online research paper writing tools

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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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11 Best Academic Writing Tools For Researchers

For many people, the academic writing process can be a daunting and exhausting experience. Papers and reports can take hours or days to complete and require intense dedication to perfect. However, there are tools that can make the process much easier for those who need them most. It is crucial to maintain academic integrity while leveraging these AI writing tools to ensure the quality and authenticity of your work.

If you find yourself struggling with long-form writing projects, these tools will help you work smarter instead of harder.

This article is organized into roughly 3 stages of writing:

Organizing the manuscript

Summary 💡 Use Jasper to get unstuck – ask it to brainstorm or write an outline for you  ✍️ Use ProWritingAid or Trinka to check and edit your paper 📖 Use QuillBot to rephrase or summarize your research 🤓 Check your essay readability with Hemingway Editor 📁 Use Scrivener or LaTex to organize your manuscript for your masterpiece Editor

Table of Contents

I. Best AI Writing Tools for Researchers

#1. jasper (formerly jarvis) – game-changing ai writing bot.

Jasper is an AI-powered writing assistant that can help you with different parts of your writing. Jasper can identify the core argument in your writing and will provide an outline, create a title, and offer to write introductions and conclusions.

Here is the deep dive review article on Jasper

There are ~60 templates that can help you with the less hardcore research work that takes up your time

Flexible pay-as-you-go. To start with, Jarvis gives you some credits (5,000 in my case) for free. So, test Jarvis and pay for what you use

Unused credits are not allowed to carry over to the next month. I wish it’s more like the Audible model, where you can save up the credit later on.

#2. ProWritingAid – Your paper enhancer before submission

As someone who works in academia, I understand the importance of producing quality writing that is clear, concise, and accurate. That’s why I love using ProWritingAid, an AI writing assistant that helps me perfect my work before submission.

Overall, ProWritingAid is a powerful tool that can help you produce quality writing quickly and efficiently.

Learning tool for students that provides in-depth analysis to get your work publish-ready

While I love the detailed report feature, some users may find these functions overwhelming at first

#3. [Trinka ](https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1568234&u=3086661&m=98815&urllink=&afftrack=)– Designed for Academic Writing and Technical writing

It aids academics and professionals in ensuring that their writing is clear, succinct, and interesting.

Consistency Check that’s made for scientific writing

Free version limits word count to 10,000 words/month

#4. Hemingway Editor – free and powerful

Helps you spot your prose’s pitfalls, e.g., passive voice and convoluted sentence structure

Helps improve reading comprehension and understanding  

Can’t export to MS Word or PDF files

II. Best Re-Writing Software

#1. quillbot – best paid option for the professional .

One of the primary strengths of this tool is that it uses machine learning to understand, reword, restructure, and improve on the paraphrases it makes. Besides paraphrasing and cutting your writing time, QuillBot offers a built-in thesaurus function to help you find the perfect word every time and change individual words.

Good interface that shows you the words that have been spun, not just shows you the result

Has a Grammar Checker that rivals Grammarly with a one-click fix-it function

Premium starts with $15 billed monthly and $9.99 per month (billed every 6 months)

#2. WordTune – The most convenient option

Works as a Google Extension which I use for my daily needs

To change the tone to casual or formal requires an upgrade

#3. Spinbot – Best free option for starters

Credit: from the author at scijournal.org 

The interface is simple, spotless, and straightforward to use, but it includes offers. When you get past the commercials, though, the summarizing method is simple

#1. Scrivener – Best for Academic Researchers

Scrivener is great for researchers who need to handle a large volume of research. As an AI research assistant, it helps organize your research and thoughts. Academic writing is more complicated than a grad school writing assignment. This tool costs a little bit of money. But, many top researchers use it for their research papers.

Ease of use – allows you to easily rearrange your chapters and organize your research paper later without worrying about the order

Interface in the documents can be a bit confusing for first-time users

That’s right, you won’t have to leave your writing tool if you need to upload a research paper or just an article.

Can use Authorea with Scrivener

#3. Reedsy – Best for Aspiring Best-Selling Authors

Reedsy’s eBook Editor has all the features of an advanced word processor, meaning you can write your eBook with the same high-powered tools that are used by best-selling authors.

#4. LaTeX – Great tool but difficult for non-coder  

Download the LaTeX program here , and don’t forget to check out our guide on how to use it here .

#5. DraftIn – Minimalistic and free for laser-focus writing  

This is different from Google Docs’ showing the updated version and you figure out what has been changed. And, revert them one by one.

Version control is very helpful for keeping track of edits and updates

Limited functions (by design) compared with other tools

Share them with us below!

Why should I use LaTeX?

What are the best tips for academic writing.

3. Try using different words than the ones you found in your research

8. Mix it up in terms of PUNCTUATION 

What are the tools for effective writing?

The most important tool is your mind as a researcher.

10 thoughts on “11 Best Academic Writing Tools For Researchers”

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Choosing the Right Academic Writing Companion

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COMPETITORS

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

Jenni AI streamlines the academic writing process, offering real-time assistance in content generation and thorough proofreading.

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

Scientific Writing

Jenni AI is tailored for scientific writing, ensuring the clarity and precision needed in research articles and reports.

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

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Competitors may not provide robust plagiarism checks, potentially compromising academic integrity.

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Some competitors may not be as well-suited for technical writing projects.

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Jenni AI offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for both novice and experienced writers to utilize its features effectively.

Some competitors may have steeper learning curves or complex interfaces, which can be time-consuming and frustrating for users.

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Competitors may not provide the same level of support for correct and consistent citations.

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Your personal research assistant

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.

Organize your way.

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 9,000 citation styles, you can format your work to match any style guide or publication.

Stay in sync.

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.

Collaborate freely.

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.

Still not sure which program to use for your research? See why we think you should choose Zotero .

Ready to try Zotero?

Free Online Proofreader

Try our other writing services

Correct your document within 5 minutes

• Proofread on 100+ language issues
• Specialized in academic texts
• Corrections directly in your document

Instantly correct your entire document in minutes

Nobody's perfect all the time—and now, you don’t have to be!

There are times when you just want to write without worrying about every grammar or spelling convention. The online proofreader immediately finds all of your errors. This allows you to concentrate on the bigger picture. You’ll be 100% confident that your writing won’t affect your grade.

What does a proofreader do?

The proofreading process is your last chance to catch any errors in your writing before you submit it. A proofreader makes sure your spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors are reviewed and fixed. This can be done automatically by an AI-powered tool like the one at the top of this page or by a real human. Both options have their advantages, so pick the one that suits you most.

Fix mistakes that slip under your radar

✔ Fix problems with commonly confused words, like affect vs. effect, which vs. that and who vs. that.

✔ Catch words that sound similar but aren’t, like their vs. they’re, your vs. you’re.

✔ Check your punctuation to avoid errors with dashes and hyphens, commas, apostrophes, and more.

✔ Avoid sentence fragments, subject-verb agreement errors, and problems with parallelism.

How does the proofreader work?

The online proofreader.

It’s really straightforward. Just paste the text into the tool. All your errors will now be underlined in red. You can hover over these mistakes to see how they can be addressed. If you agree, just click on the button “Fix all errors,” and your mistakes will be fixed instantly! 

The professional proofreader

Upload your entire document first. Choose the pages you want proofread, the extra services you want to use, and the deadline. Then fill in some key details like your field of study so that we can find you the best proofreader. When you’re done, you pay for your order, and we make sure that your writing is checked by a proofreader. You’ll be contacted when the job is done!

Who should use this proofreader?

Avoid a bad grade and hand in your documents with absolute confidence.

Businesspeople

Look like a pro by writing error-free emails, reports, and more.

Ensure your work is clear and readable to increase the chance that it’ll get published.

Want your whole document checked and corrected in a matter of minutes?

Would you like to upload your entire document and check all your documents for 100+ language issues? Then Scribbr’s AI-powered proofreading is perfect for you.

With AI-powered proofreading, you can correct your text in no time.

• Upload document
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Proofread my document

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“Excellent review of a paper that was deciding my grade. I appreciate both the edits and the feedback to increase my knowledge of correct APA formatting and accurate citations. I needed the paper returned quickly, and the team worked hard to make sure I had what I needed. I just got my grade back, A+. I would 100% use this service again, it was worth every penny!!!!!!”

A proofreader for everyone

Don’t let typos and grammar keep you down. Make your writing count

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Frequently asked questions

Our support team is here to help you daily via chat, WhatsApp, email, or phone between 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. CET.

Yes! Our personal statement editors can help you reduce your word count by up to 25%. You can choose to receive this feedback through direct edits or suggestions in comments – just select your choice when you upload your personal statement.

Our APA experts default to APA 7 for editing and formatting. For the Citation Editing Service you are able to choose between APA 6 and 7.

It is not necessary to reserve a time slot for your edit. As soon as your document is ready to be proofread, you can upload it at any time via our website . Based on your chosen deadline, our editor(s) will then proofread your document within 24 hours, 3 days, or 7 days.

If you are unsure about the availability of our services or are planning to upload a very large document (>13,000 words) with a 24 hour deadline, we recommend that you contact us beforehand via chat or email .

Scribbr is following the guidelines announced by the WHO (World Health Organization). As an online platform, all our services remain available, and we will continue to help students as usual.

Can I still place an order? Will my order be completed within the deadline? Yes, you can still place orders and orders will be delivered within the agreed upon deadline. Scribbr is an online platform – our proofreading & editing services are provided by editors working remotely from all over the world. This means Scribbr can guarantee that we will process your order with the same diligence and professionalism as always. The same holds true for our Plagiarism Checker .

Can I still contact customer support? Yes. Our support team is available from 09.00 to 23.00 CET and happy to answer any questions you might have!

Yes, if your document is longer than 20,000 words, you will get a sample of approximately 2,000 words. This sample edit gives you a first impression of the editor’s editing style and a chance to ask questions and give feedback.

How does the sample edit work?

You will receive the sample edit within 12 hours after placing your order. You then have 24 hours to let us know if you’re happy with the sample or if there’s something you would like the editor to do differently.

Read more about how the sample edit works

When you upload a large document (20,000+ words), we will ask your editor to send a sample edit of approximately 2,000 words as soon as possible. This sample edit gives you a first impression of your editor’s editing style and what you can expect from the service. You will receive it within 12 hours after uploading your order.

Why do we provide you with a sample edit?

We always aim to make you 100% happy, and Proofreading & Editing is a complex service. We want to make sure that our editing style meets your expectations before the editor improves your entire document.

Our editors are trained to follow Scribbr’s academic style . However, your preferences might deviate from our conventions. The sample edit gives you the chance to provide feedback – you can let us know if you’re happy with the sample or if there’s something you would like the editor to do differently.

Once your editor has completed your sample edit, you will receive a notification via email. You have 24 hours to reply to this email and provide us with feedback. If we receive your feedback in time, your editor will go the extra mile and adjust the edit according to your input.

What sort of feedback can you give?

Give us feedback that will help your editor meet your requirements. For example:

• “I am completely happy. The editor can continue editing like this.”
• “I forgot to mention that my school has the following rules for gendered pronouns.”
• “The editor changed the spelling of a technical term, but my professor spells it differently. Please keep the original spelling of this term.”

The  Structure  and Clarity Check can only be purchased in conjunction with Proofreading & Editing . Providing feedback on structure and clarity requires extensive knowledge of the text, which the editor acquires while proofreading and editing your text.

However, our Paper Formatting Service,   Citation Editing Service and Plagiarism Checker can be purchased separately.

Yes, Scribbr will proofread the summary in another language as well.

Who will proofread my summary?

If your document contains a summary in a different language, we will send this part to another editor who is a native speaker of that language. The editor will check your summary, applying our standard Proofreading & Editing service.

If you ordered any additional services, such as the Structure Check or Clarity Check, the editor will not apply them to your summary. This is because the summary is a translation of your abstract – you already receive Structure and Clarity feedback on the text in the original language. Therefore, when proofreading your summary, the editor will focus on making sure your language and style is correct.

How does it work?

We will create a new assignment within your order and send you a confirmation email. This also means that you will receive a separate email/SMS notification from us when the editor has finished proofreading your summary. Once your summary is proofread, you can download it via your Scribbr account and read the editor’s feedback.

Yes, we can provide a certificate of proofreading.

As soon as the editor delivers the edit, you can email us at [email protected] to request a certificate.

Please indicate the following in your email:

• Your order number
• Your full name
• The title of your work

We will create a PDF certificate and email it to you as soon as possible.

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

• PhD dissertations
• Research proposals
• Personal statements
• Admission essays
• Motivation letters
• Reflection papers
• Journal articles
• Capstone projects

Yes, when you accept all changes and delete all comments your document is ready to be handed in.

