your session starts, greet your temporary co-worker and then get to work silently.

Even though being filmed while working is a little strange in the beginning, co-writing sessions work really well for a lot of researchers. This is why we offer co-writing sessions as part of our academic writing program, the Researchers’ Writing Academy, as well.

13. Cold Turkey

If Forest (tool #11) or Focusmate (#12) don’t get you to focus on your writing, you may need to go Cold Turkey . This software for academic writing blocks any other application and turns your computer into a typewriter. You can choose whether you want Cold Turkey to prevent you from digital distractions for a certain amount of time or until you’ve hit a certain word count. With the paid version, you can even access integrated productivity soundtracks and text formatting.

Not an app exactly, but free as well: Click the orange button below to have me walk you through my step-by-step system to write clear & concise papers for your target journals in a timely manner . This free academic writing training is perfect for you if you’re reading this blog post because you are procrastinating on writing your paper.

Trello is an excellent project management tool for your academic writing, which you can use for managing each of your writing projects, for creating a publication pipeline and as a daily and weekly to-do list. Trello is a great introduction into project management because it’s a lot easier to learn and use than most other project management software. For each project called a “Board”, you can create different “lists”, which are vertical collection of “cards”, which you can move between lists. You can add due dates, checklist lists, links, files and text to each card. To work collaboratively, you can leave comments on cards and assign them to members on your team. You can also use Trello as a brainstorming tool, using the cards just as you would use post-it notes.

Members of my online course, the Researchers’ Writing Academy , get access to Trello templates I created to easily manage their publication pipeline, the writing process for each of their scientific papers and all of their other daily, weekly and monthly tasks and projects.

15. Todoist

Todoist is an alternative to Trello (see tool #16) or can be used in addition. It’s an online to-do list organiser and project management tool that comes as an app and browser version. You can organise your tasks in projects and schedule them for a certain day. This academic writing tool shows you today’s tasks as well as those for the next seven days. It also tracks your productivity, i.e. how many tasks you have completed.

academic writing Tools for finding and reading the literature

Feedly is a neat RSS feed manager that helps you stay up to date with the scientific literature. Instead of getting email alerts from journals (because who wants to get more emails…) you can view and organise the literature you are interested in by following journals’ RSS feeds. You can not only use this for scientific literature but also subscribe to blogs, for example the one you’re reading right now, by simply putting the URL in the Feedly search: https://annaclemens.com/blog .

Are you a mindmapper? Then you need Xmind , a free mindmapping and brain-storming tool. It’s intuitive, looks good and does exactly what you want a mindmapping tool to do. The free version allows for embedding of hyperlinks, images, attachments, so you can really use it however you like! That’s all I can really say about it as I’m not using mindmapping myself. But I know scientists who swear by it!

18. Audemic

Audio formats have become so popular (I’m a big podcast lover myself!) so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that there now is an audio tool available for the scientific literature too: Audemic . This tool — completely free to use for individual researchers — creates summaries for you (that go beyond the abstract), lets you skip sections, highlight text and take notes while listening.

There are a few reference managers for your academic writing to choose from, some of which cost money. Zotero is free, open-source and doesn’t lack in functionality. You can easily save references from your browser, organise them in folders and with tags and create bibliographies with the right style. You can also create a citation library with your co-authors or share your library with others.

That’s it: 19 academic writing apps and scientific research tools to support your writing for free! However, the best academic writing software won’t make you more productive if you don’t rely on a streamlined writing process and if you aren’t using your writing sessions effectively. If you want to get your hands on a template to write scientific papers in a systematic fashion, sign up for this 1-hour writing training now. It’s free too!

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Best Academic Writing Software: 21 Top Options (2024)

In this article, you’ll discover the best academic writing software options based on their features, prices, and usability. 

I remember spending countless hours in my University’s library, desperately trying to format my thesis correctly, surrounded by half-empty takeaway coffee cups. If only I had known that the right academic writing software could have helped me save time and improve the quality of my work. 

Whether you’re a university student struggling to finish your thesis like I was or a researcher with deadlines looming, you can rest assured that the right academic writing software will take an enormous weight off your shoulders. What is academic writing? Read our guide to find out!

Academic writing requires meticulous attention to detail which is why we’ve scoured the web looking for software that will support you in the following areas:

• Concise sentences
• Readability improvements
• Chapter, footnotes, and bibliography automation

The academic software options in this article will help you unlock your true potential as an academic writer by improving your grammar, structure, style, and planning.

1. Grammarly

2. prowritingaid, 3. scrivener, 4. google docs, 9. obsidian, 11. microsoft word, 13. mendeley, 14. endnote, 16. turnitin, 17. copyscape, 18. chatgpt, 20. authorea, why should you trust me , our testing criteria, is grammarly good for academic writing, 21 best free & paid academic writing software.

Pricing : Free version available, Premium $12/month, Business $15/month Use for : For plagiarism and grammar checks of academic writing

Grammarly is the most popular writing software on the market, and it’s being used by all types of writers, from high-school students to academic writers in top institutions and universities.

I personally never submit work to my clients without running it through Grammarly first, and I’ve even shelled out for the yearly premium subscription to get access to the plagiarism checker. To find out more, read our Grammarly review .

Some new students also wonder if it’s ok to use this tool to edit their essays and papers. It’s fine to use but if you need more context, in this article, our writer answers the question, is using Grammarly cheating ? 

• Grammarly is user-friendly, allowing you to either copy and paste your work directly into the application or have it check your documents while you type
• Makes Suggestions to improve sentence structure and explains why the change has been suggested
• Picks up on adjectives that could lead to exaggeration
• Encourages you to write in the action instead of the passive voice
• Works for British English, American English, and Australian English
• Plagiarism checker is only available to premium customers
• Plagiarism checker doesn’t cover academic papers
• Live checker is not available for Microsoft Word

We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker.

Pricing: Free version, $20/month, $79/year, $300/lifetime Use for: As an alternative for grammar and plagiarism checkers of academic writing

ProWritingAid is an affordable grammar checker that leverages artificial intelligence and a personal support system to help you improve your writing by pointing out specific areas of weakness. 

ProWritingAid presents suggestions similarly to Grammarly through bold pop-up boxes that are easy to navigate. However, this software targets professionals looking to make fundamental changes to their writing style. To find out more, read our ProWritingAid review .

• Reasonable prices, especially with the lifetime option
• Compatible with Microsoft Word
• Includes a digital writing coach
• Style score gives you a guide regarding the quality of your work
• Plagiarism is not included in the free version
• PLagiarism checker less accurate than Grammarly

ProWritingAid is a powerful, accurate grammar checker and style editor. It's suitable for non-fiction and fiction writers and doesn't require a monthly subscription. Save 20% per month or year.

Price: 30-day free trial, student/academics discount $50, IOS $19.99, Standard macOS and Windows $58.99 Use for: For managing large academic papers, organizing research, and references

Scrivener may not be as well known as the last two software options, but it has much to offer academic writers. For example, the platform will help you get your references in order, and it will help you integrate large chunks of text into one, which is useful when you’re moving big paragraphs.

Although bloggers and journalists overlook Scrivener, if you’re someone who is dealing with long research papers, this could be the ideal software choice. To find out more, read our Scrivener review .

• Great formatting tools for academic writers
• Affordable prices, especially with the academic discount
• Helps organize your reference 
• Keep all your files, including PDFs and web pages, inside your Scrivener account
• Take a snapshot of your work and return to early versions if you want to make retrospective changes
• No plagiarism checker
• No live checker for editing on external platforms such as Google Docs and Word
• A learning curve

Scrivener is our go-to app for long-form writing projects. It's popular with best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. 

Price: Free Use for: General writing, collaborative writing, and editing

Google Docs is probably the most well-known writing software, and it’s used by professional writers, bloggers, and academics worldwide. I’m personally using Docs to write this post, as its sharing feature makes sending your work to an editor a breeze. 

Docs offers many valuable features for academic writers, including headers and footers, collaborative comments, citations, and the new document comparison tool. 

This platform is useful when combined with Grammarly, its spell checker, and writing tips are highlighted clearly in Google Docs, and you can accept and reject suggestions with one click. 

• Easy to use, familiar software
• Collaboration made easy
• Easy to format text with citations, headers/footers, and Headings 
• Grammarly compatible
• Export in PDF
• Document comparison does not make up for the lack of a plagiarism checker
• Native spell checker is a little unreliable, but adding Grammarly makes up for this

Price: Free Use for: For writing scientific papers

LaTex is a writing software designed to help people improve the structure of their academic papers. It’s worth noting that LaTeX doesn’t offer a spell-checking service, so you’ll want to use it in combination with Grammarly or ProWritingAid. 

The software interface may not boast a high-quality-looking interface, but the underlying features are impressive, especially considering the software is free to use. 

• Automatic indexing and bibliography generator 
• Automatic chapter and paragraph macros
• Math typesetting
• No spelling and grammar checker 
• Not as user-friendly as some competitors

Price: 30-day free trial, $3/per month for students, $5/month for academics, $10/month for business Use for: To manage, read, annotate, and share your research references

Papers help you gather your research materials across multiple devices, making your books, articles, and journals easy to access and organize. 

If you’re writing a long research paper, manually collating all your references into one library would be extremely time-consuming. Papers automate the process, letting you focus on writing, 

Although Papers isn’t a stand-alone academic writing software due to the lack of most expected features, it will be handy for academic writers struggling to organize their references and sources.

• Low price for academics and students
• Import references to your library from multiple platforms
• Access all your research sources in one place
• Collaborative annotation of notes and sources
• $10/month is a little expensive, considering you don’t get plagiarism or a spell checker

Price: Free Use for: As a markdown editor and for organizing academic notes

Zettlr is an open-source markdown editor software that lets you focus on your writing without worrying about making it HTML compatible manually. Zettlr is excellent for academic writers looking to include citations or export their work in multiple formats. 

• Export in multiple formats
• Citation system.
• Tags to help you organize information
• Writing goals tracker
• Preview documents without opening them
• You may need some CSS coding knowledge to get the best out of the software.
• No plagiarism checker.

Price: $5.99/month or $39.99/year Use for: Writing on IOS devices

Ulysses is a writing software designed for use on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, so if you aren’t an Apple user, then this one isn’t for you.

Although academic papers are usually full of data, graphs, and charts, you sometimes need to focus on your text, which is where Ulysses can help. Ulysses is minimalist in design with a clutter-free interface, so if you’re someone that quickly gets distracted from writing, it could be a great option. It supports Markdown. You can also use it to prepare an academic paper for publication. To find out more, read our Ulysses review .

• iCloud synchronization
• One payment plan for three devices
• Minimalistic design.
• Set and track writing goals.
• Lacks academic writing features such as a bibliography, references, and chapter organization
• No option for collaborative writing
• Not available for Windows

Price: Free, but you can make a one-time payment of $25 for special developer features and a yearly $50 for commercial use rights Use for: Note taking and organizing

Obsidian is a note-taking and personal knowledge management tool for improving how research writers organize ideas and notes. 

Academic writing often involves developing complex ideas and presenting them clearly. Obsidian can help you develop your theories by organizing your ideas and notes into mindmaps and information stacks. 

Obsidian won’t be the standalone app you use as an academic writer, but it can help you develop ideas and connections within your papers. To find out more, read our Obsidian review .

• Unique mind mapping system
• Many plugins offer features such as voice recording, formatting, and writing templates
• If you have some knowledge of coding HTML or Java, you can customize parts of the software for your specific needs
• It will take some time to get to grips with all the features
• Lack of specific academic writing needs such as a plagiarism checker

Price: Free Use for: Organize your notes across various platforms

Joplin is an open-source note-taking software that operates across various devices and has a thriving community developing free tools to improve the platform. You can share your notes from Joplin across different platforms, and it runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. 

For academic writers, Joplin offers a space to collect web clippings and notes from online sources and access them from multiple devices. 

• Accessible on all major operating systems
• Web clipping system is excellent for researchers gathering notes
• The community is constantly developing new features
• No collaborative feature
• No free storage/cloud
• Like other note-taking apps, it doesn’t check for plagiarism or spelling

Price: $6.99/Month Use for: General writing, editing, and note-taking

Microsoft Word is one of the most widely used word-processing applications for academic writing. Known for its user-friendly interface, it offers various formatting options and tools. It has an inbuilt spell checker, dozens of fonts, and various formatting options.

It’s a fairly general writing tool that lacks some of the more specialized features of some of those mentioned in this article. Nonetheless, Word is a tried and tested writing companion you should consider using with a good referencing software from this list.

• Robust formatting tools for academic writing
• Familiar to most writers
• Available on almost all PCs
• Solid offline writing tool
• Collaboration features are not as good as other options
• Additional cost for extra cloud storage
• Outdated UI
• Lack of specialist tools

Price: Free Use for: Organizing references

Zotero is an open-source reference management software ideal for anyone struggling to keep their bibliography neatly ordered. If you’re writing a lengthy academic paper and haven’t settled on a referencing software, Zotero is worth a try, especially as it’s free.

If you’re working on a group project, Zotero’s collaborative features are helpful when organizing citations in various formats, including Chicago and APA. Naturally, as this is citation software, you’ll want to combine it with a writing platform such as Docs or Word.

• Free version
• Over 10,000 citation styles
• Collaboration features
• PDF reader built-in
• Compatible with Google Docs and Word
• Limited customer support
• Limited offline access without a paid subscription
• Not the easiest to use without spending several hours practicing

Price: Free with optional premium plan Use for: Researching and referencing

Mendely is a free-to-use reference management tool that PhD students created. You can tell from the software that the people who created it had wasted hours manually referencing and wanted a more streamlined and efficient way to add citations to their papers.

The Mendeley Library has millions of papers and can be easily browsed from tablet, PC, and mobile. Combining it with a reference management tool will help you organize your research.

• Social networking for research collaboration
• Over 100 million articles in the database
• Clean UI, even on smaller screens
• It can be used to generate bibliographies
• Storage is limited in the free version
• Reports of poor synchronization on collaborative documents
• The downloadable version for PC is no longer available

Price: $269.95/Full License Use for: Referencing, annotating, and journal matching

EndNote is a premium academic research and writing software that is a market leader in providing reference management, citations, and bibliography creation. The premium price tag might be worth swallowing if you’re a serious academic writer.

EndNote can help you match your research papers with potentially compatible journals via its Manuscript Match tool. This software is easy to integrate with popular writing software like Google Docs and makes reading and annotating PDFs very easy, even on your phone.

