It’s a new year and you are probably looking at trying to be more effective with your research. Perhaps you are just starting with your research, or perhaps you are wanting to optimise the way you work. Either way, we have the perfect tool for you!<\/p>\n
Our full list of tools can be found on the Postgraduate and Researcher guide<\/a>,\u00a0but we have selected just a few here for you.<\/p>\n Productivity:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Freedom app<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Freedom is an app and website blocker\u00a0designed to improve focus and productivity. Use it to block apps on your phone, tablet or PC.<\/p>\n Planning:<\/strong><\/p>\n Outliner<\/a><\/p>\n Organise your thoughts, tasks and projects with Outliner. Create to do lists and track entire projects from anywhere.<\/p>\n Conceptualization:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cmap<\/a><\/p>\n The IHMC Cmap Tools software empowers users to construct, navigate, share and criticise knowledge models represented as concept maps.<\/p>\n Searching:<\/strong><\/p>\n Kopernio<\/a><\/p>\n Fast, one link access to millions of research papers. Using the subscriptions of your university or institution, Kopernio\u00a0provides access to full text pdf’s of articles directly from Google Scholar and other databases. Install the chrome plugin and tap into the convenience of Kopernio.<\/p>\n Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n Feedly<\/a><\/p>\n A news aggregator application and RSS feed reader for various devices\u00a0and web browsers. Stay up to date with the latest information in your field\u00a0and keep track of your favourite\u00a0publications all in one place.<\/p>\n Write up:<\/strong><\/p>\n Grammarly<\/a><\/p>\n Grammarly is a free writing assistant that makes sure everything that you write is clear, effective and mistake free.<\/p>\n Noisli<\/a><\/p>\n \u200bNoisli is a background noise and color generator for working and relaxing. Online soothing ambient sounds like White noise, Rain and Coffee Shop.<\/p>\n Referencing:<\/strong><\/p>\n Mendeley<\/a><\/p>\n A free Reference Management and Academic Social Networking Tool that assists with managing your references, showcasing your work and connecting with other researchers worldwide.<\/p>\n Note taking:<\/strong><\/p>\n EverNote<\/a><\/p>\n Evernote is a cross-platform app designed for note taking, organizing,and archiving. Organise your work and take notes where ever you are.<\/p>\n OneNote<\/a><\/p>\n Microsoft OneNote is a computer program for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users’ notes, drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. Part of the Office 365 student package.<\/p>\n Surveys:<\/strong><\/p>\n SUrveys<\/a><\/p>\n The web-based e-Survey service (SUrveys) is available to support academic staff and postgraduate students using online surveys for their academic research.<\/p>\n Data Clean-up:<\/strong><\/p>\n OpenRefine<\/a><\/p>\n A free, open source, power tool for working with messy data.<\/p>\n Data Analysis:<\/strong><\/p>\n R<\/a><\/p>\n R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MAC.\u00a0Can be used with\u00a0R-studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Visualisation:<\/strong><\/p>\n Tableau Public<\/a><\/p>\n Tableau Public is free software that can allow anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and create interactive data visualizations for the web.<\/p>\n Software use:<\/strong><\/p>\n Virtual Box<\/a><\/p>\n Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free and open-source hypervisor (virtual machine monitor) for x86 computers. If you need a specific environment for software use, Virtual Box can create\u00a0it for you on your computer.<\/p>\n Collaboration:<\/strong><\/p>\n Slack app<\/a><\/p>\n A collaboration tool that bring teams together in a single workspace.\u00a0Slack is where work flows. It’s where the\u00a0people\u00a0you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.<\/p>\n Manage:<\/strong><\/p>\n Stellenbosch University\u00a0Library & Information Service<\/span><\/p>\n For more information on Managing your Research Data, please see the Library’s\u00a0Research Data Management page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Store:<\/strong><\/p>\n Google Drive<\/a><\/p>\n Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more. Comes with 15GB of free space with your Google account.<\/p>\n OneDrive<\/a><\/p>\n \u200bA file hosting service from Miscrosoft. Students at SUN receive a 5TB OneDrive\u00a0 for use during their studies. See SUN’s\u00a0IT page<\/a>\u00a0for more details.<\/p>\n Preserve:<\/strong><\/p>\n SunScholar<\/a><\/p>\n Theses are deposited on SUNScholar once you complete your degree. SUNScholar can also be used to archive articles, conference papers and other records for long term preservation.<\/p>\n SherpaRomeo<\/a><\/p>\n SHERPA RoMEO\u00a0is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis.<\/p>\n Presentations:<\/strong><\/p>\n Prezi<\/a><\/p>\n Web based presentation software. Prezi uses motion, zoom and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life<\/p>\n Posters, Graphics\u00a0& Infographics:<\/strong><\/p>\n Canva<\/a><\/p>\n Canva makes design simple for everyone. Create designs for web or print, blog graphics, presentations, coves, flyers, posters and much more.<\/p>\n Sharing:<\/strong><\/p>\n ResearchGate<\/a><\/p>\n ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators.<\/p>\n SlideShare<\/a><\/p>\n A content sharing community for sharing of presentations and infographics.<\/p>\n Publish:<\/strong><\/p>\n Think\u00a0Check Submit<\/a><\/p>\n Think. Check. Submit. is a campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research. It is a simple checklist that researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.<\/p>\n1. Plan & Design<\/h5>\n
2. Collect & Capture<\/h5>\n
3. Analyze, Collaborate & Create<\/h5>\n
4. Manage, Store & Preserve<\/h5>\n
5. Share & Publish<\/h5>\n