How to accept all changes:

• Word for Mac 2011

How to remove all comments:

When you’ve finished this, others will no longer be able to see the changes made by the editor.

• Read your last version one last time to make sure everything is the way you want it.
• Save your document as a .pdf file to come across more professional and to ensure the format of your document doesn’t change.

Yes, in the order process you can indicate your preference for American, British, or Australian English .

If you don’t choose one, your editor will follow the style of English you currently use. If your editor has any questions about this, we will contact you.

Yes, you can upload your thesis in sections.

We try our best to ensure that the same editor checks all the different sections of your thesis. When you upload a new file, our system recognizes you as a returning customer, and we immediately contact the editor who helped you before.

However, we cannot guarantee that the same editor will be available. Your chances are higher if

• You send us your text as soon as possible and
• You can be flexible about the deadline.

Please note that the shorter your deadline is, the bigger the risk that your previous editor is not available.

If your previous editor isn’t available, then we will inform you immediately and look for another qualified editor. Fear not! Every Scribbr editor follows the  Scribbr Improvement Model  and will deliver high-quality work.

However, every editor has a slightly different editing style, so you may notice small inconsistencies in editing choices. As with every proofreading order, be sure to carefully review your editor’s changes and suggestions as you finalize your text to ensure that everything is as you want it.

The fastest turnaround time is 12 hours.

You can upload your document at any time and choose between four deadlines:

At Scribbr, we promise to make every customer 100% happy with the service we offer. Our philosophy: Your complaint is always justified – no denial, no doubts.

Our customer support team is here to find the solution that helps you the most, whether that’s a free new edit or a refund for the service.

Every Scribbr order comes with our award-winning Proofreading & Editing service , which combines two important stages of the revision process.

For a more comprehensive edit, you can add a Structure Check or Clarity Check to your order. With these building blocks, you can customize the kind of feedback you receive.

You might be familiar with a different set of editing terms. To help you understand what you can expect at Scribbr, we created this table:

View an example

Scribbr not only specializes in proofreading and editing texts in English , but also in several other languages . This way, we help out students from all over the world.

As a global academic writing proofreading service, we work with professional editors  – all native speakers – who edit in the following languages :

This way, you can also have your academic writing proofread and edited in your second language!

Please note that we do not offer Finnish proofreading, but students can still upload English papers on scribbr.fi .

Yes, regardless of the deadline you choose, our editors can proofread your document during weekends and holidays.

Example: If you select the 12-hour service on Saturday, you will receive your edited document back within 12 hours on Sunday.

The footnotes are not automatically included in the word count.

If you want the language errors in your footnotes to be corrected by the editor, you can indicate this in step 3 of the upload process . The words in the footnotes are then automatically added to the total word count.

Need help with your references?

• If you use the APA reference style, you can use our free APA Citation Generator or the articles about APA in our Knowledge Base.
• If you’d like us to check your references for consistency, you can use our Citation Editing Service .

To keep our prices competitive, we do not offer a free trial edit. However, if your document is longer than 30,000 words, we are happy to provide you with a sample edit of 2,000 words to ensure you are satisfied with the editor’s editing style.

Rest assured, our customers are very satisfied with our proofreading services. We’re proud that they have rated us with an excellent 4.6 on Trustpilot. In the unlikely event that you have a less positive experience, we’ll solve that with our 100% happiness guarantee !

After your thesis has been edited , you will receive an email with a link to download the edited document.

The editor has made changes to your document using ‘ Track Changes ’ in Word.  This means that you only have to accept or ignore the changes that are made in the text one by one.

It is also possible to accept all changes at once. However, we strongly advise you not to do so for the following reasons:

• You can learn much by looking at what mistakes you have made.
• The editors do not only change the text, they also place comments when sentences or sometimes even entire paragraphs are unclear. We therefore advise you to read through these comments and take into account your editor’s tips and suggestions.
• Because of the many changes, sometimes there may be double spaces, double periods, or other minor mistakes in a sentence. Checking the changes one by one, you can easily detect these minor errors.

We have written a manual in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

Check out an example

Our editors are very experienced and will do their utmost to correct all errors in your thesis .

However, with our current rates, an editor can only check your thesis once. This may cause an editor to overlook an error. We can therefore not guarantee that your thesis is 100% error free after you have had your thesis edited.

The editor uses ‘Track Changes’ in Word when editing your thesis.

Don’t know how this works? Then read the following guide  in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

No, we do not provide you with a clean copy. You will always receive a file edited with tracked changes .

We do this for two main reasons:

• In most papers, there are sentences that the editor cannot edit without additional information from the author. In these cases, your editor will provide guidance but leave you to implement the feedback. If we were to simply accept the changes for you, then these issues would be left unaddressed.
• We believe students should be accountable for their work. Our editors can correct language errors and coach you to be a better writer. However, the end product belongs to you and should reflect your ideas and decisions.

All Scribbr editors are language experts with interests in different subject areas.

You can indicate your field of study when you upload your document . We’ll make sure that the editor who proofreads your work is familiar with your discipline and its specialist vocabulary.

These are the fields of study you can choose from, and examples of the main subjects in each field:

• Business and Management: Business Administration, Hotel Management, Accountancy, Marketing
• Economics: Business Economics, Econometrics, Finance
• IT and Engineering: ICT, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Industrial Design, Electrical Engineering
• Natural and Life Sciences: Biomedical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry
• Geography, Agriculture and Environment: Ecology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Urban Planning
• Health and Medical Sciences: Medicine, Obstetrics, Pharmacy, Nutrition, Dentistry
• Arts and Humanities: Philosophy, History, Literature, Cultural Studies, Theology
• Law and Policy: Law, Political Science, Public Policy, Human Rights
• Social and Behavioral Sciences: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Sciences

Editors don’t have to be experts in the content of your paper, but they do know how to present it in the best way possible! Our goal is to improve your writing and give you feedback on the readability, structure, logic, and clarity of your text. We know from experience that the most effective editors are specialists in language and academic writing.

We’ve carefully selected and trained all of our editors to proofread theses and other academic documents. Once they’re qualified, we continue to carefully monitor their work to make sure we always deliver the highest quality .

11 Fantastic Online Writing Tools for Free in 2022

by Suzanne Davis | Feb 10, 2022 | Writing Resources , Writing Technology

“ Suzanne, I have the perfect online writing tool for you.”

I receive many emails from people telling me about an excellent new app, tool, or website for writers or students. And since I tutor academic writing online, I try all kinds of writing tools and resources to see how they work, and experiment.  My goal? Find things that make the academic writing process easier and improve the quality of an essay, paper, or another project.

Only a small number of resources and websites are my go-to choices because I’m looking for online writing tools that make your writing life simpler. I don’t want to recommend online tools that are challenging to manage and require a lot of training to use. The writing process  doesn’t need to be harder. 

Today, I’m sharing my top 11  online writing tools for free that will help you achieve your writing goals.

Let’s look at how they can help you.

11 Online Writing Tools for Free in 2022

Online Tools for the Writing Process

#1 jamboard for prewriting.

Jamboard https://jamboard.google.com/    Jamboard is a Google Extension you can use to help you develop and plan out your writing ideas. It is perfect for prewriting because you can brainstorm and organize ideas using “sticky notes.” There are 2 ways I use Jamboard for writing. 

The first way is to come up with writing ideas.  To do this, start with an open-ended question like: What can I write?   Type every idea you have on an electronic sticky note.  You can change the color and size of the sticky notes and move them around in any order.  Here’s an example of a Jamboard with my ideas for writing a personal narrative. 

Jamboard example for Brainstorming Writing Ideas

The second prewriting activity you can use Jamboard for is to develop ideas on a topic.  You can use the boards for creating blog posts or essay content.  Create sticky notes for main ideas using one color; then, add supporting details to each of those main ideas on sticky notes of a different color. 

Here’s an example of some ideas I have for a blog post.  You can see all my supporting details are in yellow, and my main topics are in aqua. 

Jamboard Example for Writing Organization

There are other fun things you can do, such as change the background color and draw a line with a pen. Jamboard is simple to use, flexible, and creative. 

#2 Internet Archive for Online Research

Internet Archive   https://archive.org/   is an online public library with free books, videos, articles, websites, and audio files.  It has millions of sources from libraries all over the world.  You can find excellent credible primary and secondary sources. 

Type into the search bar your topic, title, or author, or perform an advanced search where you can specify the words contained, date range, author, and types of media.  This screenshot shows you results for the search term “Kennedy Assassination.”

Internet Archive Search Results for the “Kenned y Assassination.”

I use Internet Archive to find a lot of sources for teaching and writing.  My students love using it for research because they have access to many different types of media.  When I create Google Classrooms for my students, I always include Internet Archive as a top resource.

#3 Google Docs for Writing and Revising

Google Docs https://docs.google.com/   is similar to MS Word when it comes to composing, revising, editing, and publishing writing.  In  Google Docs you can write, comment, and edit a document with other people at the same time.  

You can use Google Docs with every aspect of writing, from brainstorming to publishing a final draft.  In this image, you can see the menu and document and comment on the side. 

Google Docs Example 

Since you can share a document with another person via a link or email, writing is interactive.  Another feature of Google Docs is that it is easy to download a file in a PDF or MS Word format (which is handy when you need to submit a piece of writing as an MS Word or PDF document). 

#4 Google Classroom for Collaboration and Writing Groups

Google Classroom   https://classroom.google.com / has been a favorite tool of mine ever since it was available to anyone with a Google Account.  Before 2017, you could only use Google Classroom if your school district used it. 

Since anyone with a Google account can create a classroom, writing groups can use a Google Classroom to share resources organized by topics and add writing for others to read. You can post anything in the stream from an attachment, video, link, or something in Google Drive and email members of a group.  

I use it with my tutoring students as a place to upload resources, share documents, and communicate with them through the stream. Below is a glimpse of a writing classroom I created. 

Google Classroom Example, “Online Writing Class Resources and More. “

To create a class:

• Go to https://classroom.google.com/ , or select your Google Classroom app, go to the right side and click on the + sign and select “Create a class.” 
• A box will pop up where you can create the name of your class or writing group.  T
• Type your information and select “create.” 
• Next, invite group members by sending them an email, copying an invitation link, or sharing the class code.
• Start adding materials for your group.

Check out this post and see how to create an amazing academic writing group  https://www.academicwritingsuccess.com/how-to-become-an-amazing-academic-writing-group/

Writing Tools for Focus and Productivity

#5 calmly writer.

If you find it hard to concentrate on writing and keep stopping to edit or “look something up,” try Calmly Writer https://www.calmlywriter.com/ . At the Calmly Writer website, you’ll see 2 choices: 1) The free online version and 2) The Desktop App, which costs #14.99. This blog post describes the free online version (not the desktop app).

Calmly Writer does not have a toolbar like Google Docs  or MS Word. It lets you write without complicated buttons that highlight any mistakes. Which means you aren’t stopping to fix and correct things. Instead, you can focus on composing and turning thoughts into writing. The online program has a blank space.  In the example here, you’ll see a word count tracker and “time to read tracker” at the bottom of the page.

Calmly Writer Example Text

You can choose a light or dark background setting. As you change paragraphs, you’ll see the previous ones fade; it forces you to move forward in your writing. You can set up simple preferences, such as font size, background, and noise (none or a typewriter sound). When you finish writing, you can download your document as a text, HTML, or Word Document file, or you can save it to Google Drive.

#6 Write More

Another tool that blocks distractions and keeps you on track with your writing is Write More https://writemore.io/ .  Write More is a brand new tool (as of January 2022). I set up my account with Write More (currently free). Write More asked me questions about my preferences for a theme (my font style and background color) and word count goal. Other features I could select were whether or not I wanted to have creative writing prompts and email or text reminders at certain times of the day.

Write More tracks my word count and saves my writing automatically. Each piece of writing is saved as a page. In the example below, you’ll see the page I used to write this blog post.

Write More Example of a Page

Now, I can open it whenever I need to and go back to it. Also, I can download my page as Word Document, Html, or Text File.  But one of my favorite parts is the analytics because I can see how much I’ve written each day over a more extended period. Looking at my analytics encouraged me to keep writing because I know the progress or lack of progress I made with my writing. I wrote my first draft of this post using Write More! 

I’m not sure how much longer Write More will be free, so try it and register for an account if it interests you.

Online Tools for Organization and Planning

#7 evernote.

Evernote https://www.evernote.com/ lets you write and record notes on your phone that sync with an online app. There is a paid version of Evernote with more features and storage. However, I have a free account. With the free account, You can save your notes to “Notebooks” around a specific topic.  