• Excellent reference management
• Smooth integration with word processors
• Top-class PDF reader and annotator
• Novel journal matching tool
• Collaboration is made simple
• The price tag is out of most people’s range
• The learning curve for new users
• The student discount isn’t very generous

Price: Free trial or $1000 Use for: Collaborative reference management and writing

Citavi is an academic writing and reference management tool. The software combines a seamless collaborative writing experience with an automatic citation tool with over 10,000 styles. 

The software automatically links citations, creates a bibliography, and allows you to export directly to Microsoft Word. The software is impressive and has received great reviews, but the price tag naturally means most people will probably settle for something cheaper.

• Covers citations and writing
• Easy export process to Word
• Collaborative writing is as good as with Docs
• Complex academic search queries can be narrowed down with several filters
• The price is high as the product is aimed at companies, not individuals
• Lacks Google Docs compatibility
• The free trial is very limited

Price: Free Use for: Plagiarism checker

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that anyone writing research papers should consider using. Most major research institutions use Turnitin to ensure they don’t publish plagiarized work.

The software is easy to use and rates the uniqueness of academic rating based on its massive pool of papers. Turnitin doesn’t just give a yes or no answer. It points out sections of your work that may be plagiarized and links them to citations of the work that appears to be being copied.

• Trusted by major institutions and leading universities
• Easy to use
• The feedback system gives a detailed breakdown of where you’ve plagiarized and helps you avoid it in the future
• Not the most modern user interface
• Does occasionally flag non-plagiarized copy as plagiarized
• No in-depth writing support or cross-compatibility

Price: Free version or pay per word Use for: Plagiarism checker

Copyscape is a plagiarism checker designed for online content creators and anyone who runs a blog or a website. Although it’s probably less helpful for academics than Turnitin, it’s still worth mentioning, as it can help academics in the early stages of research that involves collecting information from sources other than official journals. 

The software is straightforward to use as it is a simple copy-and-paste system. There is a limited free version, but even the premium per-word rate is very reasonable.

• Great for someone running a blog that posts academic content from multiple writers
• PDF compatible
• Generally, Turnitin is more appropriate for academics
• The website has a very cheap feel

Price: Free version or $20/month Use for: AI-enhanced writing, editing, and researching

ChatGPT has been the most talked about technological innovation this year. Its impact on the world of research and writing is still evolving, and the model is still developing. It’s a fantastic tool for researching if you’re willing to spend a few hours learning how to create effective prompts. 

ChatGPT can rapidly search the web for content published before 2021 and present it concisely. Regardless of the topic you’re researching, this software is going to be able to help you research and write more efficiently.

If you want an in-depth review of ChatGPT and how you can use it to become a better academic writer, check out our ChatGPT review . 

• Rapid response to even very niche research requests
• Finds sources from all over the web much faster than a traditional Google search.
• Speeds up the writing and editing process
• It is a useful tool to master, considering the likelihood of more large language models hitting the market in the future
• It does make factual mistakes.
• Sometimes, the AI suffers from so-called hallucinations that can result in very strange answers.
• Its access to the web was cut off in 2021, so it can’t find the latest research papers.
• You’ll need to spend some time learning about writing prompts to get the best out of ChatGPT

Price: Free version or $4.99/month Use for: Spelling and Grammar

Ginger is a spelling and grammar software that offers an interesting alternative to Grammarly. This software is compatible with most popular writing platforms and goes beyond basic grammar and spelling checks.

Ginger offers unlimited rephrasing suggestions and can translate documents into dozens of languages. In addition, they’ve managed to undercut Grammarly’s prices, so this could be worth a try if you feel Grammarly is too expensive.

• Solid grammar and spell checker
• Very nice UI
• The rephrasing tool will help you add new life to your writing
• Well priced particularly if you pay for a yearly subscription
• The translation feature makes it stand out from the crowd of grammar checkers
• The free version isn’t as comprehensive as the one offered by Grammarly
• Only available on three browsers

Price: Free version available Use for: Writing and publishing

Authorea is a collaborative writing tool designed for researchers working in small teams. Importantly, Authorea goes beyond just helping you write by offering several tools that help researchers publish their papers once it’s completed. Beyond the basic collaborative writing features you may expect, it also offers automatic citation formatting even when multiple people are editing one document.

The software can automatically format research papers to suit 40 of the biggest publishers in the world. The free version is fairly comprehensive, but frustratingly, it’s unclear how much they charge for the premium service, as the price has to be negotiated directly via email with the team. It appears to vary depending on the insulation you work for and the size of your team.

• The publishing feature will be beneficial for academic writers.
• Free to use
• Elegant website and UI
• Collaborative writing and automatic formatting of citations
• The premium pricing plan is not clear
• It’s specialized software, so using it will require some practice
• If you only publish in one journal, then the formatting feature won’t be that useful

Price: Free version available Use for: Specialized academic spelling and grammar checker

Trinka is an AI-powered technical writing grammar and plagiarism checker. This is essentially a more technical version of Grammarly that’s been designed specially to help academic writers. It can help you create a more formal tone, introduce technical terms, and even have the option to focus suggestions on specific scientific areas such as medicine, chemistry, and physics. 

In addition, it has a publication feature that can help you get your paper into the format required by most publishers. If you’ve been using Grammarly as an academic writer but feel that its suggestions are too general, then Trinka could be a great alternative.

• A spell checker designed for academic writers
• Suggestions tailored to your scientific field
• Formatting tool and an in-house plagiarism checker
• Tone enhancement designed for academic papers
• Premium version reasonably priced at $80/year
• The free version is slightly limited
• Only 5,000 words per month with the free version
• Slow response times from customer support, according to some reviews

If you need a good grammar checker, Grammarly is our top choice due to its accuracy and speed. Scrivener excels at managing long-form papers, but Ulysses is easier to use. Obsidian is great for managing research as it Papers.

My work as a journalist has been published in major news outlets such as The Daily Mirror, Newsweek, Zenger, and Yahoo. In a hectic newsroom, there’s no time to waste, and mistakes are rarely forgiven, so I’ve spent hundreds of hours using writing software to guarantee accuracy and clarity in my copy. 

In my opinion, you can make the best use of academic writing software by combining different options based on their individual strengths. I recommend using Google Docs if you collaborate with a team combined with Grammarly or ProWritingAid for spelling and plagiarism and then adding something like Papers to help organize your sources. 

We update this roundup of the best academic writing tools regularly. We test key features by checking MS Word documents, blog posts, essays, articles and even book chapters. 

These writing samples range from several hundred to several thousand words. Typically, we use the web, desktop and browser apps and plugins, factoring in price, ease of use, and functionality. We’ve reviewed many of these tools individually and included links to those reviews.

FAQs About The Best Academic Writing Software

Grammarly is useful for checking academic writing for grammar and spelling mistakes. It can also help academic writers improve the readability of their reports or papers. However, Grammarly isn’t meant to function as a tool for planning and writing academic papers. For that use, a traditional word processor or a dedicated academic writing app.

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Can Jenni AI help me structure and write a comprehensive literature review?

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Enhanced Writing Style

Jenni AI excels in refining your writing style and enhancing sentence structure to meet academic standards with precision.

Competitors may offer basic grammar checking but often fall short in fine-tuning the nuances of writing style.

Academic Writing Process

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Competitors may not provide the same level of support, leaving users to navigate the intricacies of academic writing on their own.

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Competitors may offer generic writing tools that lack the specialized features required for scientific writing.

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Best AI Tools for Research Paper Writing in 2024

Table of Contents

Before discussing the unique benefits and characteristics of using AI tools in research, let’s look at some of the AI writing tools that can help you with writing a research paper. There’s a plethora of AI research tools available today tailored to different research purposes and with different capabilities. Let’s look at the 5 best AI tools for research that you can incorporate into your research and writing process.

Top 5 AI Tools for Research Paper Writing

• SciSpace Literature Review
• ChatGPT | Custom GPTs for Research Writing

Let's explore these tools in detail!

1 . SciSpace Literature Review

SciSpace’s Literature Review tool is designed for researchers to conduct systematic literature reviews efficiently. This AI research tool helps you compare and contrast scientific papers, and extract key information, themes, patterns, and concepts of numerous research papers in minutes, all in one single workspace.

By simply entering your questions or keywords or niche-specific topics, you can find relevant research articles from SciSpace’s repository of 282M+ scientific papers. With the matrix feature, you can filter and derive useful insights from relevant research papers and save time. You can extract the summaries of all the prominent sections of the research paper including introduction, abstract, methodologies, conclusions, discussions, etc. And ask follow-up questions simultaneously to Copilot, the AI research assistant, to identify gaps in the literature, and even extract empirical data from papers. This lets you dive deeper into each paper and get more clarity on concepts or ideas within them. With an AI research tool like SciSpace Literature Review, researchers can save hours of valuable time and boost the overall quality and productivity of their research while improving academic writing.

Here’s a sample:

2. ChatGPT | Custom GPTs for Research Writing

ChatGPT serves as a valuable ally for brainstorming research paper outlines and structures . Researchers can leverage ChatGPT to generate ideas, refine research questions , and outline the paper's framework. Custom GPTs that are tailored to research paper writing can also be very helpful.

Especially, custom GPTs for research writing like SciSpace’s GPT (formerly ResearchGPT) that are trained on scientific papers can help you locate relevant literature with ease and also brainstorm ideas for your research paper.

An example of a simple outline:

3. WordVice

WordVice enhances language precision, ensuring the clarity and coherence of research papers. It offers advanced proofreading, language enhancement, and coherence improvement.

By automatically detecting and correcting errors in academic papers with WordVice, researchers can let their words flow without the typical interruptions to make amends. It can also give coherent explanations of each error and suggest stylistic changes in your writing.

This AI writing tool is incredibly helpful in writing your research paper, especially if you’re not a native speaker of the language or if you don’t have enough grasp of grammar and the conventional usages in academic writing.

Take a look at this example:

4. Wordtune

A personal AI writing assistant that excels in paraphrasing, aiding researchers in presenting ideas with clarity and originality. It helps to rephrase and refine sentences, avoiding plagiarism and enhancing the overall quality of writing.

Do you want to sound more authentic in your writing and also find the appropriate words for different contexts? Wordtune can help you fine-tune any text and also improve the quality of writing by suggesting a plethora of options with the Spices feature. Spices feature is essentially meant to improve your writing by generating text and giving you different options to choose from.

This AI writing tool also includes the option to ‘Incorporate data from verified sources’ to make your paper more empirically adequate and relevant. This way, Wordtune will help you deal with writer’s block and also give you relevant information, and suggest stylistic adjustments to boost the quality of your research paper.

Here's an example:

An AI-powered transcription tool, is a valuable asset for researchers, particularly those involved in the social sciences. It streamlines tasks such as transcribing interviews, capturing research ideas, and converting spoken words into text through mobile dictation.

Despite the inherent challenges of AI-generated transcriptions, Otter excels in providing quick and automated solutions, saving significant time for researchers. The tool's support for real-time transcriptions enhances its utility as an efficient starting point for various research endeavors.

Here’s what it might look like to get started:

Benefits and Challenges of Using AI Tools

While these tools offer immense benefits, challenges exist. AI research tools can streamline tasks but must be used responsibly. The responsible integration of AI into research processes ensures a harmonious blend of technological guidance without compromising the researcher's intellectual rigor and creative input.

Let’s look at some of the main benefits and challenges of using ai for research paper writing.

• Time Efficiency: AI tools accelerate tedious tasks, allowing researchers to focus on critical thinking and analysis. It also enables researchers to manage their time better, by focusing more on areas that require manual, intellectual effort.
• Language Precision: Tools like WordVice and Wordtune refine language, elevating the quality of communication in research papers.
• Heuristic support: AI tools can help you get acquainted with new theories, concepts, and arguments while offering personalized support to your learning process. Being better informed will positively reflect in your writing as well.
• Improving overall quality: The tools we’ve seen so far are capable of improving your overall work quality. By helping you with idea organization, extracting information, creating rough drafts, and fine-tuning your writing skills, AI tools can improve your work’s overall quality.

Challenges:

• Overreliance: Researchers must avoid overreliance on AI, preserving their unique insights and analytical skills. This balance ought to be cultivated in budding researchers, allowing them to explore diverse sources of information while remaining anchored in good research practices.
• Potentials for Bias: While we think that AI tools have overcome biases, the truth is quite far from it. Especially in research, AI tools can generate responses that conform to the  restricted data available at the source, betraying its lack of reflexivity and bias-recognition ability.
• Ethical Considerations: Responsible use involves addressing ethical concerns, such as data privacy and algorithmic biases. With the use of AI tools, the necessity for ethical considerations and regulations has become even more important in research.
• Inherent limitations: There are inherent limitations to AI, which of course is a result of its design itself. For example, despite several attempts to overcome AI hallucinations, we still encounter the problems of AI tools generating fake or untrue information, precisely because the model runs on iterative text-predictions in a given context.

Despite the many challenges associated with it, AI tools can indeed propel radical changes in scientific research. Embracing the best AI tools for research paper writing pushes academia into a new era of efficiency and precision.

The synergy between human intellect and AI tools can cultivate a research landscape where technological advancements complement, rather than overshadow, our intellectual endeavors.

As you embark on your next research journey, consider integrating these tools and navigating the intricate path toward academic success with confidence.

1. How do I use AI for academic writing?

2.can ai tools help me brainstorm and outline my research paper.

Yes, AI tools like SciSpace can assist in generating ideas and outlining a research paper. AI tools can also help refine your writing, including the style and overall structure of your ideas.

3.Which is the top AI tool for writing research papers in 2024?

SciSpace is the best AI tool for writing research papers in 2024. It has a plethora of AI tools geared towards locating relevant papers, conducting literature reviews, and finessing your research writing.

4.What are the pros and cons of using AI tools for academic writing?

Pros include time efficiency, language precision, heuristic support, and improved productivity. Cons include overreliance on AI tools, potential for bias, ethical challenges, and limitations of the models themselves.

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Writing tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to reduce manuscript preparation time to a few days, or hours. Deep-learning technologies that run chatbots, spellchecks and auto-generated tweets are being used in a growing number of products pitched at students and academics.

Grammarly, for example, claims to “inspect your writing carefully to improve clarity, word choice and more”, offering free and fee-based services.

But are these tools up to the task? In an experiment through education information site EduRef, a group of recent graduates, undergraduates and self-described undergraduate-level writers were given the same assignments as GPT-3, an AI language program developed by OpenAI, a research company co-founded by Elon Musk.

The assignments were evaluated by instructors who did not know who (or what) had written them. GPT-3 performed in line with the humans, according to EduRef, and received “more or less the same feedback”.

