Whisper — Free Local Transcription for Interviews
Whisper is OpenAI's open-weight speech recognition: near-human accuracy in ~100 languages, running entirely on your …
Humanities
Ollama — Run Local LLMs on Your Own Hardware
Ollama runs open-weight language models on your machine with one command, so confidential data never leaves it. Slower …
NotebookLM — Chat With Your Own Sources
NotebookLM answers only from documents you upload, citing the passage each claim came from. The most …
Claude — AI Assistant for Whole-Document Work
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, built around very large context windows. Strong at critiquing a full chapter in one …
Excalidraw — Fast Sketch Diagrams for Thinking
Excalidraw is the fastest way to get a diagram out of your head: open the page and draw. The hand-drawn look is honest …
MAXQDA — Mixed-Methods Qualitative Analysis
MAXQDA codes qualitative data with genuinely usable mixed-methods tools: activate cases by variable and move between …
NVivo — Qualitative Coding Software for Large Studies
NVivo codes interviews, documents, and media at scale, with query tools and team coding that produce an audit trail. …
Figshare — Institutional Repository for Research Outputs
Figshare mints DOIs for datasets, figures, and posters with usage metrics and university portals. Polished and …
Zenodo — Free Permanent DOIs for Research Outputs
Zenodo gives any research output a citable DOI on CERN infrastructure, free, with automatic GitHub release archiving. …
OSF — Preregistration and Open Science Projects
OSF hosts preregistrations, project files, and preprints free, from a non-profit. The timestamped, uneditable …
Anki — Spaced Repetition for Researchers
Anki schedules reviews just before you would forget, using the most replicated finding in learning science. Free, open …
Zettlr — Markdown Writing With Zotero Citations
Zettlr is a free Markdown editor built for academics: Zotero citation autocomplete while you type and Pandoc export with …
Logseq — Outliner Notes With Block References
Logseq stores local Markdown but presents it as an outliner with a daily journal and referenceable blocks. Excellent for …
Notion — Shared Workspace and Databases for Labs
Notion combines documents with relational databases and real-time collaboration, which makes it excellent lab …
LanguageTool — Grammar Checking You Can Self-Host
LanguageTool checks grammar and style in 30+ languages, plugs into LaTeX editors, and can run on your own server. Weaker …
DeepL — Translation for Academic Writing
DeepL produces translations that read like a competent native speaker wrote them, with glossaries for your terminology. …
Scrivener — Drafting Software for Long Theses
Scrivener treats a thesis as movable fragments rather than one file, with a corkboard for restructuring. Excellent for …
Typst — A Modern Alternative to LaTeX
Typst compiles in milliseconds, has readable syntax and real error messages, and is a genuine pleasure to write in. Most …
TeXstudio — Free Desktop LaTeX Editor
TeXstudio is a mature offline LaTeX editor with structure navigation, inline preview, and reference autocompletion. No …
Consensus — AI Search That Answers Research Questions
Consensus answers a plain-language research question with findings extracted from papers and a meter showing how they …
Litmaps — Citation Maps That Keep Watching
Litmaps builds a citation map from your seed papers and then monitors it, alerting you when new connected work appears. …
EndNote — Reference Manager for Large Libraries
EndNote is Clarivate's commercial reference manager, standard in medicine and evidence synthesis. Built for huge …
JabRef — Open-Source BibTeX Reference Manager
JabRef edits your .bib file directly, so your bibliography is plain text you can put in Git. Ideal for LaTeX-first …
Mendeley — Elsevier's Reference Manager, Reviewed
Mendeley is a free reference manager with 2 GB of storage and Word integration. Easy to start — but the 2022 rewrite …
Pandoc — Convert Markdown, LaTeX, Word, and PDF
Pandoc converts between almost every document format from one command. Write once in Markdown and export to whatever a …
Paperpile — Reference Manager for Google Docs
Paperpile is a paid, browser-first reference manager with the best Google Docs citation experience available. Fast and …
diagrams.net — Free Flowcharts and PRISMA Diagrams
diagrams.net builds methodology flowcharts, PRISMA diagrams, and architecture figures for free, with no account. Exports …
Canva — Conference Posters and Slides, Fast
Canva produces professional-looking posters, graphical abstracts, and slides from templates with no design skill. Not a …
Grammarly — Proofreading for Academic Writing
Grammarly is a strong final-pass proofreader that works in almost any text field. It also flags correct jargon and …
GitHub — Version Control and Sharing for Research Code
GitHub gives research code a full history, a citable DOI through Zenodo, and a home reviewers can reach. Free, and the …
Connected Papers — Visual Citation Map Tool
Connected Papers turns one seed paper into a similarity graph of a field. The fastest way to see a literature's shape — …
Research Rabbit — Free Paper Discovery and Mapping
Research Rabbit turns papers you know into papers you should know, iteratively and for free, with Zotero sync. Discovery …
Perplexity — AI Search With Citations, Reviewed
Perplexity answers questions by searching the web and citing what it read. Excellent for orientation and current …
ChatGPT — AI Assistant for Researchers, Reviewed
ChatGPT is OpenAI's assistant: strong at drafting, explaining, and running Python on your data. Weak — dangerously so — …
Overleaf — Collaborative LaTeX in Your Browser
Overleaf is the standard for co-authored LaTeX: share a link, edit together, compile in the browser. The free tier is …
VS Code — One Editor for LaTeX, Python, and Notes
VS Code replaces a separate LaTeX editor, Python IDE, and Markdown app with one tool. Free and extensible — at the cost …
Obsidian — Markdown Notes You Own Forever
Obsidian stores notes as plain Markdown files on your own disk and links them into a knowledge graph. Free, offline, and …
Zotero — Free Reference Manager for Researchers
Zotero is a free, open-source reference manager. One-click capture, 10,000+ citation styles, BibTeX for LaTeX — with a …
Inkscape — Free Vector Editor for Scientific Figures
Inkscape is the free vector editor for journal figures and conference posters. Real LaTeX equations inside graphics, SVG …