Example of an Evernote Dashboard with Notebooks

As you can see, I have notebooks for blog post ideas, fiction ideas, etc. Since I can record my thoughts on my phone, Evernote helps me capture ideas when I’m away from my laptop. It’s perfect for when I wake up in the middle of the night with a writing idea; I can record an audio note and go back to sleep.

Trello  https://trello.com is a popular place for all kinds of planning and collaboration. People can create boards to brainstorm, complete tasks, and keep track of everything they need to do. There is a section for writing where people can create an original board and design it or work from a popular template.

This photo shows you my Trello Dashboard and the templates available.

Trello Workspace Example

In Trello, you can add cards for different things like checklists, attachments from links, Dropbox, and Google Drive within a template board. You can check off things as you complete them, add bibliographic information with sources, and make sure you finish everything by a deadline.  Here is a card I developed for writing descriptions of academic sources.

Example of a Trello Card within a Board

There are different types of accounts that include a free option and different levels of paid options. In the free version, you can create 10 boards with an unlimited amount of cards on each board and unlimited storage. However, the free account does not include the features of assigning dates and inviting members.

Writing Resources for Word Choice

#9 visuwords.

Visuwords https://visuwords.com is more than a visual thesaurus because it also shows you the lexicon around a word. You can see how words fit within a phrase. When you type a word into the search bar, what comes up is a web that shows you both the parts of speech related to a term and the relationship of words (whether they mean the same thing, are examples of, are a type of something, etc.). You can see whole phrases put together.

Visuwords Example for the Word “Curious”

In the screenshot above, you can see the parts of speech related to the word “curious.” Each is color-coded: blue for a noun, green for a verb, orange for an adjective, and red for an adverb . The different lines that are solid or dotted note the relationship of a word or phrase to “curious.” For example, the solid blue color circle with the words “curiousness and inquisitiveness” are nouns. The solid gray line shows that they are words for “curious.”  Visuwords is free and runs on donations, so consider making a small donation if you use it regularly.

#10 Power Thesaurus

Power Thesaurus https://www.powe r thesaurus.org  shows you synonyms, antonyms, and definitions for a word. It’s community-driven, which means the words and sentences are gathered from multiple sources online. The benefit of that is it expands your word choices. In the screenshot below, I searched for synonyms for “curious.” There are 394 words and phrases. I selected the word “peculiar” and found its definition.

Power Thesaurus Example for the Word “Curious”

The downside of a community-driven website is that information may not be accurate. You’ll want to check words and phrases you are unsure of in a dictionary/thesaurus like Merriam-Webster. Power Thesaurus is free to use, but the free account includes pop-up ads. Hey, they need to make money some ho w . If you want to avoid ads, read more content, and get advanced extensions, you can purchase the Pro Subscription for $29.90 annually.

#11 Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus

Every writer or student needs to have a good dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online https://www.merriam-webster.com/ combines its dictionary with a thesaurus. Like its book dictionary, you’ll find the meanings of a word and its variations. 

In the screenshot here, you’ll see the essential definitions and complete definitions of the word “curious.”

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Definitions for the Word “Curious”

If you scroll down the page, you’ll see these options

• Synonyms and Antonyms
• Words From…
• Choose the Right Synonym
• Did you know?
• More Example Sentences
• Learn More About…

The third option, “Choose the Right Synonym, ” helps you find the perfect word that fits the emotion and context of what you are writing. Here, you can see information about choosing synonyms for the word “curious.”

Merriam-Webster–How to Choose the Right Synonym

Merriam-Webster also has an online thesaurus to help you find synonyms, related words, near antonyms, and antonyms. When you use Merriam-Webster, you know that the words you select come from a credible source. You can use it for free, but Google Ads are on the right side and bottom of your screen. It isn’t enjoyable, but you get used to it.

How to Select Your Online Writing Tools

Try out these free online writing tools to discover which ones will help you write better. Consider what you need overall to brainstorm, plan, write, focus, and enhance your language. Don’t add all these tools at once,  but choose ones that make your writing life easier and even more fun!  

And stay tuned for my next blog post, where I look at the best free revising and editing tools for 2022.

Like this list? Please share it and spread these free online writing tools!   

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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.

Thank you for visiting Academia Insider.

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Exploring the Limits of Transfer Learning with a Unified Text-to-Text Transformer

Attention is All you Need

mT5: A Massively Multilingual Pre-trained Text-to-Text Transformer

An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale

Deformable DETR: Deformable Transformers for End-to-End Object Detection

How Good is Your Tokenizer? On the Monolingual Performance of Multilingual Language Models

Machine Learning

Support-Vector Networks

Distributed Optimization and Statistical Learning Via the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers

Learning Deep Architectures for AI

Adaptive Subgradient Methods for Online Learning and Stochastic Optimization

An Introduction to Support Vector Machines

Model-agnostic meta-learning for fast adaptation of deep networks

Semi-supervised learning using Gaussian fields and harmonic functions

Manifold Regularization: A Geometric Framework for Learning from Labeled and Unlabeled Examples

Support vector machine learning for interdependent and structured output spaces

A Framework for Learning Predictive Structures from Multiple Tasks and Unlabeled Data

Natural Language

Exploiting Cloze-Questions for Few-Shot Text Classification and Natural Language Inference

Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision

Unified Pre-training for Program Understanding and Generation

Semantic memory: A review of methods, models, and current challenges

A Survey on Recent Approaches for Natural Language Processing in Low-Resource Scenarios.

Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing

A framework for representing knowledge

Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and Speech Recognitio

Semantic similarity in a taxonomy: an information-based measure and its application to problems of ambiguity in natural language

Cheap and Fast -- But is it Good? Evaluating Non-Expert Annotations for Natural Language Tasks

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Millions of researchers are already using SciSpace on research papers. Join them and start using your AI research assistant wherever you're reading online.

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Researcher @ Syddansk Universitet

SciSpace is an incredible (AI-powered) tool to help you understand research papers better. It can explain and elaborate most academic texts in simple words.

Olesia Nikulina

PhD Candidate

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Richard Gao

Co-founder evoke-app.com

This is perfect for a layman to scientific information like me. Especially with so much misinformation floating around nowadays, this is great for understanding studies or research others may have misrepresented on purpose or by accident.

Product Hunt

I absolutely adore this product. It's been years since I was in a lab but, I plugged in a study I did way back when and this gets everything right. Equations, hypotheses, and methodologies will be game changers for graduate studies (the current education system severely limits comprehension while encouraging interconnectivity between streams). But, early learners would be able to discover so many papers through this as well. In short, love it

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SVNIT'25 Chemical Engineering

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Researcher @ VIU

It´s not only the saved time. Reading scientific literature, specially if you are not an expert in the field is a very attention-intensive process. It´s not a task you can maintain for long periods of time. Having them not just smartly summarised but being able to get meaningful answers is a game-changer for a science journalist

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Product Manager • Healthcare

Upload your pdf and highlight the sections you want to understand. It simplifies those complicated sections of the article in a jiffy. It is not rocket science, but it is always welcome if someone explains the big terms in simpler words.

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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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Training videos   |   Faqs

Academic Writing Tools and Research Software – A Comprehensive Guide

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

In this blog, we review academic writing tools and software that students, academics, researchers and PhD students can benefit from.  We have categorised the tools into four broad areas: writing tools, referencing tools, research tools and grammar checking tools.  The motivation behind this blog is to provide readers with a snapshot of popular tools in each category.

1. Writing Tools and Software

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, the research community is much more adventurous and has 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.

• Microsoft Word
• LibreOffice
• DropBoxPaper

Click here to visit the blog on Writing Tools and Software…

2. Referencing Tools and Reference Management Software

Referencing tools are handy to organize and format references so that you can easily incorporate them in your essays, research papers, dissertations and PhD thesis. There are many terms used for such tools such as referencing software, referencing tool, reference management software, citation software, citation app, paper software, citation manager, research paper management tool, bibliography software, literature review software, literature management software and research paper organizer.  These all refer to a piece of software or an online tool that allows you to store and format references. It is very important that you choose a right tool for your research and stick to it. We have reviewed some of the popular referencing tools used in the scientific community below from an academic writing perspective.

Click here to visit the blog on Referencing Tools…

3. Research Tools and Software

If you are conducting research, it is very important that you have appropriate methods and tools to carry out your research. If you are a non-native English speaker, then you need a research tool to help you with your written language. If your research involves data analysis, then you need a good statistical research tool for your work.  It is also important that you keep tabs on what other people in your research arena are doing, so you need research tools such as Google Scholar and ResearchGate to collaborate with your peers. You also need a good plagiarism checking software to avoid academic misconduct. Finally, you need a research project management software to stay on top of the deadlines. In this blog, we review some of the useful tools for research that researchers can use to be more productive.

• REF-N-WRITE
• Online Statistical testing tools
• Microsoft Excel
• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate
• Plagiarism Checker
• Project Management Tools

Click here to visit the blog on Research Tools…

4. Grammar Checkers and Sentence Correction Tools

When you are writing your paper or essay, it is very important to ensure that your document does not contain typos, grammatical errors, and bad sentence structure. Your work will be badly judged if English is bad despite the good content. For non-native English speakers, it presents a particular challenge because of the difficulties in mastering English, vocabulary, grammar, and usage. A brief review of grammar checking software, grammar correction apps, online grammar checking sites, punctuation checker, sentence structure and construction checkers are given in this blog.

• MS Word Spelling & Grammar checker
• ProWritingAid
• CorrectEnglish
• StyleWriter
• Ginger Software
• Online Grammar checking sites

Click here to visit the blog on Grammar and Sentence checking Tools…

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In this blog, we review the most popular plagiarism checking tools available in the market from the perspective of cost and ease of use.

Very nice, very comprehensive

• Pingback: Algunos recursos para el inicio de curso I | Ferran Escrivà Llorca

Highly educative, and informative beside I appreciate your blogs post.

YOUR ARTICLE IS HIGHLY HELPFUL AND VERY INFORMATIVE

NICE BLOG THANKS FOR HELPING

There is also Refereed.com. It has either reference management or collaborative writing in real-time. And It is free.

Good blog, thanks for to compile my intention of materials.

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Really informative blog

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Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

Top 16 Digital Tools That Every Researcher Should Know About

Using digital tools for researchers effectively can be the difference between an average and an excellent piece of research. But today, with the long list of research tools available online, it is only natural for busy researchers to be baffled when it comes to making the right choice for specific needs. With considerations of time, cost, effectiveness and quality, there is a lot to check before you make the choice. We don’t want you to spend hours just looking for the best tools for researchers, so we’ve rounded up some of the most effective digital tools for researchers to make your life simpler.

In this comprehensive article, we have compiled a list of 16 useful online tools for researchers at various stages of the research journey. These tools will streamline your research process, help you stay organized, and provide you with easy access to the information you need. From reference management software to digital libraries, these cutting-edge tools cater to the needs of both experienced and novice researchers alike. Whether you’re working on a major research project or just starting out, this blog will help you get ahead of the curve and make your research journey a tad (we aren’t making big promises) bit easier.

Table of Contents

Why are digital tools for researchers important

Before any digital tools for researchers were introduced, academics had to rely on old-school manual methods that were typically time-consuming, labor-intensive, and also limited in scope. For instance, you had to subscribe to journals or physically visit libraries and spend hours searching and sifting through tomes before finding the most relevant information. And once that was done, the process of organizing, storing, and referencing data was another challenge you had to overcome.

In contrast, online tools for researchers offer a wealth of information and resources at your fingertips today. With the option to search and access vast amounts of knowledge with a few clicks, researchers are able to boost their efficiency and effectiveness at work.

And it’s not just limited to online tools for researchers that allow you to easily store, organize, and manage information, there are a number of tools that can help you hone your writing, check for plagiarism, find the right journal, collaborate with other researchers, and share your knowledge, ideas, and resources. The rapid development of digital tools for researchers have revolutionized the way researchers work, making way for faster innovation and more groundbreaking research.

Types of tools for researchers

There are various types of online tools for researchers to choose from. These tools can be classified into various categories such as planning and management of research projects, literature search, data collection and analysis, reference management, editing and paraphrasing, and collaboration and communication. These digital tools for researchers have revolutionized the way academics work, adding to their time, productivity and effectiveness; this in turn makes research more accessible, efficient, and collaborative. Let’s take a look at some top tools for researchers across these key stages in the researcher journey.

Reference Management Tools

Reference management tools are great time saving tools for researchers. Not only do they allow you to create a library of relevant articles, they help you format your references, detect duplicate entries and replace incomplete references, and even share articles with other researchers. Furthermore, they are also extremely useful tools for researchers when it comes to correctly linking sources and citing referenced articles.

Among the top reference management tools for researchers, Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote are the most widely used.