The program was praised for writing excellent openings and transitions, but was criticised for using vague, blunt and awkward language, and for failing to craft a strong narrative. It wrote shallow, less descriptive papers than the students, according to EduRef’s write-up on its website, but it took between three and 20 minutes to write a paper, compared to three days for the students.

Hilde van Zeeland is chief applied linguist at start-up company Writefull, which offers AI-based language editing, and is part of London-based Digital Science (see disclosure, below). She says AI tools are already powerful enough to improve a writer’s sentence flow and structure, and will continue to improve.

The company recently analysed more than 250,000 abstracts to identify the most commonly used phrases in each of four different parts of the abstract.

They found, for example, that the words ‘aim of this study’ occurred most frequently in part 1 of the abstract (where study aim and background are described) and the phrase ‘95% confidence interval’ occurred most often in part 4 (which deals with meaning of results, contribution, future research). Users can choose phrases and connecting sentences to use in their own papers.

“With this database of phrases, when a user struggles with the right word to use for each section, our software will be able to provide good alternatives,” says van Zeeland.

The website tells users not to worry about plagiarism, reassuring them that certain phrases won’t be flagged by a plagiarism checker because they are short and commonly used.

Writefull is running a separate experiment that involves feeding an abstract into an AI tool, which generates a paper title based on the input. This function can enhance title readability, draw readership to the abstract and make the article more visible to search engines, according to van Zeeland.

AI tools can do more than check a writer’s grammar and spelling and suggest frequently used phrases, says computer scientist, Guillaume Cabanac, from the University of Toulouse in France.

An analysis of journal-published computer-science papers by Cabanac and his colleagues, posted as a preprint on arXiv in July and yet to be peer-reviewed, found swathes of articles containing tortured phrases and nonsensical text. For example, the phrase ‘colossal information’ was used instead of ‘big data’.

The authors suspect that these papers were the result of using automated translations or software that rewrites existing text to disguise plagiarism, according to a report in Nature .

Their study prompted warnings from research integrity experts that a new type of fabricated paper was entering the scientific literature, which will be hard to spot as AI tools learn to use more sophisticated language.

Considerations for using AI writing tools in academic work

Shu Chian Tay, a science communicator at the National University of Singapore , fears that AI writing tools could exacerbate inequality between labs with different access to resources or openness to trying new technologies.

Shu Chian Tay

“Consider a hypothetical situation where AI science-writing is possible and two labs have made the same research breakthrough at the same time,” says Tay.

“One lab stuck to human writing, which took weeks, while the other made use of AI writing tools. The latter, who is likely to publish earlier would get most, if not all, of the scientific recognition and lucrative intellectual property rights.”

Will AI replace human writing?

Tay notes that although AI writing tools are quite powerful, they have not yet reached a point where they can write a scientific manuscript from scratch. “We still need researchers to analyse data, present them as figures, and develop a coherent story before feeding all this information to the AI machine,” she says.

Ryan Morrison, professor of English as a second language at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada, says that although the adoption of AI in academic writing is inevitable, it is unlikely to replace human writing in the near future.

Ryan Morrison

“Just as super-computer calculators can process large sets of numbers fast, AI writing tools outperform humans in completing tasks like spell checks and text generation at a much faster rate,” says Morrison. “But the creativity of AI is ultimately limited by the input materials and the discretion of the human curator.”

Software such as Turnitin is also incorporating AI technology to enhance its ability to detect plagiarism. This could potentially be used to identify documents written using AI tools.

Be transparent about using AI writing tools in academic work

Michael Mindzak, assistant professor in the department of educational studies at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, cautions that the academic community has not yet agreed on how to manage potential problems related to AI writing tools, such as plagiarism and authorship credits.

Michael Mindzak

Most institutions are yet to formulate policies on the use of these tools by students and staff. This can be problematic when committee members making decisions on tenure and promotion have different views about the appropriateness of using them, says Mindzak.

“My advice is to be transparent,” says Mindzak. “Declare and add a disclaimer if you have used AI-assisted writing. As more people in the community do this, it may become a norm, just like how the ‘conflict of interest’ section has been added to academic papers in response to a rise in company-funded research and start-ups from academic labs.”

*Digital Science is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, which owns 53% of Springer Nature, publisher of the Nature Index. Nature Index is editorially independent of its publisher.

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The best AI tools for research papers and academic research (Literature review, grants, PDFs and more)

As our collective understanding and application of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, so too does the realm of academic research. Some people are scared by it while others are openly embracing the change. 

Make no mistake, AI is here to stay!

Instead of tirelessly scrolling through hundreds of PDFs, a powerful AI tool comes to your rescue, summarizing key information in your research papers. Instead of manually combing through citations and conducting literature reviews, an AI research assistant proficiently handles these tasks.

These aren’t futuristic dreams, but today’s reality. Welcome to the transformative world of AI-powered research tools!

This blog post will dive deeper into these tools, providing a detailed review of how AI is revolutionizing academic research. We’ll look at the tools that can make your literature review process less tedious, your search for relevant papers more precise, and your overall research process more efficient and fruitful.

I know that I wish these were around during my time in academia. It can be quite confronting when trying to work out what ones you should and shouldn’t use. A new one seems to be coming out every day!

Here is everything you need to know about AI for academic research and the ones I have personally trialed on my YouTube channel.

My Top AI Tools for Researchers and Academics – Tested and Reviewed!

There are many different tools now available on the market but there are only a handful that are specifically designed with researchers and academics as their primary user.

These are my recommendations that’ll cover almost everything that you’ll want to do:

Want to find out all of the tools that you could use?

Here they are, below:

AI literature search and mapping – best AI tools for a literature review – elicit and more

Harnessing AI tools for literature reviews and mapping brings a new level of efficiency and precision to academic research. No longer do you have to spend hours looking in obscure research databases to find what you need!

AI-powered tools like Semantic Scholar and elicit.org use sophisticated search engines to quickly identify relevant papers.

They can mine key information from countless PDFs, drastically reducing research time. You can even search with semantic questions, rather than having to deal with key words etc.

With AI as your research assistant, you can navigate the vast sea of scientific research with ease, uncovering citations and focusing on academic writing. It’s a revolutionary way to take on literature reviews.

• Elicit –  https://elicit.org
• Litmaps –  https://www.litmaps.com
• Research rabbit – https://www.researchrabbit.ai/
• Connected Papers –  https://www.connectedpapers.com/
• Supersymmetry.ai: https://www.supersymmetry.ai
• Semantic Scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org
• Laser AI –  https://laser.ai/
• Inciteful –  https://inciteful.xyz/
• Scite –  https://scite.ai/
• System –  https://www.system.com

If you like AI tools you may want to check out this article:

• How to get ChatGPT to write an essay [The prompts you need]

AI-powered research tools and AI for academic research

AI research tools, like Concensus, offer immense benefits in scientific research. Here are the general AI-powered tools for academic research. 

These AI-powered tools can efficiently summarize PDFs, extract key information, and perform AI-powered searches, and much more. Some are even working towards adding your own data base of files to ask questions from. 

Tools like scite even analyze citations in depth, while AI models like ChatGPT elicit new perspectives.

The result? The research process, previously a grueling endeavor, becomes significantly streamlined, offering you time for deeper exploration and understanding. Say goodbye to traditional struggles, and hello to your new AI research assistant!

• Consensus –  https://consensus.app/
• Iris AI –  https://iris.ai/
• Research Buddy –  https://researchbuddy.app/
• Mirror Think – https://mirrorthink.ai

AI for reading peer-reviewed papers easily

Using AI tools like Explain paper and Humata can significantly enhance your engagement with peer-reviewed papers. I always used to skip over the details of the papers because I had reached saturation point with the information coming in. 

These AI-powered research tools provide succinct summaries, saving you from sifting through extensive PDFs – no more boring nights trying to figure out which papers are the most important ones for you to read!

They not only facilitate efficient literature reviews by presenting key information, but also find overlooked insights.

With AI, deciphering complex citations and accelerating research has never been easier.

• Aetherbrain – https://aetherbrain.ai
• Explain Paper – https://www.explainpaper.com
• Chat PDF – https://www.chatpdf.com
• Humata – https://www.humata.ai/
• Lateral AI –  https://www.lateral.io/
• Paper Brain –  https://www.paperbrain.study/
• Scholarcy – https://www.scholarcy.com/
• SciSpace Copilot –  https://typeset.io/
• Unriddle – https://www.unriddle.ai/
• Sharly.ai – https://www.sharly.ai/
• Open Read –  https://www.openread.academy

AI for scientific writing and research papers

In the ever-evolving realm of academic research, AI tools are increasingly taking center stage.

Enter Paper Wizard, Jenny.AI, and Wisio – these groundbreaking platforms are set to revolutionize the way we approach scientific writing.

Together, these AI tools are pioneering a new era of efficient, streamlined scientific writing.

• Jenny.AI – https://jenni.ai/ (20% off with code ANDY20)
• Yomu – https://www.yomu.ai
• Wisio – https://www.wisio.app

AI academic editing tools

In the realm of scientific writing and editing, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are making a world of difference, offering precision and efficiency like never before. Consider tools such as Paper Pal, Writefull, and Trinka.

Together, these tools usher in a new era of scientific writing, where AI is your dedicated partner in the quest for impeccable composition.

• PaperPal –  https://paperpal.com/
• Writefull –  https://www.writefull.com/
• Trinka –  https://www.trinka.ai/

AI tools for grant writing

In the challenging realm of science grant writing, two innovative AI tools are making waves: Granted AI and Grantable.

These platforms are game-changers, leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to streamline and enhance the grant application process.

Granted AI, an intelligent tool, uses AI algorithms to simplify the process of finding, applying, and managing grants. Meanwhile, Grantable offers a platform that automates and organizes grant application processes, making it easier than ever to secure funding.

Together, these tools are transforming the way we approach grant writing, using the power of AI to turn a complex, often arduous task into a more manageable, efficient, and successful endeavor.

• Granted AI – https://grantedai.com/
• Grantable – https://grantable.co/

Best free AI research tools

There are many different tools online that are emerging for researchers to be able to streamline their research processes. There’s no need for convience to come at a massive cost and break the bank.

The best free ones at time of writing are:

• Elicit – https://elicit.org
• Connected Papers – https://www.connectedpapers.com/
• Litmaps – https://www.litmaps.com ( 10% off Pro subscription using the code “STAPLETON” )
• Consensus – https://consensus.app/

Wrapping up

The integration of artificial intelligence in the world of academic research is nothing short of revolutionary.

With the array of AI tools we’ve explored today – from research and mapping, literature review, peer-reviewed papers reading, scientific writing, to academic editing and grant writing – the landscape of research is significantly transformed.

The advantages that AI-powered research tools bring to the table – efficiency, precision, time saving, and a more streamlined process – cannot be overstated.

These AI research tools aren’t just about convenience; they are transforming the way we conduct and comprehend research.

They liberate researchers from the clutches of tedium and overwhelm, allowing for more space for deep exploration, innovative thinking, and in-depth comprehension.

Whether you’re an experienced academic researcher or a student just starting out, these tools provide indispensable aid in your research journey.

And with a suite of free AI tools also available, there is no reason to not explore and embrace this AI revolution in academic research.

We are on the precipice of a new era of academic research, one where AI and human ingenuity work in tandem for richer, more profound scientific exploration. The future of research is here, and it is smart, efficient, and AI-powered.

Before we get too excited however, let us remember that AI tools are meant to be our assistants, not our masters. As we engage with these advanced technologies, let’s not lose sight of the human intellect, intuition, and imagination that form the heart of all meaningful research. Happy researching!

Thank you to Ivan Aguilar – Ph.D. Student at SFU (Simon Fraser University), for starting this list for me!

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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8 useful research paper writing tools and resources

Academic writing can be a daunting and time-consuming process, but with the help of the right tools you can make writing your paper much easier.

In this post, we have pulled together 8 tools and resources that will help you work better and smarter when writing a research paper.

Our downloadable comprehensive free guide: Writing your paper

Todoist: A to-do list to organize your work

Evernote: As a research notebook

Grammarly: Cloud based typing assistant

Ref-n-Write: Look up and learn while writing your paper

Hemingway Editor: Refine your work to be bold and clear

Our downloadable article and journal templates

Our 10-point checklist to guide your writing process

Writing your paper: a comprehensive free guide

If you’re ready to start writing your paper, our Writing your paper free guide is a useful tool to help you through your various writing stages.

This resource will guide you through writing your paper from start to finish, including preparation and setting your structure, to writing every section of your paper and preparing it for submission.

Post information

Related posts, insights topics.

Read the guide to find out all you need to know about:

Article structures and formatting

Choosing keywords and writing for SEO

How to write your research manuscript

Refining your writing

Finalizing the details of your paper

Considering ethics

Download your free guide today  for guidance on how to navigate the article writing process.

Todoist is a task management app that can help you stay organized during the writing process.

Writing an academic paper is not just about putting the words on paper. In fact, some researchers might argue the writing is one of the easier parts! Your tasks before you start writing are also critical to your writing success.

If you’ve read our Writing your paper free guide , you’ll know that it’s important to prepare before you start writing. You need to organize your thoughts, materials, and the steps you plan to take to prepare your article for submission . This is where Todoist comes in.

Todoist can be used for planning, scheduling, and building the outline for your personal, work, and academic tasks. Part of its appeal is its simple functionality and portability.

It can be used on your phone, tablet, and computer with great collaboration and integration capabilities. This could be like having your personal assistant with you at all times.

Todoist is free to use, but for higher project limits or additional features like reminders, you can decide if you need an upgraded paid version.

An example of a simple outline:

If you’re looking for a productive way to take notes and sort through your research materials, Evernote can be a useful tool to consider.

You can organize your research by creating a notebook structure to keep similar notes together. You can also make your notes more useful by adding texts, images, and documents.

Another useful feature is capturing audio notes with the inbuilt recorder. It’s easy to share and discuss your notes and notebooks, without having to leave the Evernote app.

Keep in mind you can also seamlessly create Todoist tasks from Evernote notes, and vice versa to double your productivity.

The basic version of Evernote is free and lets you create unlimited notes but with a limitation of storage space to 60MB a month. For more storage you will require to upgrade to a paid subscription plan.

Here’s what it might look like to get started:

Grammarly is a typing assistant that uses artificial intelligence to identify any errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, then suggests an appropriate replacement.

When you install it on your laptop or computer, it will flag any errors in your text and provide you with an alternative, or even prompt you to remove particular phrases.

Keep in mind that your paper might contain technical terms or phrases that Grammarly may not understand, which could be flagged as errors. So, make sure you look over the prompts from Grammarly before accepting changes.