Zotero has quickly become one of the must-have tools for researchers to capture and preserve high-quality publication data from various sources, including journal articles, websites, newspapers, and PDFs. Its integration with popular Word processors such as Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs allows you to efficiently manage citations and bibliographies as you write. The software’s built-in PDF reader enables you to identify and extract cited quotations and comments, which can be directly saved as notes. What sets Zotero apart is its advanced search feature, which enables users to perform complex searches, such as locating articles added in the last month by mentioning a specific keyword and creating auto-updating collections. Zotero can also identify retracted papers and sends out an alert when you attempt to cite a retracted paper.

Zotero follows the freemium model, where one can get 300 MB in the free version with additional storage available for a fee starting at $20/year .

An offering by Elsevier, Mendeley is among the best reference management tools for researchers that combines an intuitive, user-friendly interface with powerful organizational features. With Mendeley, you can store and manage sources, take notes, collaborate with others, and discover new research in your field. Mendeley’s PDF viewer has an excellent, easy-to-use, built-in capability with the option of editing a document simultaneously with other Mendeley users. ‘Mendeley Notebook’, a feature of Mendeley, helps you collate all your highlights and notes from multiple PDFs. ‘Mendeley Cite’, another of its features, is a citation plugin for Microsoft Word that lets you insert references and bibliographies into your document.

Mendeley is a free citation and paper management tool with up to 2 GB of cloud storage. It has a desktop application, mobile app, and Chrome browser extension, making it a top choice among tools for researchers.

Mendeley offers both a free and a premium version, where users get 2 GB in the free version and additional storage space with pricing starting at $55/year .

Endnote is one of the paid reference management tools for researchers. It allows researchers to insert citations into the text, and simultaneously creates a bibliography with its “Cite While You Write” feature in Microsoft Word. Additionally, one can align and format the article as per the target journal requirements using its “Manuscript Matcher” feature. You can also conduct large-scale literature reviews with Endnote’s powerful analysis tools. Endnote is available in the cloud and accessible anywhere, providing researchers with the flexibility to work from any location.

Endnote offers a range of pricing options, starting at $124.95/year . It is one of the must-have tools for researchers keen on saving time and energy!

Academic Writing Tools

If you are not taking advantage of academic writing tools for researchers, well, you’re missing out on a lot. The range of things academic writing tools can do for you is astonishing – language editing, abstract writing, plagiarism checking and so much more! While there are a number of online tools for reseachers that can help improve your academic writing, here are our top choices in this category that you should know about.

iThenticate

iThenticate by Turnitin is an online plagiarism checker designed specifically for researchers and academics to review their manuscripts prior to journal submission and publication. iThenticate is one of the most popular tools for researchers looking to check their writing for originality and ensure they have cited all sources appropriately.

With its advanced plagiarism detection technology, iThenticate compares a submission to an extensive database of web pages and scholarly content before producing a similarity score and report. Researchers can use this report to eliminate any inadvertent instances of plagiarism and other blunders in their research papers.

The price for an iThenticate license starts at $100 for a manuscript and is valid for multiple plagiarism checks for this single document over a year. If you need to check more than one manuscript, you can opt for an annual license at a higher price.

One of the well-known tools for researchers, Scholarcy is an innovative AI engine that helps you analyze different sections of an article, filter out the noise, and deliver a precise structured summary of the research. Scholarcy doesn’t just condense papers into referenced lay summaries, it highlights key claims and statistics mentioned in the research paper that are most useful to your work.

It also extracts all the tables and figures and links to their cited location in the text, saving researchers hours of time searching for the most relevant papers. The smart AI engine is also a great tool for researchers looking to generate lay summaries that can help promote their research to a broader audience

You can use the free Scholarcy browser extension on Chrome or Edge to create summary flashcards online or build your own personal interactive library with a subscription of $7.99 per month.

Scrivener is among the underrated tools for researchers that can help make researchers’ lives simpler if used effectively. It has a user-friendly interface that allows researchers to easily organize their research notes, documents, and outlines. Scrivener gives you three ways to organize your projects: the Binder – which lets you manage folders and text, the Outliner – which helps you outline your research before you write it, and the Corkboard – to help you plan and organize your ongoing tasks.

Scrivener also has a mobile app that syncs with your devices ensuring everything is in one place. This makes it a great option for those who want to walk around and research ideas or take notes on your phone.

Scrivener offers a free trial period, with lifetime licenses available from $63.56 for MacOS and Windows.

Paperpal is as multifaceted as a Swiss Knife and stands tall among online academic writing tools for researchers. With in-depth language and grammar checks, instant and precise academic translations, relevant subject-specific writing recommendations, and critical technical checks, its suite of tools has you covered from the first draft itself. Use the Paperpal for Word plug-in and improve your language as you write in Microsoft Word, including real-time suggestions on vocabulary and phrasing.

Turn to Paperpal for Web to enhance your content with instant checks to ensure error-free language and grammar, clarity, and readability. Choose Paperpal for Manuscript if you have a manuscript ready for submission; its comprehensive language and technical checks ensure your work meets journal guidelines by flagging problem areas that could lead to desk rejection.

The best part about Paperpal, also something that makes it different from other more generic grammar editing tools, is that it is tailored for researchers and academic writing. You can get up to 500 edits for free on Paperpal for Word and Web or enjoy unlimited support at just $99 per year. Paperpal for Manuscript gives you an edited version of your article with suggestions in track changes for just $29.

Project Management Tools

There are several online tools for researchers to manage and organize their work, including keeping track of task completion, setting deadlines, and just having everything in one place. Four tools for researchers that must be there in your productivity kit are Trello, GanttPRO, Evernote, and My Research Projects.

You can use Trello to visually organize your ideas on its boards with the help of interactive cards. These cards can be used in multiple ways – you can create lists, assign tasks, message and tag those you are collaborating with, link files, add due dates–all on the virtual “back” of the card. You can also drag cards between lists, copy cards that you use often (or rather, use the cards as templates), and send cards to other boards. Basically, you can see your entire research process on a single Trello board.

This is a useful tool for researchers involved in large collaborative projects that span the globe. Trello has a free version that offers limited features with pricing models starting at $5 a month.

GanttPRO is another tool for researchers that helps you organize your thoughts better. A Gantt chart timeline on GanttPRO is the best way to visualize tasks, know their start and end dates, and track your progress along the way. The vertical and horizontal axes in a Gantt Chart present a visual summary of how various aspects of your research project are progressing, which allows you to address specific tasks that need extra or immediate attention.

GanttPRO is hosted in the cloud, which makes is easily accessible. It offers users a free trial with the option to choose from plans starting at $7.99 per month.

A productive way to jot down notes and ideas and sort through your research materials, Evernote is one of the most popular online tools for researchers. With Evernote, you can organize your research by a simple notebook structure to keep similar notes together or creating tags and folders for specific purposes.

You can save webpages, articles, or screenshots to your Evernote notebook and use the handy multimedia feature to enhance these by adding new text, images, documents, and even audio messages captured with its inbuilt recorder. Evernote also helps you sync your notes across devices so you can manage your notes across multiple platforms.

The basic version of Evernote lets you create and save notes but has limitations on storage space. You can buy more storage by opting for a paid subscription plan, which is currently available from $5.83 a month at ongoing discounted prices.

My Research Projects

My Research Projects by Researcher.Life is designed for researchers and helps you plan, manage, and communicate your work effectively. It promises end-to-end support in transforming your research into a well-written manuscript with suggestions on suitable journals for your research and guidance on the most relevant literature to cite. You can use the comprehensive submission readiness check to ensure your manuscript meets journal guidelines, with checks for language quality, structural completeness, clarity and consistency, and mandatory declarations. You can also generate detailed article summaries to help you convey your research findings more effectively.

My Research Projects lets you check one manuscript and get a detailed report for free by subscribing to Researcher.Life. You can unlock premium checks for multiple manuscripts by upgrading to the Prime Pack for $99 a year.

Academic Search Engines

As researchers you are expected to keep up with the latest developments in your own and related research fields. Yet, with the exponential growth in research output, this is far from easy. This is what makes academic search engines invaluable to academics searching for relevant scientific information. They use keywords to help researchers find, access and read about the latest most relevant research, including peer-reviewed articles, genuine information, author home pages, and university websites.

Google Scholar, R Discovery, and Scopus are our top tools for researchers in this category.

R Discovery

R Discovery is a strong contender when it comes to the best literature search and reading tools for researchers. An AI-powered app for researchers, R Discovery boasts of an expanding library of research content that includes over 100 million research papers across 9.5 million topics and more than 32,000 journals worldwide. It uses your topics of interest to create a personalized reading feed, with suggestions on top reads, smart summaries, and other features to help you discover the right research in minutes.

This includes open access articles, preprints, and pay-walled content (accessible through institutional credentials) across all major subject areas, including biology, medicine, philosophy, political science, environmental science, social sciences, and psychology. The best part is that this app for researchers continually upgrades its features and eliminated predatory journals to ensure you have access to reliable research that works for you.

R Discovery is one of the many tools for researchers developed by Researcher.Life and is completely free to install and use. It is available on both mobile and web, allowing for streamlined reading on your preferred device.

Google Scholar

If you’re an academic, you probably have used Google Scholar sometime in your research journey. It is one of the most used tools for researchers and acts as an online search engine for academics looking for scholarly literature and relevant sources to cite. It is tailored for academics, which means you can use different keywords to look up various research articles, theses, books, and conference papers to support your research study.

Researchers can also search for authors, journals, and other titles and can even create an account to save their search results. The one drawback here though is that you will need to keep searching until you find related research, and even then you will still need to browse through these individually to find the most relevant content for your research topic.

Another popular academic search tool for researchers is Scopus, an offering by Elsevier that is very similar to Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic. The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed research with over 1.7 billion cited references, Scopus houses content indexed from more than 25,000 active titles and 7,000 publishers, all carefully vetted and selected by an independent review board.

With Scopus, you can look for articles, journals, and any other sources that will help you write better research. You can also refine your literature search by filtering for author name or affiliation among others. Scopus also has analytical tools to help you visualize and compare research data – that is, you can view author, journal, and article impact metrics through the detailed research output and trends reports that Scopus provides.

Scopus works as an API that can be integrated into an institution’s repository or research information management systems. While it is free to use for non-subscribers, there is limited access to content with additional costs to access paywalled articles on this platform.

Journal Selection Tools

Given the enormous number of scholarly journals around and new ones coming up every year, it can be hard to select the best journal for your research paper. Despite its challenges, the process of finding the perfect journal, which is respected, relevant, and reliable, is one of the most critical tasks to get right for researchers. This is why good online journal finders are invaluable tools for researchers.

Elsevier’s Journal Finder tool and the Global Journal Database (GJD) are two pretty effective journal selection tools for researchers.

Journal Finder

The Journal Finder tool by Elsevier, one of the largest publishers of peer-reviewed journals across disciplines, is a great solution for authors looking to shortlist journals for their work. Just use relevant keywords, titles, or your research paper abstract to get a list of recommended Elsevier journals that publish research similar to yours.

Its intelligent machine learning algorithm uses terms specific to the corresponding research field to generate the best matches for your article. You can choose from the top of the list or sort this further using filters based on your preferences. The Journal Finder also lists journals with open-access publishing options and those that cover multidisciplinary research fields.

Elsevier can be used for free to search for journals related to your research.

Global Journal Database

The Global Journal Database, developed by Researcher.Life, comprises of more than 43,000 journals indexed in reputed public directories like Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Scopus, and Web of Science. Researchers can search for relevant journals using the title or ISSN, similar topics, research paper abstracts, and even manuscripts; the advanced AI engine will use this to generate the best journals for you.

Each journal recommendation comes with a detailed journal report that has key information about shortlisted journals, including publisher details, journal metrics, author instructions, the editorial review process, and even a list of the latest articles published. With the Global Journal Database, you can see where your preferred journal is indexed and browse its publishing history to better understand its scope. The broad journal coverage, multiple search modes, and detailed journal reports make this an exceptional tool for researchers, simplifying and speeding up the often-daunting journal selection process.

The Global Journal Database is available free with a Researcher.Life Essentials Pack subscription.

Wrapping Up

Researchers everywhere are on a quest to uncover new insights and come up with ground-breaking research. Choosing the right digital tools for researcher and using these effectively can make your journey from brainstorming to breakthroughs a smoother, easier, and faster one.

If you’re looking for a seamless transition between various tools, choose Researcher.Life, which brings together innovative solutions to accelerate and optimize each stage of your research journey. Turn to Paperpal the next time you’re perplexed by language nuances, swipe through R Discovery’s reading recommendations to keep up with the latest developments, manage your research effectively with My Research Projects, or find the right journal for your paper with the Global Journal Database. Experience Researcher.Life and its many bespoke tools for researchers.

Editage All Access is a subscription-based platform that unifies the best AI tools and services designed to speed up, simplify, and streamline every step of a researcher’s journey. The Editage All Access Pack is a one-of-a-kind subscription that unlocks full access to an AI writing assistant, literature recommender, journal finder, scientific illustration tool, and exclusive discounts on professional publication services from Editage.  

Based on 22+ years of experience in academia, Editage All Access empowers researchers to put their best research forward and move closer to success. Explore our top AI Tools pack, AI Tools + Publication Services pack, or Build Your Own Plan. Find everything a researcher needs to succeed, all in one place –  Get All Access now starting at just $14 a month !    

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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

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Academic Translation with Editing

Translate your research to reach a wider community.

Article Formatting

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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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36 Online Research Tools for Students

For many students, the most challenging part about writing a research paper is the research. Even the best students often don’t know how to conduct research or even where to start.

But you’re in luck:

This article by Custom-writing.org experts provides a list of great research tools that will be useful at every stage of the process. The collection includes everything necessary to write a great paper, from online public libraries to dissertation databases. There are also some data analysis and data visualization research tools, as well as organizers for scholars. The list includes brief descriptions for each of the tools. All you need is to continue reading, choose the tools you like most, and get a fantastic result!

• 👣 Research Steps
• 💡 Topic Generating Tools
• Research Databases
• Digital Libraries
• Discipline-Oriented Libraries
• Dissertation Databases
• 🔬 Data Analysis Tools
• 📈 Data Visualization Tools
• 📑 Organizers for Scholars

1. 👣 Doing Research: Key Steps

Regardless of the subject field, all research has a similar structure. Such an approach facilitates the mutual understanding of scientists from neighboring or even distant domains. As a rule, scientific texts are challenging to write and read. That is why you need to observe the following procedure.

• Topic selection. Surprisingly, this is the most creative part of a research project. The subject area shall be topical and relevant, and the title must be concise and informative.
• Literature review and concept development . To write something new, you need to know what has already been written by other scientists. Study the available literature on your subject and define what statement or concept you will defend in your research.
• Empirical part: data collection and analysis. Accumulate the evidence to support your thesis statement .
• Conclusions and recommendations. Any research finishes with generalizations of the findings. You can as well give general suggestions for your successors in research. At this step, online summarizer would be a highly effective tool.

The following sections provide you with tools and techniques to facilitate each of the four stages. There is also a list of tools helping to organize the entire research procedure.

2. 💡 Topic Generating Tools

In science and academia, nobody receives a ready-made topic to work on. As a rule, you are given a direction in which you should look for an unexplored field of knowledge. With this direction in mind, you can brainstorm a compelling topic that would be engaging. There are multiple tools to make the task an easy one.

3. 📚 Research Tools for Making a Literature Review

3.1. research databases.

So, you have created a word document and noted the title. What next? You should look for the most authoritative works in the required sphere. How do you know which ones are the most influential? There are online research tools that create lists of the most cited scientific articles.

3.2. Digital Libraries

Once you have found enough references, you need to study them. Visiting conventional libraries is often a waste of time since many contemporary research documents are accessible on the web. Digital libraries are usually paid web research tools, but many universities and colleges purchase a subscription for their students.

3.3. Discipline-Oriented Libraries

If you are working in a narrow scientific field, multidisciplinary libraries may not meet your expectations and needs. Besides, if various disciplines discuss your research question, the search for references becomes a daunting task. Then you should explore discipline-oriented libraries. They function just like any other digital library but provide access to works in only one area of knowledge.

3.4. Dissertation Databases

Ph.D. theses are usually written by young scientists. They are interested in being cited as much as possible, as it raises their researcher’s status. For this reason, top universities allow free access to Masters’ and Ph.D. papers written by their students. You can use these databases in your research.

4. 🔬 Research Tools for Data Analysis

Data analysis is an essential part of any empirical research. It requires discipline-specific skills and knowledge of research instruments. Below you can find just a small share of data analysis tools available online or downloadable for most operating systems.

5. 📈 Data Visualization Tools

When your research findings are ready, the worst thing you can do is pour all the statistical data on your future readers. Visualization of all those percentages, ratios, and correlations makes your paper engaging and easy to follow. Respect your reader’s time and try not to turn your research paper into a quiz.

6. 📑 Tools to Organize Your Research Process

Good organization is something needed on every research step. Below is a list of the most useful organizational tools for scholars.

Most people work with the software they are used to, ignoring the new and more functional alternatives. It is often rewarding to invest your time into exploring a new tool than to research and write your thesis in the same old way. Share your opinion about the described instruments in the comments and suggest your favorite ones!

🔗 References

• Tools for Researchers: Augusta University
• Research Tools: Smithsonian Libraries
• Useful Research Tools: Oregon tech Libraries
• Tools for Researchers: University at Albany
• Conducting Research: WUSTL Libraries
• Organizing a Research Project: Duke University
• 15 Steps to Good Research: Georgetown University Library
• WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER: UW-MAdison Writing Center
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• Share to email

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Top 21 must-have digital tools for researchers

Last updated

12 May 2023

Reviewed by

Jean Kaluza

Research drives many decisions across various industries, including:

Uncovering customer motivations and behaviors to design better products

Assessing whether a market exists for your product or service

Running clinical studies to develop a medical breakthrough

Conducting effective and shareable research can be a painstaking process. Manual processes are sluggish and archaic, and they can also be inaccurate. That’s where advanced online tools can help. 

The right tools can enable businesses to lean into research for better forecasting, planning, and more reliable decisions. 

• Why do researchers need research tools?

Research is challenging and time-consuming. Analyzing data , running focus groups , reading research papers , and looking for useful insights take plenty of heavy lifting. 

These days, researchers can’t just rely on manual processes. Instead, they’re using advanced tools that:

Speed up the research process

Enable new ways of reaching customers

Improve organization and accuracy

Allow better monitoring throughout the process

Enhance collaboration across key stakeholders

• The most important digital tools for researchers

Some tools can help at every stage, making researching simpler and faster.

They ensure accurate and efficient information collection, management, referencing, and analysis. 

Some of the most important digital tools for researchers include:

Research management tools

Research management can be a complex and challenging process. Some tools address the various challenges that arise when referencing and managing papers. 

.css-10ptwjf{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;background:transparent;border:0;color:inherit;cursor:pointer;-webkit-flex-shrink:0;-ms-flex-negative:0;flex-shrink:0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.css-10ptwjf:disabled{opacity:0.6;pointer-events:none;} Zotero

Coined as a personal research assistant, Zotero is a tool that brings efficiency to the research process. Zotero helps researchers collect, organize, annotate, and share research easily. 

Zotero integrates with internet browsers, so researchers can easily save an article, publication, or research study on the platform for later. 

The tool also has an advanced organizing system to allow users to label, tag, and categorize information for faster insights and a seamless analysis process. 

Messy paper stacks––digital or physical––are a thing of the past with Paperpile. This reference management tool integrates with Google Docs, saving users time with citations and paper management. 

Referencing, researching, and gaining insights is much cleaner and more productive, as all papers are in the same place. Plus, it’s easier to find a paper when you need it. 

Acting as a single source of truth (SSOT), Dovetail houses research from the entire organization in a simple-to-use place. Researchers can use the all-in-one platform to collate and store data from interviews , forms, surveys , focus groups, and more. 

Dovetail helps users quickly categorize and analyze data to uncover truly actionable insights . This helps organizations bring customer insights into every decision for better forecasting, planning, and decision-making. 

Dovetail integrates with other helpful tools like ​Slack, Atlassian, Notion, and Zapier for a truly efficient workflow.

Putting together papers and referencing sources can be a huge time consumer. EndNote claims that researchers waste 200,000 hours per year formatting citations. 

To address the issue, the tool formats citations automatically––simultaneously creating a bibliography while the user writes. 

EndNote is also a cloud-based system that allows remote working, multiple-user interaction and collaboration, and seamless working on different devices. 

Information survey tools

Surveys are a common way to gain data from customers. These tools can make the process simpler and more cost-effective. 

With ready-made survey templates––to collect NPS data, customer effort scores , five-star surveys, and more––getting going with Delighted is straightforward. 

Delighted helps teams collect and analyze survey feedback without needing any technical knowledge. The templates are customizable, so you can align the content with your brand. That way, the survey feels like it’s coming from your company, not a third party. 

SurveyMonkey

With millions of customers worldwide, SurveyMonkey is another leader in online surveys. SurveyMonkey offers hundreds of templates that researchers can use to set up and deploy surveys quickly. 

Whether your survey is about team performance, hotel feedback, post-event feedback, or an employee exit, SurveyMonkey has a ready-to-use template. 

Typeform offers free templates you can quickly embed, which comes with a point of difference: It designs forms and surveys with people in mind, focusing on customer enjoyment. 

Typeform employs the ‘one question at a time’ method to keep engagement rates and completions high. It focuses on surveys that feel more like conversations than a list of questions.

Web data analysis tools

Collecting data can take time––especially technical information. Some tools make that process simpler. 

For those conducting clinical research, data collection can be incredibly time-consuming. Teamscope provides an online platform to collect and manage data simply and easily. 

Researchers and medical professionals often collect clinical data through paper forms or digital means. Those are too easy to lose, tricky to manage, and challenging to collaborate on. 

With Teamscope, you can easily collect, store, and electronically analyze data like patient-reported outcomes and surveys. 

Heap is a digital insights platform providing context on the entire customer journey . This helps businesses improve customer feedback , conversion rates, and loyalty. 

Through Heap, you can seamlessly view and analyze the customer journey across all platforms and touchpoints, whether through the app or website. 

Another analytics tool, Smartlook, combines quantitative and qualitative analytics into one platform. This helps organizations understand user behavior and make crucial improvements. 

Smartlook is useful for analyzing web pages, purchasing flows, and optimizing conversion rates. 

Project management tools

Managing multiple research projects across many teams can be complex and challenging. Project management tools can ease the burden on researchers. 

Visual productivity tool Trello helps research teams manage their projects more efficiently. Trello makes product tracking easier with:

A range of workflow options

Unique project board layouts

Advanced descriptions

Integrations

Trello also works as an SSOT to stay on top of projects and collaborate effectively as a team. 

To connect research, workflows, and teams, Airtable provides a clean interactive interface. 

With Airtable, it’s simple to place research projects in a list view, workstream, or road map to synthesize information and quickly collaborate. The Sync feature makes it easy to link all your research data to one place for faster action. 

For product teams, Asana gathers development, copywriting, design, research teams, and product managers in one space. 

As a task management platform, Asana offers all the expected features and more, including time-tracking and Jira integration. The platform offers reporting alongside data collection methods , so it’s a favorite for product teams in the tech space.

Grammar checker tools

Grammar tools ensure your research projects are professional and proofed. 

No one’s perfect, especially when it comes to spelling, punctuation, and grammar. That’s where Grammarly can help. 

Grammarly’s AI-powered platform reviews your content and corrects any mistakes. Through helpful integrations with other platforms––such as Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, and LinkedIn––it’s simple to spellcheck as you go. 

Another helpful grammar tool is Trinka AI. Trinka is specifically for technical and academic styles of writing. It doesn’t just correct mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and grammar; it also offers explanations and additional information when errors show. 

Researchers can also use Trinka to enhance their writing and:

Align it with technical and academic styles

Improve areas like syntax and word choice

Discover relevant suggestions based on the content topic

Plagiarism checker tools

Avoiding plagiarism is crucial for the integrity of research. Using checker tools can ensure your work is original. 

Plagiarism checker Quetext uses DeepSearch™ technology to quickly sort through online content to search for signs of plagiarism. 

With color coding, annotations, and an overall score, it’s easy to identify conflict areas and fix them accordingly. 

Duplichecker

Another helpful plagiarism tool is Duplichecker, which scans pieces of content for issues. The service is free for content up to 1000 words, with paid options available after that. 

If plagiarism occurs, a percentage identifies how much is duplicate content. However, the interface is relatively basic, offering little additional information.  

Journal finder tools

Finding the right journals for your project can be challenging––especially with the plethora of inaccurate or predatory content online. Journal finder tools can solve this issue. 

Enago Journal Finder

The Enago Open Access Journal Finder sorts through online journals to verify their legitimacy. Through Engao, you can discover pre-vetted, high-quality journals through a validated journal index. 

Enago’s search tool also helps users find relevant journals for their subject matter, speeding up the research process. 

JournalFinder

JournalFinder is another journal tool that’s popular with academics and researchers. It makes the process of discovering relevant journals fast by leaning into a machine-learning algorithm.

This is useful for discovering key information and finding the right journals to publish and share your work in. 

Social networking for researchers

Collaboration between researchers can improve the accuracy and sharing of information. Promoting research findings can also be essential for public health, safety, and more. 