The basic function of Grammarly is free, which helps identify most spelling and grammar errors, but for a more robust check on everything you write, a paid upgraded premium version is available.

Also, you could consider using a professional academic editor , who will make sure your manuscript meets scholarly English standards.

Ref-n-Write

High-quality research deserves proper academic writing.  Ref-n-Write  is a tool with an impressive library of phrases used in academic writing. Using artificial intelligence technology, the tool provides details on choosing the right academic phrase, cross-referencing previous work, suggesting new ideas, and more.

Non-native English speakers may find this tool helpful to paraphrase their text and improve their English writing skills through practice. To test out the referencing, paraphrasing and phrase bank tools, you can sign up for a free trial.

Don’t allow language be an issue in getting your research published. Please read this guide for more information on  how to break language barriers and publish in international journals .

Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is an editing tool that can help you refine your writing, pinpointing areas of your work that will affect readability. Clear writing is important to communicate your research effectively to readers.

This tool also guides you on how to improve the sentences in your document. It highlights sentences that are hard to read, words or phrases with simpler alternatives, passive voices, as well as the number of adverbs present in your work.

Hemingway App has a free version but it also has a paid version with additional features for publishing, formatting and more .

For confidence about the quality of your paper, also consider the extra step of using experts in subject-relevant editing . They will make sure your work is free of grammatical, spelling, and other common language errors.

Article and journal templates

To save you time, our downloadable article and journal templates are a useful resource for formatting your manuscript. Our template will help you format your work correctly for submission, and make sure you have the information the target journal expects to see.

Make sure you download the relevant template and apply it to your research paper, following the instructions provided.

Remember to follow the instructions regarding your specific research article’s format. Here’s a guide on the variety of different types of research articles .

You can also focus on your research and save valuable time by letting experts in academic formatting look after the format of your manuscript.

Writing your paper checklist

This checklist is a useful resource to help you quickly review all you need to write an effective paper.

Whether you are writing a paper for an assignment or to submit to a journal, this list contains important information on  what makes a good research paper .

Follow the steps in our 10-point checklist, to help guide how you plan and organize your research to write an impactful paper.

Download the writing your paper free guide

Get a head start in your paper writing with this free guide.

You will have a blueprint to help you produce an impactful research paper.

English Language Editing

Improve your written English with editing from subject-matter experts.

Academic Translation with Editing

Translate your research to reach a wider community.

Article Formatting

Get your reference, citation and layout formatting checked by experts.

Where to next?

If you’ve found these tips helpful make sure you look at:

Writing your paper free guide – download this free guide to help you through your various writing stages.

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Free software applications for authors for writing a research paper

Himel mondal.

1 Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Deoghar, Jharkhand, India

Ayesha Juhi

Anupkumar d. dhanvijay, mohammed jaffer pinjar, shaikat mondal.

2 Department of Physiology, Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital, Raiganj, West Bengal, India

Basic computer skills are essential for authors writing research papers as it has the potential to make the task easier for a researcher. This article provides a glimpse about the essential software programs for a novice author writing a research paper. These software applications help streamline the writing process, improve the quality of work, and ensure that papers are formatted correctly. It covers word processing software, grammar correction software, bibliography management software, paraphrasing tool, writing tools, and statistical software. All of the tools described are free to use. Hence, it would help researchers from resource-limited settings or busy physicians who get lesser time for research writing. We presume this review paper would help provide valuable insights and guidance for novice authors looking to write a high-quality research paper.

Introduction

An author is one who “writes a book, article, play, etc.” A researcher is “someone whose job is to study a subject carefully, especially in order to discover new information or understand the subject better.” However, in a broad sense, a researcher is an author first. In a research cycle, a researcher needs to become an author from the very beginning of the research (preparation of proposal) to the end of the research (writing a paper for publication).[ 1 ]

Basic computer skills are essential for authors writing research papers because computers and technology have become a fundamental part of the research and writing process. As a new author writing a research paper, there are several essential software skills that can help you streamline the writing process, improve the quality of work, and ensure that the proposal or paper is formatted correctly.[ 2 ] However, these skills are rarely taught in our formal undergraduate or postgraduate course of study.

In this context, we discuss some of the basic software skills that may enhance the the quality of an research article in this article. This includes word processing software, grammar-checking software, paraphrasing tools, statistical software, writing tools, and keyword-searching tool.

Software applications

We describe some of the free software applications that may help authors during the preparation of a research paper. All the applications described are available either for computers or can be used online without paying any fees. Relevant websites where the tools are available are shown in Table 1 .

Software application (downloadable and online) with websites and their primary use for research purposes

WPS=Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets, MeSH=Medical Subject Headings, DOI=Digital Object Identifier, JANE=Journal/Author Name Estimator, GPT=Generative Pre-training Transformer

Computer software applications

Apache OpenOffice is a free and open-source office software suite that includes a word processor (writer), spreadsheet, presentation software, and other tools. OpenOffice Writer is similar to Microsoft Word and can be used to write and format your research article.[ 3 ] This program is capable of saving the file into its own format (.odt) and also helps in saving the file in Microsoft Word document format (.doc). Hence, any text typed in this program can easily be opened with Microsoft Word. Along with typing an article, this program can help in making a flow chart (e.g. PRISMA flow chart for systemic review and meta-analysis) for research articles. Figure 1 shows the user interface of OpenOffice writer.

A portion of a story written on OpenOffice Writer showing the user interface

There is alternative office software called WPS (an acronym for Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheets) office. Its personal basic version is free to use. However, the full version needs a subscription. Hence, researchers who are not comfortable with OpenOffice can use this software for writing their papers.

JAMOVI is open-source software for statistical analysis, which means that it is free to download and use. This can be particularly useful for researchers on a budget who do not have access to expensive commercial software. JAMOVI has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, even for beginners. JAMOVI offers a wide range of statistical analyses, including t-tests, ANOVA, regression, and factor analysis. It is particularly well suited for researchers who need to conduct statistical analyses but are not familiar with the more complex features of traditional statistical software like Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).[ 4 ] Figure 2 shows a part of the software when we conducted a Wilcoxon signed rank test (the nonparametric equivalent of paired t -test).

Part of the application JAMOVI when a Wilcoxon signed rank test was conducted

Those who are not interested to learn the basics of the JAMOVI can refer to the “online statistics” section of this article where we provided some websites that help in conducting basic statistical tests.

Zotero allows researchers to collect and organize references from a variety of sources, including library catalogs, websites, and databases. This can help researchers keep track of their sources and ensure that they have all the necessary information to cite them correctly. Zotero allows users to store full-text articles as PDFs, web pages, or other formats, along with their corresponding bibliographic information. This can make it easier to access articles and ensure that the information is all in one place. Zotero makes it easy to create bibliographies in a variety of formats, including APA, MLA, Chicago, and many others. This can save researchers time and reduce the likelihood of errors.[ 5 ]

However, those who are not willing to manage the references by Zotero can simply use the comment option in the word processing software to easily keep the reference with the text, and after the final draft, copy those references to add them to the manuscript file.

Google drive

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage and collaboration tool that can be very useful for researchers. Google Drive allows researchers to access their work from any device with an internet connection, making it easy to work on the go and collaborate with others from anywhere in the world. Google Drive makes it easy for researchers to collaborate with colleagues by sharing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real time. Multiple users can work on the same document simultaneously, and changes are saved automatically. Google Drive allows researchers to organize their research materials and data in one place, making it easy to find and access them when needed. By storing research materials and data on Google Drive, researchers can ensure that their work is backed up and secure, reducing the risk of data loss due to hardware failure or other issues.[ 6 ] The drive application can be downloaded and installed [ Table 1 ] on computers that would create a separate drive in the computer and keeping any files in this folder would be synchronized online and you can access it from any device connected to the Internet. However, it is to remember that an account is provided free with 15 GB of free cloud storage.

Online software applications

Grammarly is an online grammar-checking tool that can be very helpful for writers who want to improve the accuracy and clarity of their writing. It uses advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze text and identify errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. In addition to catching grammar and punctuation errors, Grammarly can also suggest vocabulary enhancements improve the style and tone of your writing. This can help you avoid common writing mistakes and create more engaging content. When Grammarly identifies an error in your writing, it explains the rule that you may have violated and suggests corrections that you can make. This can help you learn from your mistakes and avoid making similar errors in the future.[ 7 ] A guide on how to use Grammarly is available elsewhere in the article by Mondal and Mondal.[ 8 ] The premium version of the software provides further enhancement of the article. However, the basic free version helps a lot in correcting grammar that is skipped by common word processing software.

Quillbot is a paraphrasing tool that uses advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to help researchers rephrase and reword their writing. It can be very helpful for researchers who need to paraphrase content for academic or professional purposes. Quillbot can help researchers save time by automatically rephrasing and rewording content. This can be particularly useful for researchers who need to paraphrase large amounts of text or who are working under tight deadlines. Quillbot can help researchers avoid text similarity (i.e. text plagiarism) by providing a way to paraphrase the content. This can be important for researchers who need to avoid plagiarism in their academic or professional work. Quillbot can be used on a variety of platforms, including web browsers, mobile devices, and desktop applications. This makes it easy to use Quillbot on the platform of your choice and to access your writing from multiple devices.[ 8 ] Figure 3 shows an example where a paragraph of text is being paraphrased.

A paragraph of text is paraphrased by QuillBot

MeSH on demand

MeSH on Demand is a website that provides a user-friendly interface to create Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms, which are widely used in the biomedical literature to facilitate the indexing and retrieval of articles. It can be very useful for researchers who need to identify appropriate MeSH terms for their research articles. It generates keywords and phrases related to the text provided by the user. This can be very helpful for researchers who are unfamiliar with the MeSH vocabulary and want to ensure that their articles are indexed correctly.[ 9 ] Figure 4 shows searching MeSH terms in a paragraph of text. After getting the MeSH terms, the author needs to decide which are the most relevant keywords for their manuscript and use those. The majority of the journal has a limitation on the number of keywords.

MeSH terms were searched from a paragraph of text on MeSH on Demand web application

In addition to searching MeSH terms in an article, the search result also includes relevant articles available in PubMed. Authors can check the list if they had missed any relevant literature.

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier, which is a unique identifier assigned to a digital object such as a research article, data set, or other types of research output. It is widely used in the scholarly publishing industry and can be very useful for researchers. Researchers can always locate and access the digital object with DOI. It also helps researchers accurately cite their sources by providing a unique identifier that can be included in the reference list. This can help ensure that the citation is accurate and can be easily located by copy editors or readers.[ 10 ] In many journals, DOI is printed as a quick response code in the printed version of the journal so that any reader can scan it and get the article online. During writing an article, authors may save the DOI number along with the reference for a quick access of the article in future. However, authors always need to check the DOI before putting it along with references as sometimes, due to technical problems, the DOI does not work. In that case, they can save the URL of the article for accessing the paper later.

JANE stands for Journal/Author Name Estimator, which is a Web-based application designed to help researchers find relevant journals and authors for their research. JANE is a free service provided by the Biosemantics Group and funded by Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, which makes it an accessible and cost-effective tool for researchers. JANE can help researchers find relevant journals for their research by analyzing the title and abstract of their paper and comparing it to the content of thousands of journals. This can save researchers time and effort in identifying appropriate journals to submit their work. JANE can also help researchers identify potential collaborators for their research by analyzing the authors of the papers in the relevant journals. This can help researchers find other experts in their field who are working on similar research topics.[ 11 ] From the list, authors can get email address of the authors and can use those for suggesting reviewers for the article, if the journal wants some suggested peer reviewer. In Figure 5 , three buttons are shown for finding “journals,” “authors,” and “articles.”

User interface of JANE where text can be pasted or typed and journals, authors, or articles can be searched by pressing buttons below

Online statistics

There are several online free websites that provide statistical tests for researchers. These online free websites can be helpful for researchers who need to conduct statistical tests but may not have access to specialized software or support. They provide a range of statistical tests and tools that are user-friendly and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. Table 2 is showing some of the websites. Furthermore, detailed guidelines along with practice materials are available in articles by Mondal et al .[ 12 - 15 ]

Websites for statistical analysis

This is not a comprehensive list of online calculator

There is several artificial intelligence (AI)-based writing assistance software available. In recent times, an AI language model, ChatGPT is in discussion among academicians due to its human-like conversational and writing capability. It can be a useful tool for researchers in the process of writing a research paper. Researchers can use ChatGPT to generate ideas and inspiration for their research paper by inputting a topic or question related to their research. ChatGPT can then generate relevant sentences or paragraphs that can serve as a starting point for the paper. Researchers can use ChatGPT to help them write more clearly and effectively. This would particularly be helpful for non-native speakers of English. ChatGPT can provide suggestions for improving the wording, grammar, and structure of sentences, and can also provide synonyms or related words to improve the richness of the text. ChatGPT can be used to summarize long passages of text, making it useful for summarizing articles and research papers for review and analysis. ChatGPT can assist researchers in managing their citations and references by generating citations and reference lists in the appropriate format.[ 16 ] However, many a times, ChatGPT generates fictitious references for text which is not found on the internet. Google Bard is an alternative to ChatGPT which can also help in the tasks done by ChatGPT.

An example of conversation with ChatGPT is shown in Figure 6 where the ChatGPT was asked to explain importance of family medicine in India with three references.

A conversation with ChatGPT showing the input and output

Overall, having a basic understanding of these software tools can help new authors write more efficiently, effectively, and accurately, and create a professional-looking research paper.

There are several advantages of using technology for writing a research paper. Technology can greatly increase the efficiency of the research paper writing process, enabling researchers to complete tasks faster and more accurately. For example, ChatGPT can write a portion of the manuscript within seconds and QuillBot can help paraphrase text in a very short time. Technology can facilitate collaboration among researchers by enabling them to work together remotely and share information and feedback in real time. Digital tools can help researchers organize their research materials and notes more effectively, making it easier to keep track of important information and sources. In both domains, Google Drive is of great help.[ 17 , 18 ]

There are some disadvantages to using technology for research. Overreliance on technology can lead to a loss of critical thinking and writing skills, as well as a reduced ability to solve problems independently. The Internet and other digital tools can be a source of distraction and can hinder concentration and focus, potentially leading to lower-quality research and writing. While the Internet provides access to vast amounts of information, not all of it is reliable or accurate, which can lead to lower-quality research and writing. Not all researchers have access to the necessary technology and resources to complete their research effectively, which can create barriers to entry and hinder research progress.[ 19 , 20 ]

While we use the software applications for shaping our research paper, should we acknowledge them in the research paper as we mention humans who help us for similar task? Researchers mention the software package details, acknowledge any third party editing services, or copy editing by any human. However, they usually do not acknowledge the software. When it comes to word processing software, such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, it is not necessary to acknowledge them in a research paper. These tools are commonly used for writing and formatting documents, and their usage is expected. Regarding specific tools like Grammarly or ChatGPT, if substantial help was obtained, then acknowledging them would be appropriate. However, specific role to be mentioned for which the help was taken.[ 21 ] For example, refer to the acknowledgement part of this manuscript to have a glimpse on how we acknowledged ChatGPT for its help in this manuscript. Similar text can be added when help is taken from other tools.