While typical social networks exist, some are specifically designed for academics.

ResearchGate

Networking platform ResearchGate encourages researchers to connect, collaborate, and share within the scientific community. With 20 million researchers on the platform, it's a popular choice. 

ResearchGate is founded on an intention to advance research. The platform provides topic pages for easy connection within a field of expertise and access to millions of publications to help users stay up to date. 

Academia is another commonly used platform that connects 220 million academics and researchers within their specialties. 

The platform aims to accelerate research with discovery tools and grow a researcher’s audience to promote their ideas. 

On Academia, users can access 47 million PDFs for free. They cover topics from mechanical engineering to applied economics and child psychology. 

• Expedited research with the power of tools

For researchers, finding data and information can be time-consuming and complex to manage. That’s where the power of tools comes in. 

Manual processes are slow, outdated, and have a larger potential for inaccuracies. 

Leaning into tools can help researchers speed up their processes, conduct efficient research, boost their accuracy, and share their work effectively. 

With tools available for project and data management, web data collection, and journal finding, researchers have plenty of assistance at their disposal.

When it comes to connecting with customers, advanced tools boost customer connection while continually bringing their needs and wants into products and services.

What are primary research tools?

Primary research is data and information that you collect firsthand through surveys, customer interviews, or focus groups. 

Secondary research is data and information from other sources, such as journals, research bodies, or online content. 

Primary researcher tools use methods like surveys and customer interviews. You can use these tools to collect, store, or manage information effectively and uncover more accurate insights. 

What is the difference between tools and methods in research?

Research methods relate to how researchers gather information and data. 

For example, surveys, focus groups, customer interviews, and A/B testing are research methods that gather information. 

On the other hand, tools assist areas of research. Researchers may use tools to more efficiently gather data, store data securely, or uncover insights. 

Tools can improve research methods, ensuring efficiency and accuracy while reducing complexity.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

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Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers for 2024

• August 22, 2024 Updated

The future of research writing is here, driven by AI technology that combines precision and efficiency like never before. With the best AI Tools for Writing Research Papers, you can elevate your work to new heights, ensuring that every word is meticulously crafted and every argument is clearly articulated.

Choosing the right AI writing tool is crucial for producing high-quality research papers that meet academic standards . These tools enhance productivity and make sure your work is original, well-structured, and free from errors .

Over the years, AI writing tools have significantly evolved . What started as simple grammar checkers have become sophisticated platforms offering content generation, style optimization, and citation management, making the research writing process more streamlined .

Whether looking for a tool to refine your writing or seeking advanced features for managing citations and references , the best AI writing tools for 2024 provide various options to suit your academic needs . Let’s explore these tools and how they can elevate your research writing.

Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers: Quick Comparison

In this section, I’ll cover the best AI writing tools designed specifically for Writing Research Papers . These tools are essential for enhancing academic writing by offering features such as grammar checks, content generation, and citation management, ensuring that your research paper is polished and professional.

To help you choose the right tool, I’ve created a quick comparison table that outlines the key features and pricing of the top AI tools available. Depending on your needs, you might find that one of these options is also among the best AI tools in 2024 available for various writing tasks.

Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers: In-Depth Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at the best AI tools available for Writing Research Papers . Each tool offers unique features that cater to different aspects of academic writing, from grammar and style to content generation and citation management.

1. Jenni AI : Your Go-To Tool for Research Writing

Jenni AI is a powerful writing assistant designed to streamline research paper writing . With features like AI Autocomplete , in-text citations , and the ability to generate content from various sources, Jenni AI enables you to create well-structured and comprehensive research papers efficiently.

One of the standout features of Jenni AI is its support for five languages , making it accessible to a global audience.

Additionally, the tool allows you to produce 200+ words per day , which is ideal for consistent progress on lengthy academic projects. With 5+ user seats available, Jenni AI is perfect for collaborative research efforts, enabling multiple users to contribute to a single project.

While Jenni AI excels in areas such as multilingual support and ease of use , it does lack a plagiarism checker , which is an important feature for ensuring the originality of academic work. However, its intuitive interface and mobile compatibility make it easy to use, whether you’re working from a desktop or on the go.

Jenni AI shines with its AI Autocomplete and multilingual support , making it an excellent choice for researchers and students alike. However, the absence of a plagiarism checker means you might need to use additional tools to ensure your work is free from unintentional duplication.

• Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Strong AI Autocomplete and in-text citation features.
• Supports multiple languages.
• Lacks a built-in plagiarism checker.
• Limited template options.
• Some advanced features are not applicable.

Customer Support and Refund Policy

Jenni AI offers robust customer support, which is available through various channels, including email and live chat.

The tool also provides a refund policy, though specific details on coverage days are not provided. If you’re considering Jenni AI , it’s worth reading a more detailed Jenni AI review to understand its full capabilities.

2. Paperpal: My Go-To Tool for Research Manuscript Writing

Paperpal is an AI-powered tool explicitly designed for article writing and manuscript writing . It leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) , Machine Learning (ML) , and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide comprehensive writing assistance, from grammar checks to plagiarism detection.

Paperpal is particularly useful for researchers and authors who need to ensure their manuscripts meet the highest standards of academic writing.

From the moment you log in, Paperpal is intuitive and straightforward to use. It offers a seamless integration with MS Word through an add-in, allowing you to access its features directly within your document.

The tool supports over 25 languages and provides 7,000 words per month of plagiarism-checked content, making it a versatile option for multilingual writers.

However, while Paperpal excels in language support and data security, its limited word count for the free version and lack of detailed template options may be drawbacks for some users.

Paperpal shines with its AI-driven capabilities, offering robust grammar checks and language support. This makes it a great choice for academic and professional writers.

However, the tool is rated slightly lower due to its limited word count in the free version and the absence of extensive template options.

• Strong integration with MS Word.
• Supports over 25 languages, making it versatile for multilingual writing.
• Offers robust grammar and plagiarism checks.
• Limited word count for the free version.
• Lack of detailed templates.
• No clear specification on the number of user seats.

Paperpal offers customer support via email, ensuring users can get assistance when needed. The tool also provides a money-back guarantee , with 30 days coverage for annual subscriptions and 7 days for monthly subscriptions.

For a deeper insight into Paperpal’s capabilities, consider checking out a comprehensive Paperpal review .

3. QuillBot : My Essential Tool for Paraphrasing and Research Writing

QuillBot has become my go-to tool when paraphrasing text or refining my research writing . It’s particularly effective for rephrasing complex ideas, which is essential when avoiding plagiarism while still accurately conveying my research findings.

Whether I’m working on articles or longer academic papers, QuillBot’s range of features helps me maintain clarity and precision.

What I appreciate most about QuillBot is its easy use, from logging in to exploring its various features. It integrates smoothly with Google Docs , Microsoft Word , and MacOS , so I can work across different platforms without hassle.

The tool supports 30 languages and offers unlimited word count, which is useful when working on large research projects.

However, while QuillBot excels in paraphrasing and grammar checking, it doesn’t offer advanced templates, which could be a downside if you need more structured content creation.

QuillBot is invaluable for paraphrasing and ensuring the accuracy of my research writing. However, the lack of advanced templates and a short refund period may be limiting for some users.

• Excellent paraphrasing and grammar-checking features.
• Works well with Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and MacOS.
• It supports 30 languages, making it versatile for multilingual research.
• Doesn’t offer advanced templates for structured academic writing.
• Customer support is limited to website messaging.
• Short refund period of only 3 days.

QuillBot offers customer support through messages on their website, which is convenient for quick inquiries.

They also provide a 100% money-back guarantee , but the refund period is only 3 days , so you must decide quickly if it’s the right tool. For a more detailed exploration of QuillBot’s features, I suggest checking out a full QuillBot review .

4. Anyword: Your Precision Tool for Research and Academic Writing

Anyword is a powerful AI-driven writing assistant designed to support various writing needs, particularly research writing , academic content creation , and legal writing .

What makes Anyword especially useful for research writing is its predictive performance model , which offers insights into how effectively your academic content will resonate with its intended audience, ensuring your work makes the desired impact.

When I began using Anyword for my research writing, I was immediately impressed by its user-friendly interface. The tool simplifies the writing process from when you log in, offering seamless navigation through its features.

With support for 30+ languages and 100+ templates , Anyword is versatile enough to handle complex research documents, ensuring they are both clear and compelling.

The integration with Google Chrome is particularly handy, allowing me to draft and refine my research papers directly in the browser.

However, while Anyword excels in predictive content performance and template variety, its higher pricing tiers and the absence of refunds for canceled subscriptions may limit some users, particularly those in academia, on a budget.

Anyword excels in providing content analytics and predictive performance , making it an excellent choice for researchers and academics who require data-driven insights to enhance the effectiveness of their writing.

However, the tool’s lack of a refund policy and the higher costs associated with advanced plans may be a concern for budget-conscious users in academia.

• Predictive performance scores provide valuable insights for optimizing research papers.
• It offers a wide range of templates and supports over 30 languages , which is useful for multilingual research.
• Smooth integration with Google Chrome for efficient browser-based writing.
• Higher pricing tiers , particularly for small research teams or students, can be expensive.
• There are no refunds for canceled subscriptions, which might be a drawback for some users.
• Advanced features like custom-built AI models are only available in the business plan .

Anyword offers customer support via email, which I find effective for quickly resolving issues during my research writing. However, it’s important to note that they do not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s wise to fully assess your needs before committing to a plan.

For a more detailed comparison with other AI writing tools, I recommend reading a thorough Anyword review to see if it aligns with your research writing requirements.

5. Bit AI: The Ultimate Tool for Research Document Collaboration

But AI is cloud-based document collaboration and knowledge management software , making it ideal for researchers and academic teams that need to create, share, and track their research documents in real time .

It streamlines document collaboration, enhances knowledge sharing , and significantly boosts productivity , making it indispensable for teams working on research papers , proposals , and academic reports .

When I first started using Bit AI for my research writing, I was immediately impressed by its intuitive interface and ease of use .

The tool integrates seamlessly with over 100 popular applications , which allows me to embed various types of digital content directly into my documents.

This feature is incredibly useful for creating rich, interactive research papers that go beyond text to include images, videos, and other media.

I also appreciate Bit AI’s mobile compatibility , which enables me to manage my research documents on the go.

However, while Bit AI excels in collaboration features and integration , the limitations of the free plan and the lack of advanced grammar and plagiarism checks might be drawbacks for some researchers.

Bit AI is particularly strong in document collaboration and knowledge management , making it a great choice for academic teams that require real-time collaboration on research papers. However, its limited free plan and the absence of specified grammar and plagiarism detection features may be restrictive for researchers who need comprehensive writing tools.

• Extensive integration with over 100 applications enhances document functionality, ideal for embedding research data and media.
• It offers comprehensive knowledge management and collaboration tools that are perfect for managing complex research projects.
• Mobile compatibility allows for document management on the go, ensuring you can keep up with your research tasks anywhere.
• The free plan is limited , especially for larger research teams needing more advanced features.
• Lacks specified grammar check and plagiarism detection features, which are crucial for academic integrity.
• There are no refunds for canceled subscriptions, which could be a drawback for some researchers.

Bit AI offers customer support via phone, email, and live chat, which I find very responsive and helpful, particularly when managing complex research documents.

However, it’s important to note that Bit AI does not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s essential to consider this before committing to a paid plan.

6. Writesonic : Your Go-To AI for Research Writing and Content Creation

Writesonic is a versatile AI-powered writing assistant designed to enhance research writing and content creation efficiency and quality .

Whether you’re brainstorming article ideas , crafting concise summaries , or generating SEO meta-descriptions for your research publications, Writesonic provides various tools tailored to meet your academic needs.

When I first started using Writesonic , I found the platform incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate.

The user experience is seamless, from logging in to exploring its features. The tool supports 24+ languages and offers access to over 100+ templates , making it ideal for creating structured and polished research documents.

Additionally, Writesonic’s integration with platforms like Google Docs and WordPress simplifies incorporating research content into various formats.

However, while Writesonic excels in generating high-quality content, some users might find the limited credits in the free plan restrictive, especially when working on extensive research projects.

Writesonic is particularly strong in content generation and language support , making it an excellent tool for researchers who must produce well-structured and engaging academic content.

However, the limited credits in the free plan and the need for a premium plan to access unlimited features may be a consideration for those working on larger projects.

The best AI for writing research papers helps streamline the writing process with advanced features.

• Extensive template library with over 100 templates, perfect for various research writing tasks.
• It supports 24+ languages , making it suitable for multilingual research teams.
• Seamless integration with popular platforms like Google Docs and WordPress.
• Limited credits in the free plan may restrict usage for extensive research projects.
• Premium plans require unlimited access to word count and other advanced features.
• Some advanced features, such as brand voice , are better suited for marketing than academic writing.

Writesonic offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, which I find particularly helpful when working on research projects that require quick assistance.

They also offer a 100% refund within 7 days , which provides peace of mind when trying out the platform.

If you want to explore how Writesonic compares to other AI writing tools for research, consider reading a comprehensive Writesonic review to see if it fits your academic needs.

7. Scalenut: Elevate Your Research Writing with AI-Driven Content Optimization

Scalenut is a comprehensive AI-driven writing assistant that excels at research writing , especially content planning , SEO optimization , and content creation .

Designed to help researchers create impactful and optimized content, Scalenut’s capabilities extend beyond writing. It also offers tools to research SEO topics and analyze traffic , making it an all-in-one platform for academic and research professionals aiming to increase their online visibility.

From the moment I started using Scalenut , I was struck by how user-friendly it is.

The platform makes it easy to log in and craft well-structured research content with its intuitive interface.

One of the standout features is its deep learning model and NLP-generated key terms , significantly enhancing the quality and relevance of your research writing.

Moreover, Scalenut’s integration with WordPress ensures you can directly publish your optimized content without any hassles.

However, while Scalenut offers extensive features, its English-only language support and potential data-sharing practices might be limiting factors for some researchers.

Scalenut is particularly effective in content optimization and SEO-driven research writing , making it a top choice for researchers who want to enhance the reach and impact of their work. However, the tool’s English-only support and potential data-sharing practices may not suit everyone, particularly those working in multilingual or highly confidential research environments.

• AI-driven content optimization with deep learning models enhances the quality and reach of research papers.
• It provides over 40+ templates for various writing tasks, which is ideal for structured academic writing.
• Integration with WordPress allows for seamless publishing of research content.
• English-only language support may be limiting for non-English researchers.
• Potential data-sharing practices might raise concerns for those handling sensitive research data.
• Customer support options are not clearly provided , which could be a drawback if you need immediate assistance.

Scalenut offers a 7-day free trial for users to explore its features, which I found useful for getting acquainted with the platform. However, the tool does not clearly provide customer support options, and there is no refund policy mentioned, so it’s important to consider these factors before subscribing.

For a more detailed comparison with other AI writing tools, I recommend reading a comprehensive Scalenut review to see if it aligns with your research writing needs.

8. ChatGPT: Your Essential AI for Research Writing and Content Generation

ChatGPT , developed by OpenAI, is a powerful AI-driven writing assistant that has quickly become a go-to tool for research writing and content generation .

Whether you’re drafting complex research papers, summarizing intricate topics, or translating documents, ChatGPT offers a versatile platform that can significantly enhance your academic work.

With the ability to handle large language models (LLMs) , ChatGPT is particularly adept at generating high-quality content on diverse and complex topics, making it an invaluable tool for researchers.

When I started using ChatGPT for my research writing, I found the platform incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate.

The tool supports 50+ languages , making it highly adaptable to various research tasks. The mobile compatibility on iOS and Android further ensures that I can work on my research projects anywhere, anytime.

However, while ChatGPT excels in generating and summarizing content, the lack of a built-in plagiarism check and limited advanced grammar features may require additional tools to ensure the academic integrity of your work.

ChatGPT stands out for its ability to handle complex research topics and generate comprehensive content, making it a top choice for academics and researchers.

However, the tool’s lack of integrated plagiarism detection and the absence of refunds could be a consideration for those needing these specific features.

These Best AI tools for research in 2024 provide top-notch support for academic work.

• Extensive language support with over 50 languages, making it suitable for multilingual research.
• Access on multiple platforms (web, iOS, Android), ensuring flexibility in research writing.
• Offers a vast array of templates and tools , including access to GPT-4 and other advanced AI capabilities.
• No built-in plagiarism checker , which may require the use of additional tools for academic integrity.
• Limited advanced grammar features , making it less comprehensive compared to dedicated grammar tools.
• No refunds for subscriptions, which could be a drawback for some users.

ChatGPT offers customer support via live chat, which I find helpful for quick queries and troubleshooting.

However, it’s important to note that ChatGPT does not offer refunds for canceled subscriptions, so it’s crucial to evaluate the tool’s features thoroughly during the free trial.

To dive deeper into how ChatGPT compares to other AI tools, consider reading a comprehensive ChatGPT review to determine if it fits your research writing needs.

9. Research Rabbit: Your Go-To Tool for Efficient Research and Literature Mapping

Research Rabbit is a unique, citation-based literature mapping tool designed to optimize your time when searching for references, whether you’re starting an essay, a minor project, or a comprehensive literature review.

This free tool is invaluable for researchers who want to streamline their research process by finding relevant papers quickly and efficiently.

When I first used Research Rabbit for my research writing, I was impressed by how it simplifies the literature review process.

The tool’s ability to search for relevant literature based on a “seed paper” concept is a game-changer. It allows me to input one or more research papers and receive suggestions for additional relevant papers.

This eliminates the need to switch between various databases, making the research process faster and more efficient.

Additionally, Research Rabbit is continuously evolving, with a mission-first team dedicated to advancing human knowledge.

The platform is easy to navigate, but it is primarily focused on literature mapping and lacks more advanced content generation features like those found in ChatGPT .

Research Rabbit excels in citation-based literature mapping , making it a must-have tool for any researcher looking to optimize their literature review process.

However, it is specialized in this area and does not offer broader content generation or editing features, which could limit its utility for those needing a more comprehensive tool like ChatGPT .

Free AI tools for research papers writing offer valuable resources for generating high-quality content.

• Free access to a powerful citation-based literature mapping tool, making it accessible to all researchers.
• Efficient literature searching through the “seed paper” concept saves significant time during the research process.
• The mission-first team focused on advancing human knowledge and continuously improving the tool.
• Limited to literature mapping , lacking broader content creation or editing features.
• English-only support may limit its use for non-English research materials.
• Does not offer advanced integrations or additional research tools in more comprehensive platforms.

Research Rabbit offers customer support via email at [email protected] , which I found responsive and helpful. As the tool is completely free, there is no refund policy, which is understandable given its no-cost model.

To complement your research toolkit with broader capabilities, consider exploring other tools like ChatGPT to see how they can work alongside Research Rabbit.

10. Perplexity AI: Your Real-Time Research Assistant for Accurate Information Retrieval

Perplexity AI is a cutting-edge AI-powered research assistant designed to provide real-time information retrieval and fact-checking, making it an ideal tool for research writing .

Whether you’re conducting in-depth research on complex topics or need quick access to accurate and up-to-date information, Perplexity AI’s real-time web search and transparent source citation capabilities ensure that you get the most relevant and trustworthy results for your research projects.

When I began using Perplexity AI for my research writing, I was immediately struck by how efficient and user-friendly the platform is.

The Perplexity Copilot feature integrates real-time web searches with transparent citations, providing reliable sources for every answer, which is crucial for academic integrity.

The interface is clean and intuitive, allowing me to focus on my research without distractions.

Perplexity AI is particularly strong in real-time information retrieval and source transparency , making it an excellent tool for researchers who need accurate and trustworthy data quickly.

However, the platform’s lack of advanced grammar or plagiarism checking features and limited information on data security may require users to complement it with other tools for a more comprehensive research writing process.

• Real-time web search provides up-to-date information crucial for current research topics.
• Transparent source citation enhances academic integrity, ensuring that all information is traceable.
• A User-friendly interface allows for a distraction-free research experience.
• No built-in plagiarism or grammar checks , which may require additional tools.
• Limited data security details which could be a concern for sensitive research.
• The Professional plan may be necessary for more advanced features, which adds to the cost.

Perplexity AI offers customer support via email at [email protected] , which is responsive and helpful for addressing user inquiries.

The platform provides a 24-hour window for refunds after purchase, with a full refund available within 72 hours for annual subscriptions, making it relatively risk-free to try.

For a more detailed comparison with other research tools, consider exploring a comprehensive Perplexity AI review to see how it fits into your research writing workflow.

How To Choose The Best AI Tools For Writing Research Papers?

When I set out to find the best AI tools for writing research papers, I focused on several key factors:

• Content Accuracy and Credibility : The tool’s ability to generate well-researched and accurate content is crucial for producing credible research papers.
• Language Capabilities : It was essential to choose AI tools that support a wide range of languages, ensuring they can assist with research papers in different regional contexts.
• Integration Capabilities : I looked for AI tools that seamlessly integrate with platforms like Google Docs or WordPress, enhancing the writing process and allowing for smooth transitions between the writing and editing stages.
• Data Security and Privacy : Ensuring the AI tool complies with data protection standards is vital, particularly for researchers handling sensitive academic work, especially in regions with strict data privacy regulations.

This detailed guide on artificial intelligence provides more insights into how I evaluate AI tools and what factors to consider. Moreover, the best AI tool for writing research papers in 2024 meets the demands of modern academic writing.

How do AI Writing Tools Help Write Research Papers?

In my experience, AI writing tools have greatly enhanced my ability to produce high-quality research papers by offering several key benefits:

• Efficiency : AI tools speed up tasks like organizing references and generating literature reviews, allowing more time for analysis and critical thinking.
• Accuracy : These tools improve grammar, sentence structure, and clarity by leveraging natural language processing (NLP), ensuring professional-quality writing.
• Data Analysis : AI can quickly scan and summarize large volumes of data, making it easier to identify trends and build stronger research arguments.
• Collaboration : Many AI tools support real-time collaboration, enabling seamless teamwork across different regions, especially useful for international research projects.

For more on how AI tools enhance research writing, understanding the basics of NLP (Natural Language Processing) can provide deeper insights into these advancements.

Want to Read More? Explore Best AI Writing Tools Guides!

Elevate your writing skills with our expertly curated guides on AI writing tools.

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Can I use AI to write my research paper?

What is the best ai for summarizing research papers, is there a completely free ai writing tool, can professors detect ai-written papers, can chatgpt summarize a research paper.

Choosing the best AI Tools for writing Research Papers involves considering content accuracy, language capabilities, integration options, and data security. AI tools like ChatGPT, Quillbot, and Research Rabbit offer unique features that cater to different aspects of the research writing process, making them valuable assets for academics.

You should explore these AI writing tools to enhance your content writing projects, whether you’re working on a research paper, summarizing literature, or managing complex academic tasks. By integrating these tools into your workflow, you can improve both the efficiency and quality of your writing.

Digital marketing enthusiast by day, nature wanderer by dusk. Dave Andre blends two decades of AI and SaaS expertise into impactful strategies for SMEs. His weekends? Lost in books on tech trends and rejuvenating on scenic trails.

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Citation Management and Writing Tools: Research & Collaboration Tools

• LaTeX and BibTeX
• Other Citation Tools

Collaborate with Colleagues

• Google Drive Create documents, spreadsheets and more to share with a group.
• Overleaf Access Overleaf Pro+ accounts through MIT Libraries.
• Dropbox Paper

Read, Organize, and Annotate PDFs

• ReadCube Papers Read, annotate, and organize PDFs. Create teams for collaboration. **Requires a subscription.
• GoodReader Robust PDF reader for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Manage, read, and annotate files.
• foxit PDF Reader Annotate, collaborate, and share PDFs.
• Petal Reference Manager Petal is the world’s first and only AI-powered reference manager. Using OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model (same engine as chatGPT), Petal enables direct and dynamic interaction with your research library. Automatic metadata extraction. Drag & drop, import existing reference lists (BibTeX), and create collections to stay organized.

Store and Organize Files

• Dropbox Link your personal account to MIT for additional storage
• Evernote Capture, organize, and share notes from anywhere. Share notes with friends and colleagues.

Need more help with organizing and storing your files/data related to your research? Check out the Store your data  guidance from the Data Management Services team or contact them directly at [email protected] .

Get help with citation software

Contact us at:  [email protected]

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• Last Updated: Aug 23, 2024 10:01 AM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/cite-write

• INNOVATION FESTIVAL
• Capital One

08-20-2024 TECH

How AI tools help students—and their professors—in academic research

New systems can help surface relevant research papers and quickly understand what they have to say.

[Photo: Nikish Hiraman/peopleimages.com/Adobe Stock]

BY  Steven Melendez 7 minute read

For students and professional scholars alike, starting a new research project typically means digging through academic literature to understand what others have already written.

That can take a considerable amount of time, with researchers tracking down and combing through journal articles to begin their research and contextualize their own findings. But a growing collection of AI-powered tools aims to make that process easier. These new tools can help researchers more quickly find relevant papers, pull out relevant information from them, or both.

“It can be a really helpful way to get started with research, especially for students who aren’t familiar with the research process,” says Breanne Kirsch, director of the library at Illinois College. “As long as they’re taught how to use it in an ethical way, and that they can then expand beyond what it does.”