Overall, technology can greatly benefit the research paper writing process, but researchers need to be aware of its limitations and potential drawbacks. By balancing the advantages and disadvantages of using technology, researchers can use it as a tool to enhance their research and writing while maintaining the integrity and quality of their work. Primary care physicians often engage in research activities; however, busy primary care physicians hardly get time for writing. Hence, these applications can assist them in organizing research data, writing manuscripts, and formatting citations and references.

This review paper has discussed the essential software programs that are highly recommended for novice authors writing a research paper. The software programs discussed include Open Office for typing a paper, Jamovi for statistical analysis, Zotero for reference management, Google drive for data storage and accessibility, Grammarly for checking grammar, QuillBot for paraphrasing, MeSH on demand for searching keywords and related articles, DOI for searching the literature, JANE for author search, various online websites for statistical analysis, and language-based AI for generating content for a research paper. Utilizing these essential software programs and maintaining a balanced approach to technology use, novice authors can produce higher-quality research papers and contribute to the advancement of their respective fields.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (May 24 Version), an AI language model developed by OpenAI ( https://openai.com/chatgpt ), for assisting in the language editing of this research paper. ChatGPT helped improve the clarity and readability of the manuscript.

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LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR BETTER RESEARCH

“Litmaps is a game changer for finding novel literature... it has been invaluable for my productivity.... I also got my PhD student to use it and they also found it invaluable, finding several gaps they missed”

Varun Venkatesh

Austin Health, Australia

As a full-time researcher, Litmaps has become an indispensable tool in my arsenal. The Seed Maps and Discover features of Litmaps have transformed my literature review process, streamlining the identification of key citations while revealing previously overlooked relevant literature, ensuring no crucial connection goes unnoticed. A true game-changer indeed!

Ritwik Pandey

Doctoral Research Scholar – Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning

Using Litmaps for my research papers has significantly improved my workflow. Typically, I start with a single paper related to my topic. Whenever I find an interesting work, I add it to my search. From there, I can quickly cover my entire Related Work section.

David Fischer

Research Associate – University of Applied Sciences Kempten

“It's nice to get a quick overview of related literature. Really easy to use, and it helps getting on top of the often complicated structures of referencing”

Christoph Ludwig

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

“This has helped me so much in researching the literature. Currently, I am beginning to investigate new fields and this has helped me hugely”

Aran Warren

Canterbury University, NZ

“I can’t live without you anymore! I also recommend you to my students.”

Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

“Seeing my literature list as a network enhances my thinking process!”

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

“Incredibly useful tool to get to know more literature, and to gain insight in existing research”

KU Leuven, Belgium

“As a student just venturing into the world of lit reviews, this is a tool that is outstanding and helping me find deeper results for my work.”

Franklin Jeffers

South Oregon University, USA

“Any researcher could use it! The paper recommendations are great for anyone and everyone”

Swansea University, Wales

“This tool really helped me to create good bibtex references for my research papers”

Ali Mohammed-Djafari

Director of Research at LSS-CNRS, France

“Litmaps is extremely helpful with my research. It helps me organize each one of my projects and see how they relate to each other, as well as to keep up to date on publications done in my field”

Daniel Fuller

Clarkson University, USA

As a person who is an early researcher and identifies as dyslexic, I can say that having research articles laid out in the date vs cite graph format is much more approachable than looking at a standard database interface. I feel that the maps Litmaps offers lower the barrier of entry for researchers by giving them the connections between articles spaced out visually. This helps me orientate where a paper is in the history of a field. Thus, new researchers can look at one of Litmap's "seed maps" and have the same information as hours of digging through a database.

Baylor Fain

Postdoctoral Associate – University of Florida

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30+ Essential Software for Researchers

Are you stuck with inefficient research tools? Discover the best essential software for researchers to revolutionize your work.

But here’s the good news: online tools for researchers can turn these challenges into manageable tasks.

Table of Contents

This paradigm shift signifies the evolution of academia from a space where only the intellectually elite thrive, to a nurturing environment that promotes intellectual curiosity and learning for all.

Essential Software for Researchers

#1. google scholar: best for scholarly literature search and keeping up-to-date with research in your field.

It helps you pinpoint where your investigation could contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Here are other academic journal discovery platforms that can help you at this stage of research .

#2. NVivo: Best for Designing and Conducting Qualitative Research

NVivo stands as a beacon of hope for qualitative researchers in the data fog. Its unique features categorize, analyze, and draw connections like a seasoned detective, unearthing meaningful insights with ease. 

Source: Lumivero

#3. Qualtrics: Best for Survey Design and Distribution

In the world of survey research, Qualtrics is your steadfast ally. It not only simplifies the process but also empowers you to glean meaningful insights from the data, adding immense value to your research. You can also check out other survey tools.

#4. SPSS: Best for Statistical Analysis and Data Interpretation

If statistical analysis is your battleground, SPSS becomes your formidable armor. This software doesn’t merely crunch numbers; it possesses the alchemical ability to transform them into comprehensible insights, making data interpretation a breeze rather than a battle. 

Source: https://www.ibm.com

#5. Tableau: Best for Data Visualization and Reporting

How much does it cost?

#6. Overleaf: Best for Collaborative Writing and LaTeX Editing

Overleaf facilitates collaboration and simplifying the editing process, making crafting complex documents less daunting and more productive. You can learn more about LaTeX tutorials here.

#7. Grammarly: Best for Checking Grammar and Improving Writing Clarity

With Grammarly at your side, you’re not just writing; you’re crafting compelling narratives. This tool helps ensure that your ideas shine brightly, unmarred by grammatical errors or unclear writing.

#8. Turnitin: Best for Plagiarism Checking and Originality Reports

With Turnitin’s cutting-edge technology, students and educators can have the confidence that their academic pursuits maintain the highest standards of integrity and authenticity. 

#9. Mendeley: Best for Discovering New Research and Collaborative Work

Source: https://www.mendeley.com

#10. Zotero: Best for Collecting, Organizing, and Citing Research Sources

Source: https://www.zotero.org

#11. Trello: Best for Research Project Management and Task Organization

#12. researchgate: best for connecting with fellow researchers and sharing publications.

This dynamic environment empowers you to stay at the forefront of knowledge and contribute to the scientific community.

#13. Notion: Best for Comprehensive Note-Taking and Project Management

With Notion, the tedious becomes straightforward, the overwhelming becomes manageable, and the complex becomes clear. It’s about getting the most out of your A-level studies, fostering a sense of achievement while making the process enjoyable. So, buckle up and let Notion revolutionize the way you work.

Source: https://www.notion.so

#14. Quillbot: Best for Paraphrasing and Improving Writing Clarity

Here are other academic writing tools you may need.

#15. Jasper AI: Best for AI-Powered Writing Assistance

Ever dreamt of having a personal writing mentor, constantly at your beck and call, simplifying the intricacies of academic writing for you? Welcome Jasper AI into your world – an exemplary writing companion that surpasses the functionalities of a typical digital assistant. 

#16. GanttPRO: Best for Project Scheduling and Time Management

Source: https://ganttpro.com

#17. Scholarcy: Best for Quick Summarization of Academic Papers

Source: https://www.scholarcy.com

#18. R Discovery: Best for Statistical Analysis and Data Visualization

Source: https://discovery.researcher.life

#19. Scopus: Best for Comprehensive Literature Search and Citation Tracking

Source: https://www.scopus.com

#20. Journal Finder: Best for Identifying the Right Journals for Publishing Your Research

Journal Finder serves as your publishing compass, steering you towards the right journals to publish your research. This tool saves you from the guesswork, maximizing the chances of your work reaching the right audience.

Source: https://journalfinder.elsevier.com

#21. Global Journal Database: Best for Accessing Information about Various Journals

Source: https://researcher.life

#22. Citation Gecko: Best for Literature Review and Citation Network Exploration

Source: https://www.citationgecko.com

#23. OpenRefine: Best for Cleaning and Transforming Messy Data

Source: https://openrefine.org

#24. MATLAB: Best for Complex Mathematical Calculations and Data Analysis

Source: https://www.mathworks.com

#25. Amazon Drive: Best for Storing and Sharing Research Files

Source: https://www.amazon.com

#26. Otter.ai: Best for Transcription of Interviews and Meetings

Source: https://otter.ai

#27. LabView: Best for Data Acquisition and Instrument Control in Lab Environments

LabView is not just a lab tool—it’s a catalyst for efficiency and precision. By facilitating data acquisition, instrument control, and real-time analysis, it turns your lab into a hub of productivity, taking your research a notch higher.

Source: https://www.ni.com

#28. SAS: Best for Advanced Statistical Analysis and Predictive Modeling

Source: https://www.sas.com

#29. BioRender: Best for Creating Scientific Figures and Illustrations

BioRender is not just a graphics tool—it’s a bridge between your research and your audience. It aids in communicating your findings more effectively, amplifying the impact of your work.

Source: https://www.biorender.com

#30. Slack: Best for Team Communication and Collaboration

Source: https://slack.com

#31. RStudio: Best for Statistical Computing and Graphics in R

RStudio is your personal statistician, providing a comprehensive environment for R, a popular language for statistical computing. 

Academic research isn’t just about the pursuit of knowledge; it’s about leveraging the right tools to streamline that pursuit. As we’ve explored, these essential research software applications aren’t merely aids. 

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45 Software Tools for Writing Thesis

Boost Your Thesis Writing with Essential Software Tools

Writing a thesis is a significant milestone in any academic journey. It demands an immense amount of dedication, research, and organization. To streamline your thesis writing process and ensure a well-crafted and cohesive document, it’s crucial to equip yourself with the right software tools. In this article, iLovePhD will explore some of the most important software tools you need to effectively write your thesis. These tools encompass a range of areas, including research, writing, organization, and productivity. Let’s dive in!

Discover the must-have software tools for writing a successful thesis. Streamline your research and boost productivity today!

Master Your Thesis Writing with These Essential Software Tools

1. reference management software.

Comprehensive reference management software , such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote, is a must-have tool for any thesis writer. These tools help you organize and manage your references efficiently, generate citations in different formats, and create a bibliography effortlessly. They save time, eliminate the risk of citation errors, and facilitate the seamless integration of references into your thesis. Here is a list of the top ten reference management software tools:

Zotero is a free and open-source reference management tool that helps you collect, organize, and cite research sources. It has a user-friendly interface and offers features like web browser integration and collaboration options.

1.2 EndNote

EndNote is a popular reference management software used by researchers, students, and librarians. It allows you to store, organize, and format bibliographic references, and it offers a wide range of citation styles.

1.3 Mendeley

Mendeley is a reference manager and academic social network. It enables you to organize your references, collaborate with others, and discover new research articles. Mendeley offers both free and premium versions.

1.4 RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool that helps you store and organize your references. It offers features like citation formatting, collaboration options, and document sharing.

Citavi is a comprehensive reference management and knowledge organization tool. It allows you to manage references, create citations, and organize your research materials. Citavi is commonly used by students and researchers.

JabRef is an open-source reference manager that specializes in handling bibliographies in BibTeX format. It is cross-platform compatible and offers features like customizable citation styles and integration with LaTeX editors.

1.7 ReadCube Papers

ReadCube Papers is a reference management tool that focuses on enhancing the reading experience of research papers. It offers features like PDF annotation, article discovery, and cloud-based reference syncing.

1.8 Paperpile

Paperpile is a reference manager designed specifically for Google Docs and Google Scholar. It provides seamless integration with Google services and offers features like citation formatting and collaboration tools.

Colwiz is a reference management, collaboration, and research discovery platform. It allows you to organize your references, collaborate with colleagues, and discover new research articles.

Qiqqa is a reference management software that offers features like PDF management, annotation tools, and citation generation. It also includes advanced features like full-text search and note-taking capabilities.

These are just a few of the popular reference management software tools available. Each tool has its own unique features and capabilities, so it’s worth exploring them further to find the one that best suits your needs.

2. Word Processing Software:

While this might seem obvious, using powerful word-processing software is essential. Microsoft Word and Google Docs are popular choices due to their robust features and compatibility. These tools provide a professional writing environment, including features like spell check, grammar correction, formatting options, and word count tracking. Additionally, they offer collaborative features, making it easier to seek feedback from advisors or peers. Here are the top five word-processing software tools:

2.1 Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular and widely used word-processing software tools. It offers a comprehensive range of features for creating, editing, and formatting documents. It includes a user-friendly interface, collaboration tools, templates, and advanced formatting options.

2.2 Google Docs

Google Docs is a web-based word-processing tool offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online, collaborate in real-time, and easily share documents with others. Google Docs also provides cloud storage, offline access, and seamless integration with other Google services.

2.3 Apple Pages

Pages is the word processing software included in Apple’s iWork suite. It is designed specifically for macOS and iOS devices and offers a clean and intuitive interface. Apple Pages provide a variety of templates, advanced typography tools, collaboration features, and seamless integration with other Apple products.

2.3 LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is a free and open-source word processing software that is part of the larger LibreOffice suite. It offers a range of features comparable to Microsoft Word, including extensive formatting options, styles, templates, and compatibility with various document formats.

2.4 WPS Office Writer

WPS Office Writer is a popular word-processing tool that provides a free alternative to Microsoft Word. It offers a familiar interface, supports a wide range of file formats, and includes features such as document collaboration, templates, and extensive formatting options.

Please note that the popularity and preference for word processing software can vary depending on individual needs and preferences.

3. Research Databases and Search Engines:

Conducting thorough research is a cornerstone of thesis writing. Access to reliable research databases , such as PubMed, JSTOR, or IEEE Xplore, is vital. These platforms provide access to a vast array of scholarly articles, journals, books, and conference papers. Additionally, search engines like Google Scholar and Scopus can help you discover relevant literature and enhance your research capabilities. Here are the top five research databases and search engine tools commonly used:

PubMed is a widely used research database in the field of medicine and life sciences. It provides access to a vast collection of biomedical literature, including articles from scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings.

3.2 Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible search engine that indexes scholarly literature across various disciplines. It includes articles, theses, books, conference papers, and more. It provides a convenient way to search for academic resources from multiple sources.

3.3 IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore is a digital library that focuses on electrical engineering, computer science, and related disciplines. It provides access to a vast collection of technical documents, including journal articles, conference papers, standards, and ebooks.

3.4 ScienceDirec t

ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering access to a wide range of scholarly literature in various fields. It covers subjects such as physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences. ScienceDirect includes journals, books, and conference proceedings.

JSTOR is a digital library that provides access to a vast collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources across multiple disciplines. It covers subjects such as arts, humanities, social sciences, and more. JSTOR is particularly useful for historical research and accessing older publications.

These tools offer comprehensive access to scholarly literature and can be valuable resources for researchers, academics, and students. However, depending on your specific field or research area, there may be other specialized databases and search engines that are more relevant to your needs.

4. Note-Taking Tools

Keeping track of ideas, concepts, and findings is crucial during the research process. Note-taking tools like Evernote, OneNote, or Notion can be immensely helpful. These tools allow you to create and organize digital notes, attach files, insert images, and even collaborate with others. The ability to access your notes across different devices ensures seamless integration with your thesis writing workflow. Here are the top five note-taking tools commonly used in research:

4.1 Microsoft OneNote

OneNote is a versatile note-taking tool that allows you to create and organize notes in a free-form manner. It offers features such as text formatting, audio and video recording, image embedding, and cross-platform synchronization.

4.2 Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-taking tool that enables users to capture, organize, and search their notes across multiple devices. It offers features like text formatting, web clipping, file attachments, and collaboration options.

Zotero is a powerful research tool specifically designed for academic and research purposes. It allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share research materials such as articles, books, web pages, and more. It also integrates with word processors for easy citation management.

Notion is an all-in-one productivity tool that can be used for note-taking, task management, project planning, and more. It provides a flexible and customizable workspace where you can create and organize notes using a combination of text, tables, lists, media, and more.

4.5 Google Keep

Google Keep is a simple and lightweight note-taking tool that integrates well with other Google services. It offers basic note-taking features, including text, voice, and image notes, as well as checklists and reminders. It also syncs across devices and allows for easy collaboration.

These software tools provide various features and functionalities, so it’s worth exploring them to find the one that best fits your specific research needs and preferences.

5. Plagiarism Checkers

Maintaining academic integrity is of utmost importance when writing a thesis. Reference checkers like Grammarly and Turnitin can help ensure proper citation usage, prevent accidental plagiarism, and improve the overall quality of your writing. These tools provide detailed reports on potential issues and suggest corrections, thereby enhancing the credibility and originality of your work. There are several plagiarism checker tools available for researchers to ensure the originality of their work. Here is a list of ten popular plagiarism checker tools used in research :

5.1 Turnitin

Turnitin is one of the most widely used plagiarism detection tools, often integrated into educational institutions’ systems. It compares submitted work against a vast database of academic content, publications, and internet sources.

5.2 Grammarly

While primarily known as a grammar and writing assistance tool, Grammarly also offers a plagiarism checker feature. It scans the text for similarities against various online sources and provides a detailed report.

5.3 Copyscape

Copyscape is an online plagiarism checker used to detect copied content. It searches the web for matching content and provides a list of URLs where the content has been found.

5.4 Plagscan

Plagscan is a comprehensive plagiarism checker that compares documents against multiple sources, including academic journals, websites, and its extensive database. It offers a detailed report highlighting potential matches.

5.5 DupliChecker

DupliChecker is a free online plagiarism checker that scans the text against various online sources and offers a percentage of similarity along with highlighted matches.

5.6 Unicheck

Unicheck is a cloud-based plagiarism detection tool specifically designed for educational institutions. It compares submitted documents against a massive database to identify potential instances of plagiarism.

5.7 Quetext

Quetext is an AI-powered plagiarism checker that scans documents for similarities against an extensive database of academic content and web sources. It provides a detailed report with highlighted matches.

5.8 Plagiarism CheckerX

Plagiarism CheckerX is a software-based plagiarism detection tool that scans documents against online sources, academic databases, and publications. It offers an easy-to-understand report highlighting similarities.

5.9 WriteCheck

WriteCheck is a plagiarism checker developed by Turnitin. It allows users to submit their work and receive an originality report, indicating potential matches found in the database.

Viper is a free plagiarism checker that scans documents for similarities against online sources. It provides a detailed report and also offers additional features for academic users.

6. Project Management and Task Tracking software Tools:

Thesis writing involves managing numerous tasks, deadlines, and milestones. Employing project management and task tracking tools like Trello, Asana, or Todoist can greatly aid in staying organized. These tools enable you to create task lists, set deadlines, allocate priorities, and collaborate with others. Visualizing your progress and breaking down the writing process into smaller, manageable tasks boosts productivity and helps you meet your targets effectively. When it comes to project management and task tracking tools for thesis writing, there are several options available. Here are five popular ones:

Trello is a highly visual project management tool that allows you to organize tasks and projects on virtual boards. You can create lists, add cards for individual tasks, set due dates, and collaborate with others. Trello’s flexibility makes it suitable for organizing research materials, outlining chapters, and tracking progress.

Asana is a comprehensive project management tool that helps you track tasks, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and communicate with your team. It provides features such as task dependencies, subtasks, and file attachments, making it useful for managing complex thesis projects with multiple contributors.

6.3 Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a powerful project management software that offers robust features for planning, scheduling, and tracking projects. It allows you to create Gantt charts, set milestones, allocate resources, and monitor progress. While it may have a steeper learning curve compared to other tools, it offers extensive functionality for managing large-scale thesis projects.

6.4 Todoist

Todoist is a simple yet effective task-tracking tool that helps you create and manage to-do lists. It allows you to set due dates, prioritize tasks, and create recurring tasks. You can also collaborate with others by sharing tasks and adding comments. Todoist’s intuitive interface and cross-platform availability make it a popular choice for individual thesis writers.

6.5 Evernote

Although not strictly a project management tool, Evernote is a versatile note-taking application that can be invaluable for thesis writing. It allows you to capture and organize research notes, save web clippings, create to-do lists, and attach files. With its powerful search functionality and synchronization across devices, Evernote helps you stay organized and retrieve information quickly.

The choice of the tool ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences. It’s a good idea to try out a few options and see which one aligns best with your workflow and project requirements.

7. Data Analysis and Visualization Tools:

For research involving data analysis, tools like SPSS, R, or Excel can be invaluable. These tools provide powerful statistical analysis capabilities, allowing you to draw meaningful insights from your data. Additionally, visualization tools like Tableau or Python’s Matplotlib can help present your findings in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand manner. There are several popular data analysis and visualization tools used in thesis writing. Here are the top five tools:

R is a widely used open-source programming language for statistical analysis and data visualization. It provides a vast number of packages and libraries specifically designed for data analysis. R allows you to perform various statistical tests, create visualizations, and generate reports, making it a popular choice among researchers.

Python is another powerful programming language commonly used for data analysis and visualization. It offers libraries like NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib, which provide efficient data manipulation, analysis, and plotting capabilities. Python’s versatility and ease of use make it a preferred choice for researchers in various domains.

7.3 Tableau

Tableau is a popular data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing charts, graphs, and dashboards. It provides a user-friendly interface for exploring and analyzing data from various sources. Tableau offers advanced features for storytelling and data presentation , making it suitable for thesis writing and research projects.

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a software package widely used in social science research. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for data analysis, including descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing. SPSS also offers data visualization capabilities to present research findings effectively.

Microsoft Excel is a widely available spreadsheet program that offers basic data analysis and visualization functionalities. It is often used for organizing and manipulating data, performing simple statistical calculations, and creating basic charts. While Excel may not be as powerful as specialized data analysis tools, it remains a popular choice due to its familiarity and ease of use.

These tools provide researchers with a range of options for data analysis and visualization, allowing them to choose the one that best suits their needs and preferences.

Conclusion:

Writing a thesis can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. By equipping yourself with the right tools, you can streamline your workflow, enhance your research capabilities, and produce a well-structured thesis. Remember, the tools mentioned in this article are meant to assist and optimize your writing process, but it’s crucial to adapt them to your specific needs and preferences. Embrace these tools, and let them empower you to create a compelling thesis that showcases your academic prowess. Happy writing!

Various Software Tools for Writing Thesis:

Writing Softwares for Thesis

Research Tools for Thesis Writing

Citation Management Tools for Thesis

Plagiarism Checkers for Thesis Writing

Grammar and Proofreading Tools for Thesis

Formatting Tools for Thesis Writing

Reference Management Tools for Thesis

Data Analysis Tools for Thesis Writing

Literature Review Tools for Thesis

Time Management Tools for Thesis

Collaboration Tools for Thesis Writing

Presentation Tools for Thesis Defense

Thesis Writing Templates and Samples

Tips and Techniques for Thesis Writing

Common Challenges in Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing Resources and Guides

FAQ on Tools for Writing Thesis

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Thesis Apps: Best Applications & Software for Graduate Students

The process of writing a thesis requires a lot of time and patience. Custom-writing.org experts are willing to make this task easier for you. We’ve compiled a list of thesis writing apps and software. These tools will help you make plans and self-organize. There are also free apps to improve your productivity, help you carry out the research, boost your vocabulary, and check your work for mistakes.

With the thesis apps on this list, you won’t ever have to wonder how to write a dissertation because you’ll know the answer – it’s easy!

• 📑 Word Processors
• ⏰ Time Managers
• 🚀 Productivity Apps
• 🎓 Dictionaries
• 🔬 Research Tools
• 🔤 Grammar Checkers

1. 📑 Word Processors and Note-Taking Apps

This should be a no-brainer, but writing is one of the essential parts of creating a thesis. So it’s evident that you need to have the best thesis apps to deal with this task effectively.

Here are some apps that you might want to check out.

• Google docs . This is probably the first app that comes to mind when you think of alternative free word processors. It has all the functionality and capabilities you’ll need to write and format your thesis. It also allows users to work together on the same document in real-time. It’s available for Android, iOS, or as a web app.
• WPS Office . This multi-platform solution includes not only a word processor. It’s also a full-fledged office suite that allows you to create and work with spreadsheets, presentations, and PDF documents. What else could you need to create a perfect thesis?
• Office Online . This one is for those who want to get the most out of Microsoft Office for free. This one is as good as it can get — an online version of Office. Enough said.
• Jarte . This is a free word processor based on the WordPad engine. It has all the necessary functions and provides a comfortable way to work with text—and it’s free. This app also can export your documents to PDF and HTML files.
• Evernote , Google Keep , and OneNote . The reason why we put these three together? They’re all note-taking apps. Do we know that there are many other similar apps too? Yes, we do. But there’s a reason why these three are so popular. They all offer the same thing – a way to keep all your notes in one place. The difference between them is how it’s all organized, along with some extra features. All of these thesis writing apps are free, too.

2. ⏰ Time-Managing Thesis Apps

With all the steps you need to complete to write a good thesis, it’s not hard to get lost. You can quickly get stuck in one place without knowing what to do and end up making no progress at all.

Or you can use one of the dissertation apps in this category to build a plan and organize your workflow!

• Pocket . Pocket brings order to the chaos of posts and articles you want to read or use to write your thesis. You can easily save them all in one place and look through them later. Then you can decide whether or not you’ll need a particular piece of information.
• Todoist . This one is a free time manager (though it also has paid plans with extra features). With this app, you can set deadlines for each stage of your thesis creation process, and it will remind you of them beforehand. This app will help you stay on track of what plans are waiting for you next.
• Wunderlist . This to-do list app indeed does wonders. It lets you build short- and long-term plans and keep them all in order. You can set notifications to stay on track and always be sure that you’re performing according to your schedule, whether it’s a particular stage of your thesis writing or some other assignment.

3. 🚀 Thesis Apps to Improve Productivity

We all have days when things don’t work, and everything is a distraction. So how can you deal with this all-too-common problem?

There’s a good selection of productivity apps that can help you out. With one of these, you’ll finish writing your thesis in no time.

• Any.do . This one is a task manager that’ll help you stay on track of whatever your current tasks are. It will help you build a habit of reviewing your tasks and make sure that you know which assignments you need to pay the most attention to at the moment. With this app, you won’t miss deadlines or find yourself wondering what to do next.
• IFTTT . This tool allows you to create short automation sequences without any coding skills. It will remember every little thing that you tend to forget. On the one hand, you’ll get those things done; on the other—you won’t get distracted by those tasks and will be able to concentrate on what’s important right now. The app supports plenty of services and is easy to use.
• RescueTime . This app will track the time you spend completing tasks. It will also report all the websites you visit, the apps you use, and breaks you take during the day. By doing so, it helps you create greater self-awareness. As a result, you’ll immediately see whether something is going wrong and keeping you from following your plan.
• StayFocusd . This Chrome extension helps you stay focused on your current task (which, of course, explains its name). It will block all those distracting sites that tend to get in your way while you’re working. You can set a specific time for blocking or choosing a time limit for a certain time during the day.
• Write or Die . This one is a web-based tool. It is also available for iOS, with an Android version coming soon. The tool helps you eliminate writer’s block. Within the app, you can set a specific period and the word count you need to reach within this time. It also features stimuli and rewarding images.

4. 🎓 Vocabulary Boosters and Dictionaries

At this stage, dictionaries and vocabulary boosters come into play.

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary . This is one of the most well-known dictionaries out there. Apart from listing definitions and offering a thesaurus, it also features word games. These word games aim to increase your vocabulary, which will come in handy when writing a thesis. Apart from having a web-based version, there are also apps available for Android and iOS.
• Cambridge Dictionary . This is another famous dictionary listing almost every aspect and sphere imaginable. In long-term perspective, it’s even more useful than the best thesis statement generator , as it can potentially provide you with knowledge you’ll keep forever. All of the resources are available from the site, widget, or official mobile apps. A wide selection of available dictionaries and thesauruses will surely meet all of your writing needs.
• The Free Dictionary . There are many things to discover under this simple name. This web service provides dictionaries on a variety of topics. It also features a thesaurus, idioms, acronyms, a grammar book, and encyclopedia articles. What else can you ask for?

5. 🔬 Tools for Conducting Research

Another essential part of writing a thesis is research. Without properly researched sources and data , everything that’s written in your thesis will be highly questionable.

To avoid poorly supported arguments , and to be able to conduct outstanding research, consider using one of the following tools.