A tool called Elicit can help researchers conduct what are called systematic reviews , which involve going through copious amounts of published research to find an answer to a question, like how a particular drug affects a medical condition. “It’s all very, very manual,” says James Brady, head of engineering at Elicit. “It takes teams of people many months, and you know, costs hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to do these things.” 

Elicit can make that process much faster, and also help researchers by quickly finding and summarizing published papers related to a particular question. It can also generate tables describing a whole set of relevant papers, with columns for data points like algorithms and statistical techniques used, variables examined, and the number of participants in experiments. 

The company recommends researchers still look at the original papers, and Brady emphasizes that the tool doesn’t replace the human judgment and analysis necessary to scientific research. “It’s not like you take the final step of Elicit and hit the publish button and then it ends up in Nature or something,” he says, but it can still greatly speed the process of sifting through and understanding prior work.

Understanding how AI can help academic research is part of a larger industry question of how and when the technology can replace or supplement traditional web search tools. And since the 1990s , computer scientists have realized that the academic publishing landscape—where scholars cite each other’s papers and publish in journals with a particular reputation in a particular field—isn’t that different from the internet ecosystem . That means techniques for finding relevant materials, minimizing AI errors and hallucinations, and presenting useful and verifiable results to the user may transfer from academia to the broader web.

Indeed, not everyone searching for scientific answers is a professional scientist. And the organizations behind these tools say they can be especially helpful for people looking to understand new fields of interest, whether they’re students, professionals doing interdisciplinary work, or interested members of the public.

Eric Olson, cofounder and CEO at AI research search engine Consensus , says about 50% of the tool’s research is at academic institutions, where it’s often used by graduate students. “We typically do quite well with folks who need that easy, quick access to research but maybe aren’t a full-blown expert yet,” he says.

Consensus lets users type in natural language queries to get answers summarized from across published work. It surfaces summaries of particular papers, metadata like publication year and citation count, and an indication of how much scientific consensus there is about a particular question. Another popular audience for the tool is healthcare workers, including doctors, who use the tool to get insights more quickly than traditional scholarly search engines or Google can provide. Everyday users also use Consensus to research health topics, parenting practices, and policy issues in the news, Olson says.

Like other companies in the field, Consensus doesn’t simply rely on a single GPT-style large language model to generate answers to user questions. The company deploys a custom search engine to find papers addressing a query, and a variety of expert-trained language models to extract relevant information and—equally important—verify the paper is actually on topic, cutting the chance that an overzealous AI model will try to point out facts that aren’t actually there.

“I’m only gonna let this go to the model if we think that it actually has a relevant insight in it,” Olson says. “It’s a really great trick to reduce the risk of misinterpreting the paper.”

Academic publishing giant Elsevier has similarly developed a tool called Scopus AI to search through research collected in its Scopus database , which includes article abstracts and metadata from tens of thousands of journals (including those published by rival publishers). Scopus AI can generate summary responses based on particular queries, suggest additional questions to help users expand their knowledge of the field, and highlight “foundational papers” and “topic expert” authors who have especial influence in an area of expertise.

“We’ve actually found this is quite a shared need across a number of different people who are at this precipice of trying to understand another domain,” says Maxim Khan, SVP of analytics products and data platform at Elsevier.

Khan says users have confirmed it helps them understand new fields faster and come across papers they might not otherwise have discovered. Thanks in part to licensing terms, the tool doesn’t include full text, meaning users can’t directly query about material in articles beyond the abstracts and citations.

Other software can help users dive deep into specific research. An AI tool from JStor , still in limited beta, lets users see article summaries customized to their particular queries and can answer questions based on document contents, pointing to particular passages that contain the answer. That can help users figure out which papers are relevant enough for a close read, and the tool can also point to other topics or particular papers for a user to investigate based on particular passages. 

“The user actually is now having a conversation with the article, and so they’re engaging with the article in a completely different way,” says Kevin Guthrie, president of JStor’s nonprofit parent, Ithaka. “Obviously, there’s a very big difference from just downloading an article or downloading the PDF and reading it.”

The organization, with its focus on helping students with research, deliberately doesn’t generate aggregate answers to particular questions from multiple articles. Beth LaPensee, senior product manager at Ithaka, says the software can help students learning research skills and specialized vocabulary understand material they might otherwise struggle with. In a June blog post, Guthrie and LaPensee compared the process to learning the basic plot of a Shakespeare play before diving into the antiquated text, and say it can be especially helpful with humanities and social science papers that customarily don’t include abstracts.

The software has also proven helpful to professors. “One faculty member we were talking to said that they could do in one day what used to take them four or five days,” LaPensee says.

And the organization has found participants in the AI beta, which is slated to expand in the fall, spend “significantly more time on JStor” than other users. 

Measuring results—and even knowing what to measure—is naturally an important part of testing new AI resources. Since 2015, a project called Semantic Scholar has focused on using AI to analyze scientific papers. It’s part of Ai2 , the AI research institute founded by late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, and today it includes features to help users understand papers, like surfacing definitions of technical terms from within a paper or other research it cites, answering general questions about specific papers, and generating “tl; dr” summaries of papers based on the types of descriptions authors post on social media.

How to test whether those summaries were helpful wasn’t immediately obvious, recalls Dan Weld, chief scientist and general manager of Semantic Scholar. If users were benefiting from them, they might either click more articles from search results—if the summaries indicated they were interesting—or fewer, if the summaries helped them weed out extraneous results. But when the summaries were later added to email alerts, the results seemed positive—users clicked fewer emailed articles overall, but were more likely to save articles they clicked, suggesting the summaries steered them to interesting work. 

Evaluating a feature Semantic Scholar is currently testing to answer questions from across multiple papers is even more challenging, according to Weld, who says, “It’s really quite difficult to compare different systems. There are some other systems out there that do question answering—we think ours is better than theirs, but we can’t prove it yet.”

And since different AI research tools have access to different sets of papers as well as different features, researchers may still find they need to use multiple AI platforms—often along with traditional database tools—to find everything they need. It’s important to note, Illinois College’s Kirsch says, that reading AI summaries can’t substitute for working through actual papers and verifying that they say what the tools claim, tempting though it can be.

“While the generative AI tools may help as a starting point, just like Wikipedia would, you still want to go to some of those actual sources,” she says. “You can’t just rely solely on the GenAI tools. You also need to look at the sources themselves and make sure it really does make sense for what you’re trying to do and what you’re trying to research.”

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The Best Apps for Distraction-Free Writing

We are bombarded by distractions every moment of every day. Some of them are of our own making; others are basically unavoidable. As I sat writing this story my Fitbit reminded me to get up and move, I received well over 100 emails, Duolingo told me it was time for a lesson, Google let me know it was screening a suspicious call , and I received an alert to water my plants. All of this noise would make it hard to accomplish any task, but it’s particularly problematic when you’re trying to write.

Even the tiniest of distractions can completely disrupt your flow when you’re trying to put words down on a page, and so a whole cottage industry has cropped up around making tools for distraction-free writing. These apps can’t stop telemarketers from calling you or deflect the deluge of Instagram notifications, but they do strip away the extraneous nonsense found in traditional word processors like rulers, toolbars, and tables, and focus on what’s most important: words.

Distraction-free writing apps come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and at various price points. Here are a few of my favorites.

Google Docs

Sometimes the best tool is the one you’re already using. Google Docs wouldn’t qualify as “distraction-free” by most measures. It has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an office suite. But if you go up to the View menu and click “Full screen,” you get a surprisingly clean and minimal interface.

In full screen mode, you see a page with words, rulers along the top and sides, and a document outline on the left. That’s it. The toolbar and most other interface elements are removed. You can hide the rulers and document outline as well; just go to the View menu.

To make Docs as close to the other distraction-free apps in this roundup, go to Tools, Preferences, and turn on Enable Markdown. This allows you to format your work with simple text cues like putting words between asterisks to style them with italics. My biggest complaint is that there’s no dark mode for Google Docs at the moment.

The best feature of Google Docs though, is the price: Free.

At the other end of the price spectrum is iA Writer . The desktop app for macOS is $50. And if you want to use it on your iPad or iPhone, that’s another $50. Windows and Android users get a bit better of a deal at $30, but the experience isn’t quite as smooth, and features generally come to Apple’s platforms first.

That being said, I think it might provide the best experience of the bunch. Even in standard mode, iA Writer is a clean and minimal text editor with a decent amount of customization and support for simple Markdown formatting .

But the real magic happens when you click the focus mode button in the top bar. There are a few ways to customize focus mode, but by default the line you’re actively typing on is highlighted and centered. As you move on to the next line, the completed text fades to a dull gray and moves upwards. It’s not too different from what you’d experience with a typewriter.

iA Writer has dark mode and shortcut integration for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Plus it’s just plain pretty. Given the high price though, you have to be pretty dedicated to the idea of a distraction-free working environment to spring for iA Writer.

The basic layout and feature set of Ulysses isn’t terribly different from iA Writer. There’s a sidebar for navigating and organizing your files, and a large main pane for composing. But it’s definitely more feature-rich, including tools for goal tracking and proofreading. Thanks to its simple but thoughtful organization system, you could probably even use Ulysses as a note-taking app in a pinch.

Like iA Writer it has a typewriter mode with line highlighting and text scrolling. But you have to turn on the various parts of it individually the first time. One of its bigger draws is its styles that allow you to export documents using templates customized for scripts, novels, blog posts, and more.

The knock against Ulysses is that it’s available only as a $40 annual subscription. And it’s strictly for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. If you’re a Windows user, you’re out of luck.

FocusWriter

This is perhaps the most bare-bones of the bunch, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. FocusWriter has all the basics you’d expect from a text editor, including spell check and the ability to have multiple documents open simultaneously. It also has tools for serious writers, like stat tracking and goal setting.

Unlike most of the other apps here, FocusWriter uses rich text (RTF) for formatting instead of Markdown. It probably has the most customizable interface of the bunch, though. You can meticulously choose the interface colors, fonts, and background.

One of the biggest draws will be that it’s free and open source, though right now it’s available for Windows and Linux only. While you can probably get it running on macOS if you know your way around a command line, it will take some legwork, and there’s no mobile client or file syncing.

The idea of distraction-free writing is, inherently, kind of gimmicky. But OmmWriter is probably the most gimmicky of the bunch. It doesn’t just strip away the extraneous nonsense; it aims to immerse you in an environment conducive to a flow state. That includes gentle soundscapes to help you focus and even various typing sound effects to enhance the vibes.

If you want more audible feedback while typing, but don’t want to invest in a nice mechanical keyboard, this might do the job. Though, the very slight lag between your fingers hitting the keys and the sound coming out of the speakers bugged me.

Otherwise, the UI is pretty bare, with a resizable text box in the center and a few buttons to the right for changing settings. It’s the cheapest of the commercial options here at $9.93 for macOS or Windows. But you can also give it a whirl in your browser by playing with a stripped down version for free.

Scrivener has a dedicated following among long-form writers, and for good reason. While the app does have an excellent distraction-free mode, complete with typewriter-style scrolling, it also sports advanced organizing tools that you’re sure to appreciate if you’re working on a book or a screenplay. It’s made specifically with longer writing projects in mind.

Its project outlines make it simple to collect research or rearrange ideas until you find what clicks. When it comes time to actually write, the full screen composition mode gets rid of everything but the text box. It’s the most minimal of editors.

Scrivener is available on macOS and Windows for $60, or iOS for $24. Unfortunately you will have to purchase a separate license for each platform, which could get expensive if you use multiple devices.

This is perhaps the best deal of the bunch if you’re looking for a true distraction-free experience without having to jump through a lot of hoops. For $15, Calmly offers some customization of the interface and basic stat tracking, but mostly it’s just focused on writing.

Like many of the other apps, Calmly is Markdown based, so your resulting files are just plaintext and easily transferred between apps. What you won’t find here are any file management tools or flashy export options, though it does allow you to insert images and add comments, which many of the other apps don’t.

Calmly is available as a desktop app for Windows, Linux, and macOS, but there’s also a stripped down web-based version that is free.

Obsidian isn’t really a distraction-free writing app; it’s a full-featured notetaker. But its clean UI and reliance on Markdown make it a pretty solid writing tool. Plus, its wealth of customization options and deep catalog of extensions mean you can turn Obsidian into the specific writing environment that suits your needs. You can add typewriter-like modes, or set up goal tracking to monitor your productivity. You can just as easily remove features and strip away any of the bits you don't want.

The best part is that Obsidian is free for personal use. If you want to use it as more than just a text editor, I highly recommend you spring for the $4 monthly subscription. This enables file syncing, which keeps all your work in order across all your devices. Obsidian is also platform agnostic and available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Just don't let browsing and trying out all those extensions become a distraction itself.

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