• Mendeley . Once you try this tool, you won’t believe that you ever researched without it. It will help you complete any type of research, come up with a topic for your paper, organize your literature review , make annotations, and manage your research materials. This multi-platform tool also allows syncing across all your devices.
• Mindmup , Bubbl.us . Both of these apps are great tools for mind mapping. They’ll help you get all of your thoughts and ideas in order. This organization will significantly help your research, as everything will be neatly organized and accessible. Both of these tools have free plans and web versions. They only differ with their extra features.
• WolframAlpha . This is a go-to source of expert knowledge on a wide variety of disciplines. This answer engine is also available on mobile platforms. Instead of just giving a list of documents or web pages that may or may not answer your question, it comes up with results from a curated knowledge base in response to your query.

6. 🔤 Grammar Checkers

Everyone makes mistakes. But it’s not a bad idea to make sure that there’s none in your thesis. The apps described below can help you with that.

• Hemingway Editor . This tool aims to improve your writing style and make it as straightforward as possible. It makes colored highlights to indicate long or very complicated sentences. As a result, you get a clean piece of content that’s understandable and easy to digest.
• Ginger . This multi-platform solution helps you find and correct all types of grammar mistakes. It also makes it easier to edit text, which improves your overall productivity, as you’ll spend less time correcting errors.
• Grammarly . This tool has gained so much popularity that it probably doesn’t even require an introduction. It finds and corrects mistakes that no word processor can spot. The tool has a browser extension, offline software, and a premium version with extra features.

Hopefully, you’ll get some thesis help by using these free tools. With these apps at your disposal, you’ll be able to craft a fantastic thesis easily.

Did we miss something? Are there any free thesis apps that you like to use that aren’t on this list? Tell us about them in the comments!

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Training videos   |   Faqs

Popular Writing Tools and Software for Authors and Researchers

Overview   | Writing Software   |  Reference Management Software  |   Research Tools  |  Grammar Checking Tools

Whether you are writing an article, research paper, essay, blog, and dissertation or PhD thesis, it is important to choose an appropriate writing software tool for your work. The choice of writing software comes down to your personal taste. Everyday users are happy to shed a few dollars to purchase a well-known writing tool such as MS Word. Tech savvies welcome open source projects such as OpenOffice and LibreOffice. Whereas, research community is much more adventurous and have embraced the type-setting system, Latex as their writing medium. Blog writers and journalists use online writing tools such as GoogleDocs and DropBox Paper as they find these tools perfect for collaborating with others. Novel writers use more fancy writing tools such as Scrivener to organize their ideas and create a storyboard to help them write.  In this blog, we review some of the common writing tools and software used by writers.

1. Microsoft Word

MS Word is the most widely used tool in the writing community.  It comes with great features and keeps evolving with each version. Some of the popular features include: Grammar and spell checker, Thesaurus, text formatting and aligning, bullets and numbering, inserting watermarks, page numbers headers and footers, readymade templates and mail merge.  You can install plenty of third-party plugins and apps to enhance your experience. A good choice of plugins can save you a lot of time and effort with your writing.    

You can use office online for free and save your documents in the cloud; all you need is a Microsoft account. If you need a desktop version, then you have to purchase a copy. Some universities offer free copies to students. Office 365 offers a subscription model that allows you to install the latest version of MS office on up to 5 computers. You will also have access to the online version of MS Office and up to 1TB cloud storage.

Useful Links:

• Features of MS Word
• Advantages and disadvantages of MS Word
• Plugins and apps for MS Word
• About MS Office 365

LaTeX is a typesetting system for the communication and publication of scientific documents. It is free software. The writer writes in plain text and then adds markup tags to stylise text. Latex is widely used for publishing scientific papers, thesis, and books in many fields. Latex offers a wide variety of features including cross-referencing tables and figures, bibliography management, page layout, chapter and section headings, and numbering.  It has a steep learning curve, and beginners will take some time to build up expertise in Latex. People who have no or very little experience in programming will take a while to get used to Latex since it is similar to learning a new scripting language. Most publishers make a Latex template available alongside MS Word template as a part of the author submission instructions.

Complex equations can be beautifully formatted in Latex by inserting relevant tags. Latex produces a .tex file which in turn can be converted into a wide variety of output formats such as PDF, HTML, etc. using TEX distribution packages such as MikTex. The major disadvantages of using Latex is that it does not come with an inbuilt spell checker or graphical user interface.  Latex comes with several templates – book, report, article, letter or beamer. You should define the document class in your .tex file so that Latex can include all the necessary packages to produce the final output. One of the biggest advantages of using LateX is that you can concentrate on the writing and leave the formatting to Latex. You don’t have to worry about figures getting out of place because you hit a key by mistake. Everything is taken care of in the backend. One of the powerful features of Latex is bibliography management. Essentially the whole process of referencing and generating bibliography is automated using BibTeX or BibLaTeX.

• Latex tutorial
• Benefits of Latex
• Advantages and disadvantages of using Latex
• BibTex tutorial

3. Open Office

OpenOffice is an open-source product that mimics MS Office. It is completely free, and the suite of products it offers includes Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), Impress (Powerpoint) and Base (Access), plus a vector graphics editor, Draw (Visio). The default file format of OpenOffice is OpenDocument Format (ODF). However, you can open and save documents with DOC and DOCX extensions. OpenOffice is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and the tool is distributed under Apache License. Many paid features of MS Word such as PDF export are available for free in OpenOffice. There are no hidden charges for add-ins and upgrades. The tool supports over 40 languages and includes Grammar and spell checker.

OpenOffice might exhibit some formatting issues while working with DOC/DOCX files. These issues might be apparent while working with word files with a lot of pictures, columns, headers and fancy text alignments. OpenOffice remains quite popular as it is downloaded approximately 100,000 times a day. Another important advantage is that it is open source and you can customize the tool to your requirements. It is ideal for small businesses and startups if they are not so keen on shedding money for buying the MS Office site licenses.

• OpenOffice vs. MS Office
• Benefits of using OpenOffice
• OpenOffice Writing tips
• OpenOffice Writing training and ideas

4. LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a free open office suite that is similar to OpenOffice. LibreOffice project branched out from the OpenOffice project in 2010 and is maintained by ‘The Document Foundation’.  You might notice some minor differences in features between OpenOffice and LibreOffice. However they are broadly similar regarding layout and functionality. Both projects are well-maintained. LibreOffice team tends to release very frequent updates with minor feature increments, but OpenOffice project tends to release new versions with major feature updates. LibreOffice enjoys a better recognition among the Linux community as it comes packaged with Linux, whereas you must download and install OpenOffice manually.

• LibreOffice review
• OpenOffice vs LibreOffice
• OpenOffice and LibreOffice feature comparison
• Should you switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice?

5. Scrivener

Scrivener is a writing tool that allows you write and manage a long document such as a Ph.D. Thesis or a novel with a lot of chapters, sections, and subsections. Scrivener is available for both Windows and Mac. One of the great features of Scrivener is that you can split your writing into small chunks or snippets. You can move these chunks around easily and reorganize your content. You can visualize your document using different views. One of the views displays a short message summarising each chapter as a sticky note stuck on a board. You can create folders and subfolders to store documents, images, PDFs, audio, video, and web pages that you need for your writing. You simply drag and drop these into your writing easily in a single click. After finishing the text, the user can export the project into a wide variety of formats. Scrivener is not a free software tool; you can get a copy for approximately $45.

• Scrivener for Dummies book
• Reasons for switching to Scrivener
• Benefits of Scrivener
• Scrivener online course and help

7. Google Docs

Google Docs is a web-based writing software offered by Google. The suite includes Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides which are simplified versions of MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint respectively. You can create and edit files online. One of the powerful features of the Google docs is the ability to collaborate with other users online. The changes made by multiple users on the same documents are highlighted with a user-specific color. Google docs are extensively used in the publishing industry where the articles predominantly contain text and pictures with minimum formatting. This Google project is actively maintained, and there are frequent product updates.

There is a limit on the size of the documents you can create on the Google Docs. The documents cannot be larger than 50MB, spreadsheets have a limit of 2 million cells, and presentation cannot be larger than 100MB. The images in the documents and presentation slides cannot be larger than 50MB. Users can load and export documents in a wide variety of formats such as DOC, DOCX, TXT and ODF file formats. You can upload documents to Google Drive cloud storage. You can either download Google Drive App to your desktop or use the online interface to import and export documents. There are handy research tools that allow you to search for academic papers and quickly insert the appropriate footnotes or citations in a variety of citation formats to Google Docs. You can install third-party add-ons. Some of the popular add-ons include easy bibliography creator, diagramming tool, and table of contents generator.

• How to use Google Docs?
• Tips and tricks for Google Docs
• How to use Google drive?
• Google drive tips and tricks

8. DropBox Paper

Dropbox Paper, or simply Paper, is a web based document-editing service developed by Dropbox. Paper is broadly similar to Google Docs in functionality. It has a very lightweight interface and is capable of supporting a wide variety of content including images, Google spreadsheets, data from Github, YouTube videos, Spotify playlists, and plain old code. This makes DropBox Paper easy to customise for a wide variety of projects. Documents can be easily shared with others. Documents can be shared individually or added to a folder with group access. You can also invite people to edit (or view) a file via email or with a specific URL. It is so easy to create tables and image galleries in Dropbox Paper document. You can create a table by simply clicking on an icon and specifying the number of rows and columns. Image galleries can be created by simply dragging and dropping images. DropBox paper also offers plenty of shortcuts that will save you a lot of time. For example, typing # followed by space will create an H1 header, and typing a hyphen followed by a space will start an unordered list.   DropBox will notify the changes made to the DropBox paper documents via the bell icon in the top left-hand corner. The version control system is very good. You can see all the changes that have been made to the documents and who made the changes. It is easy to navigate to various sections of the paper as the headings are listed as links in the left-hand panel. One of the downsides of using DropBox paper is that DOCX and MD (markdown ) are the only file formats available for exporting documents at the moment. Also, DropBox Paper does not currently support spreadsheet and presentation formats. Hopefully, this will be included in the future updates.

• Google Docs vs. DropBox paper
• Reasons for choosing Dropbox paper
• Features of DropBox paper
• Tips and Tricks for using DropBox paper

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Given that the intro mentions all sorts of academic writing, there’s a severe lack of any mention of how these tools interact with referencing softwares. Mendeley, endnote, papers3, and many more I’m failing to mention…

Plugins are available almost exclusively for word and libreoffice, and little else. As beautiful as scrivener looks, and as much as I like the way it structures documents and lets you focus on the writing, without an easy way to cite-as-you-write and automatically generate a bibliography, it’s simply never going to make any huge in-roads as far as academia is concerned.

Timothy, For the purpose of an integrated software suite that incorporates every component of academic writing — research, writing, and citation management –you should look into Nota Bene (www.notabene.com). I note that I have no financial interest in the company.

most people use scrivener or scribus

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Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

5 Best Apps for Researchers: Apps that Every Researcher Should Know About

Today, one need not physically visit a library and take down notes on sheaves of paper (which are apt to fly about or clutter one’s workspace!). Various online tools and software applications (apps) have made our lives easier, especially the many helpful apps for researchers.

The use of apps to ease workload, manage time, or spark creativity are rapidly becoming de rigueur in all areas of work. In academia too, several apps for researchers are designed to help with daily activities, such as collecting and organizing resources, managing collaborative projects, maintaining daily and longer-term schedules, searching for and reading articles, and staying updated on multidisciplinary topics related to a study domain.

Here, I describe some of the best apps for researchers that can are available for free and can simplify both day-to-day tasks and research-related activities.

• Trello: Streamline individual and collaborative projects

Researchers need to keep track of various activities to optimize their productivity. A useful app for researchers, Trello  is a user-friendly app wherein one can create work boards for different projects and populate them with tasks. The user can assign deadlines and keep updating ongoing progress. Work boards can be shared with all team members, thereby smoothening collaborative working.

Trello offers tools to coordinate tasks among members working remotely or disparately, say, team members on the field and those in the lab. This is a particularly useful app for researchers involved in large projects, working with researchers situated across the globe. With this app you can track team projects and monitor in detail the progress of tasks under way. This can be counted among the best apps for researchers as it enables the visualization of workflows, providing team members with a comprehensive overview of a project from beginning to end. Integration with other applications allows users to access features in Gmail or other apps directly from Trello.

Key features

• Easy to use app for researchers
• Flexible and versatile
• Helps manage collaborative projects
• Evernote: Organize your thoughts and ideas

Are you still relying on Post-its and notepads? Do you jot down sudden ideas on a napkin in a coffee shop or on a scrap of paper while working in the lab? Note-taking apps like  Evernote  can help you make lists and take notes and never lose them. A handy app for researchers, Evernote helps you store all your ideas and thoughts, to-do lists, notes, and research links in one place. You can keep all these bits and bobs organized by creating separate tags and folders for different purposes.

The  Evernote web clipper  is a useful feature for saving articles, web pages, or screen grabs from the internet. You can save a page or highlights to your Evernote notebook along with any notes you want to make about that page. It allows you to sync your notes to all your devices, enabling you to organize your notes across multiple platforms. Further, this is one of the best apps for researchers because its multimedia features let you annotate images, embed files and pictures in your notes, and even record audio and video notes.

• Maintains notes, articles, and other content in one place
• Facilitates content clipping from the web
• Auto-sync across devices with this app for researchers
• R Discovery: Search Less, Read More

Researchers spend a large part of their time wading through a sea of literature, sifting out the relevant from the irrelevant.  R Discovery  is a free literature discovery app and is a great platform that lets you identify the most relevant academic research papers from top journals and publishers. This reading app for research papers covers all major disciplines in the arts and sciences.

R Discovery offers customized research reading, that is, once you set up your areas of interest, the app for research papers finds the top 3 reads and presents them in the form of a daily feed for you. Powered by AI, it learns your reading interests and finds matching relevant papers. It even provides on-the-go updates on recently published articles through notifications and email alerts making it one of the best apps for researchers. R Discovery offers a weekly roundup of the 5 latest articles and summaries of research articles from trending topics. With this intuitive app for research papers, you need not worry about a crucial article slipping through the cracks when you weren’t looking!

When you feed in key terms, the app “deep-dives” into the topics and offers articles, which you can sort by recency or relevance. It even helps you look for similar papers and bookmark important research papers. Mobile and web integration lets you read your bookmarked articles on the  R Discovery  website. What’s more, to customize your feed, you can even import your reading library from Mendeley and Zotero making this a must have app for researchers.

R Discovery can be considered a literature search and reading app for researchers everywhere that steers you in the right direction during your academic voyage!

• Curates 96+ million research articles, including over 24 million open access articles
• Intuitively provides key highlights, summaries, and roundups of research relevant to one’s field
• Integration with reference managers enables the R Discovery app for researchers to make better recommendations.

• Mendeley: Handle reference lists without getting bogged down

The thought of sorting and drawing up a reference list and formatting the in-text citations and references can make the most seasoned scholars break out into a sweat. However, useful apps for researchers like  Mendeley  take the load off these painstaking tasks and offer much more. Mendeley is a free reference management app that automatically generates bibliographies as you write. You don’t need to manually type references; Mendeley imports and organizes them in a systematic manner. The app for researchers allows you to insert citations and create reference lists in different journal formats rapidly and seamlessly. These features free up lot of time, which can be used to focus on paper or thesis writing.

Mendeley is available in both mobile and desktop formats, and researchers can conveniently read content on the go and even highlight text that they might want to return to. Researchers can export papers from the R Discovery app to Mendeley and Zotero. Once exported, they can find these papers in their libraries on ref managers. They can also connect their Mendeley and Zotero accounts with R Discovery (when they are setting up preferences on R Discovery). This will allow for this smart app for researchers to suggest topics based on the Mendeley or Zotero reading list.

• Helps annotate and organize documents
• Can be used across platforms seamlessly
• Integrates with literature discovery apps for researchers like R Discovery.
• Calm: Prevent burnout and focus on self-care

Researchers work for long hours, juggling multiple research tasks, securing funding, and dealing with stressors like dealing with harsh peer reviewer comments and article rejection. These factors can add up and affect a researcher’s mental well-being and motivation. Some  indicators can point to one’s need to focus on self-care , such as altered sleep patterns. A stressed researcher will constantly feel tired and be less efficient at work.

Calm  is a popular app for researchers looking to help reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep quality, and aid in relaxation and self-improvement. The app provides sessions for guided meditation and breathing and masterclasses for managing stress, enhancing creativity, and much more. The use of such apps can even improve concentration and mindfulness. This is a great app for researchers to use to remain calm in the face of high work pressure, roadblocks in your experiments, and creative blocks when writing papers. A few minutes a day on such an app can help you break negative patterns. After all, a happy researcher is a productive researcher!

• Tracks a user’s basic statistics, e.g., minutes of meditation
• Sends meditation reminders
• Offers masterclasses taught by experts in the field of wellness.

Don’t worry, be “appy”!

Technological innovations like AI are constantly improving apps in terms of functions and user experience. While some apps for researchers help to ease the workload or aid in multitasking, others help in self-improvement and time management to let researchers focus better on core tasks. When possible, one should use some of these best apps for researchers to become savvier and more efficient, getting the most out of their time and effort.

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.  

Try R Discovery Prime FREE for 1 week or upgrade at just US$72 a year to access premium features that let you listen to research on the go, read in your language, collaborate with peers, auto sync with reference managers, and much more. Choose a simpler, smarter way to find and read research – Download the app and start your free 7-day trial today !  

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• September 13, 2022
• Software Used to Write Thesis & Research Papers
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• Author Diana Clark

Every student at one point or the other has felt the need to say write my research paper to reduce their work load or finish an urgent submission. Students need to write many papers in their academic lives. They need to write essays to achieve higher academic scores while at school. They need to write admission essays or pass an admission test to get enrolled in the chosen institution for their education. Finally, they need to write a thesis to finish their studies and finally obtain a diploma.

Because of it, students often and quite desperately search for tools that would help them with the thesis and research papers. Thankfully, there are many such tools available today. To help you, we’ve narrowed down the list to some of the best software used to write, research, reference and edit these complex assignments.

Writing Software

Writing research papers or a thesis isn’t simple, but with the right software, it is much easier. Depending on how often you need such software and how many papers you’ll write, you can decide between more advanced and simpler choices to use. For example, you can use tools like Microsoft Word, Scrivener, or LaTeX for writing and publishing. Those who are more tech-savvy will use tools like LibreOffice or OpenOffice. Some hate typing and choose verbal writing software like Zapier or Dragon.

These are the most popular software used for all kinds of writing. Whatever choice you make out of the list, you can’t go wrong with your thesis and research papers.

Microsoft Word

All technology-led generations know of Microsoft Word. After all these years, it is still the most popular software for the creation of documents. With the Word app available now, users can even edit and view the documents from various devices, collaborate and share it with others. Since it is easy to use and has a myriad of attractive features, it’s definitely a tool to consider for your thesis and research papers.

LaTeX is a widely popular tool for typesetting, most commonly used for academic, scientific, and technical documents. Compared to Microsoft Word that has the most widespread use in terms of writing software, this one was specifically created for technical documents and publishing assignments.

However, if you choose this one, keep in mind that it isn’t a word processor and does not at all focus on the appearance and format. That being said, LaTeX can be very useful when you’re writing your first draft since it focuses on the content itself. But, when you need to format and edit, you might want to use a text processor.

Have you used Scrivener just yet? This is word-processing software mostly used by writers and authors. It’s a platform that works wonders with big projects since it lets you organize concepts, research, notes, and various documents.

Libre-Office and Open-Office

These two software choices let you create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Similar to Microsoft Word they are currently the biggest competitors to the first tool in the list. They both share a large variety of features.

Zapier and Dragon

These two are highly popular dictation tools that transform voice into writing. They are widely used by authors who have to write on a daily basis, as well as by students when they need to write large research papers and a thesis.

Referencing Software

With big papers like the thesis, you’ll have to use the proper format to organize dozens, if not hundreds of different sources. This can take hours of your valuable time, but with the help of good referencing software, you can do it within minutes and be certain that the citation is spotless.

When it comes to referencing, the following two are the most popular among students.

Citavi is a popular, rather versatile software used for business and academic purposes. It will help you manage all sources, save the most important passages, as well as note down the page numbers for future use.

Ref-N-Write

This is a slightly more complex tool than Citavi, but one that’s much used among students. Ref-n-write lets you perform a text search, look through all the files you have, check the tone you used in the paper, evaluate your vocabulary, etc. Its features go beyond just referencing since the software is also used to help out the writing process and paraphrase texts.

Researching Software

When you’re working on your research, the right tools and methods can make the process easier and much more effective. These are some of the best sources for research.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office tools are very popular among students. In terms of research, Microsoft Excel is at the top of most student’s lists. It helps them perform quantitative analysis with the help of its numerous statistical functions. Moreover, Excel lets you visualize everything in charts and tables, as well as organize all that data without errors.

Google Scholar

This is a free tool for research made and maintained by Google. It’s extremely popular among those who need to find academic articles, journals, literature, patents, and white papers. All of this makes it perfect for your research papers and thesis.

Research Gate

ResearchGate already has over 11 million users, which makes it one of the most popular research platforms for academics, researchers and scientists. It’s an amazing place to discuss and look for important academic sources.

Editing Software

All of the tools above will help you write that paper, but what happens when you finish your draft? Editing is very hard on the person who wrote the content and it is very easy to miss the crucial mistakes in your paper, especially with lengthy tasks like a thesis.

Here is the editing software that will ensure that this won’t happen.

MS Word Spelling & Grammar Checker

MS Word has its own spelling and grammar checker. Still, you should remember that human editing is essential and a paper can’t be great without it. Even so, the MS checker is very detailed and amazing at finding the errors.

The second most popular editing tool after MS Word is Grammarly. This tool doesn’t just look for spelling or grammar errors. If you choose the paid version, it will find more mistakes than you can imagine and even offer suggestions for content improvements.

Have you tested all of these tools? Writing the research papers and thesis can be so much easier with the right software, so you better start using them today!

You Might Want To Read: Upsc Internal Security Defense Forces And Paramilitary Forces Of India Notes ,  Botany Question Paper 8 2010 ,  Defence Strategic Studies ,  Ugc Net Arab Culture Islamic Studies Question Paper 1 2012 ,  Nat Rajasthani Mock Test Paper 14 ,  Jee Advanced Physics Syllabus 2018 ,  Insurance From Universities ,  Ignou To Launch Culinary Institute By 2012 ,  Aakash Institute Admission Cum Scholarship Test Sample Paper Nurture X Cum Ntse Classroom Course 2015 ,  Neet Biology Transport In Plants Notes

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Everyday AI > How to prompt AI to find reliable sources for a research paper

How to prompt AI to find reliable sources for a research paper

It can be cumbersome finding reliable sources when writing a research paper. Determining whether a source is reliable can be time-consuming, as you need to confirm a website’s credibility, whether their claims are valid, and more. Learn how to use AI for research to help simplify the sourcing process.

How to use AI for your research paper sources

Research papers require writers to base and organize their claims and thesis on facts. This propels writers to extensively evaluate potential sources and check their credibility, author credentials, and potential bias .

Get the most out of your documents with Word

Elevate your writing and collaborate with others - anywhere, anytime

To save time, AI can help sift through websites to streamline the research process. However, despite its ease, it’s critical to know how to effectively communicate to AI of what constitutes a reliable source. Remember: AI can make mistakes, and without explicit instructions, the sources provided may be unreliable.

To prompt AI to help find reliable sources, try the following:

Find thematically similar sources

Credible sources typically have a bibliography and in-text citations that serve as building blocks. You can request the AI platform to comb through credible sources for additional citations and related literature. This can considerably help simplify the research process by providing you with a suggested list of credible sources. Furthermore, it lends credibility to your work, as you’re citing a lineage of respected authors within your field of interest. Ask it to exclusively provide sources with an extensive bibliography to find new tangents to jump from in your research journey.

Provide information on authors’ credentials

A key component of a source’s credibility is the author’s credentials. Authors should be experts in their field—they need to have the career and academic experience to validate themselves. After you compile a list of sources, you can request AI to detail an author’s career and credentials to help you determine if they’re reliable. This may also illuminate potential biases in their work that stem from their personal history. It’s important to keep this information in mind as you consider what sources to include as their claims may not be entirely accurate.

Supply relevant sources to a research question

Communicate your research question and request relevant sources for evidence. AI tools review large datasets to compile information swiftly. You can use it to request sources that are relevant to answering your question, which can shorten the research process. You should still independently confirm their credibility to ensure they’re appropriate for your paper.

Summarize key points from a source

Are you trying to synthesize information from a verbose article or paper? AI can help summarize key points to make it easier to understand. Highlight relevant sections in your document and copy the passage into your AI tool. You can request it to clarify specific sections, communicate main ideas, extrapolate on certain points, and more.

Create citations

Need help with formatting some citations from a research article? Ask AI to help format your research sources in your preferred style, whether it’s MLA, Chicago Style, or APA.

For more ways AI can help improve your writing and research process, learn more everyday AI tips.

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Welcome to Turnitin’s new website for guidance!

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Sharing research data

As a researcher, you are increasingly encouraged, or even mandated, to make your research data available, accessible, discoverable and usable.

Sharing research data is something we are passionate about too, so we’ve created this short video and written guide to help you get started.

Research Data

What is research data.

While the definition often differs per field, generally, research data refers to the results of observations or experiments that validate your research findings. These span a range of useful materials associated with your research project, including:

Raw or processed data files

Research data  does not  include text in manuscript or final published article form, or data or other materials submitted and published as part of a journal article.

Why should I share my research data?

There are so many good reasons. We’ve listed just a few:

How you benefit

You get credit for the work you've done

Leads to more citations! 1

Can boost your number of publications

Increases your exposure and may lead to new collaborations

What it means for the research community

It's easy to reuse and reinterpret your data

Duplication of experiments can be avoided

New insights can be gained, sparking new lines of inquiry

Empowers replication

And society at large…

Greater transparency boosts public faith in research

Can play a role in guiding government policy

Improves access to research for those outside health and academia

Benefits the public purse as funding of repeat work is reduced

How do I share my research data?

The good news is it’s easy.

Yet to submit your research article?  There are a number of options available. These may vary depending on the journal you have chosen, so be sure to read the  Research Data  section in its  Guide for Authors  before you begin.

Already published your research article?  No problem – it’s never too late to share the research data associated with it.

Two of the most popular data sharing routes are:

Publishing a research elements article

These brief, peer-reviewed articles complement full research papers and are an easy way to receive proper credit and recognition for the work you have done. Research elements are research outputs that have come about as a result of following the research cycle – this includes things like data, methods and protocols, software, hardware and more.

You can publish research elements articles in several different Elsevier journals, including  our suite of dedicated Research Elements journals . They are easy to submit, are subject to a peer review process, receive a DOI and are fully citable. They also make your work more sharable, discoverable, comprehensible, reusable and reproducible.

The accompanying raw data can still be placed in a repository of your choice (see below).

Uploading your data to a repository like Mendeley Data

Mendeley Data is a certified, free-to-use repository that hosts open data from all disciplines, whatever its format (e.g. raw and processed data, tables, codes and software). With many Elsevier journals, it’s possible to upload and store your data to Mendeley Data during the manuscript submission process. You can also upload your data directly to the repository. In each case, your data will receive a DOI, making it independently citable and it can be linked to any associated article on ScienceDirect, making it easy for readers to find and reuse.

View an article featuring Mendeley data opens in new tab/window  (just select the  Research Data  link in the left-hand bar or scroll down the page).

What if I can’t submit my research data?

Data statements offer transparency.

We understand that there are times when the data is simply not available to post or there are good reasons why it shouldn’t be shared.  A number of Elsevier journals encourage authors to submit a data statement alongside their manuscript. This statement allows you to clearly explain the data you’ve used in the article and the reasons why it might not be available.  The statement will appear with the article on ScienceDirect. 

View a sample data statement opens in new tab/window  (just select the  Research Data  link in the left-hand bar or scroll down the page).

Showcasing your research data on ScienceDirect

We have 3 top tips to help you maximize the impact of your data in your article on ScienceDirect.

Link with data repositories

You can create bidirectional links between any data repositories you’ve used to store your data and your online article. If you’ve published a data article, you can link to that too.

Enrich with interactive data visualizations

The days of being confined to static visuals are over. Our in-article interactive viewers let readers delve into the data with helpful functions such as zoom, configurable display options and full screen mode.

Cite your research data

Get credit for your work by citing your research data in your article and adding a data reference to the reference list. This ensures you are recognized for the data you shared and/or used in your research. Read the  References  section in your chosen journal’s  Guide for Authors  for more information.

Ready to get started?

If you have yet to publish your research paper, the first step is to find the right journal for your submission and read the  Guide for Authors .

Find a journal by matching paper title and abstract of your manuscript in Elsevier's  JournalFinder opens in new tab/window

Find journal by title opens in new tab/window

Already published? Just view the options for sharing your research data above.

1 Several studies have now shown that making data available for an article increases article citations.