Last Updated: 30th of May, 2019.
When conducting research, students need to not only comprehend the genuine research methods but also have access to the appropriate tools required to carry it out. Research today is much changed from what it was back in time. With the rise of technology, we’ve witnessed an enormous increase in study data and unlimited accessibility to sources and references. Because of this, there’s also a considerable choice of researching software that might pitch in to help students go through all that data in a formalized and systematic way.
If you’re performing academic research, it’s a sure-fire thing to have a quality tool at your disposal. Such programs can range from collaboration tools you use to work together with your peers to plagiarism software that prevents you from doing academic misconduct. Also, there are such applications that allow you to keep track of the data you find and get ahead of your assignments.
In this article, you’ll find out about the top five research tools that won’t let you lose touch while writing the academic papers. So, let’s cut to the chase.
Google Scholar
1Google has provided us with yet another useful tool that’s focused on helping with research. By practising this tool, you can search for journals, academic literature, articles, patents, eBooks, and white papers across search engines. It’s a prevalent tool for performing online research since it allows you to avoid the insecure and possibly inaccurate sites by searching all the established databases.
Moreover, Google Scholar will look into university repositories to find a research article that will help you with your research proposal topic. You can also set up alerts for keywords and get a notification whenever Google Scholar finds a newly published article in the field or by other experts in your academic community.
There are plenty of things that this tool allows you to do. You can put labels on different articles and papers to keep them organized, manage various documents and libraries, as well as keep all citation data accessible and organized for when you need it to write your paper.
On Google Scholar, you’ll get all the information you need to include in your paper, such as versions of the article, citation numbers, and even similar articles that cite the article in question. If you add your paper to it, the tool will notify you when someone quotes in their work.
Lastly, Google Scholar is perfect for citations. When the time comes for you to add citations to the research paper, you can simply download them from Google Scholar. And not only that – the tool also let’s choose the format required to be used, such as APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc. Even these citations can be exported to bibliography managers like EndNote.
Research Gate
2ResearchGate is another tool for software researches. It’s basically a site, but one that has attracted over eleven million members. This site is used not only by academics and students but also by scientists and researchers. With an institutional email address, you can create your account and profile, upload your papers, list your publications, and perform research.
In other words, ResearchGate employs a collaborative approach where people put their papers and work for others to use and read. That being said, you can use your profile to follow your peers and colleagues or other users that share your interests. You’ll also be informed when a person cites or reads the paper, as well as of who your followers are.
If you want access to some data but can’t find it online, you can use Research Gate to email that person and request the text of their publication. In other words, this is a trendy tool to keep up with research from your colleagues and keep in touch with various academic institutions.
Zotero
3Zotero is a tool that can sense content. How? Well, it does this automatically and allows users to add the content to their personal libraries.
With the use of this tool, you can cut down the time you spend on research in half and get more time to work on the actual writing. It’s a tool used by many academics and research companies, including this professional assignment writing service. When it comes to features and acknowledged level of citations, Zotero is nothing short of features and is unquestionably on the ball while being quick as a flash in operations.
Zotero is connected with thousands of websites, allowing its users to access everything from a preprint on arXiv to a news article on the New York Times.
Endnote
4Endnote is another top-rated software for research among students. It’s actually a combination of tools that let you organize your research, search for data to support it, and even share your own work for others to see.
With the use of Endnote, you can create a bibliography and write papers. There are many exciting and unique features such as the ‘Cite While You Write’ function, which basically splits the time you spend on writing in half.
With Endnote, students can literally minimize the time they spend working on the paper and its formatting. Its features let users update records and find the full, accurate text for references.
Finally, Endnote can be used on all devices and has automated syncing capabilities. This means that you can access your attachments, references, and even groups from anywhere with an internet connection.
Mendeley
5The last, but definitely not less productive, research software in this list is Mendeley. This is a free manager for references and academic ‘social network’ that lets students organize their research data, work with other students or writers online, as well as find sources on their research topic.
You can use this tool to build bibliographies within minutes, collaborate with your peers and other researchers, find relevant data based on what you’re researching, import papers from different research software tools, etc. Due to its automated synchronization, you can access all this data online from any device, as well as on their new app on the iPhone.
To Put it Briefly
The five tools in this list have enjoyed tremendous popularity with students, academics, and researchers from all across the world. Now that you have access to more data than ever, it is crucial that you use some tools to find that data, organize and use it in your writing.
By using these tools, you can cut down the research process by a lot, as well as ensure that your data implementation is accurate and properly formatted. Test them all one by one to see the numerous benefits they offer to students, especially if you’re in a constant struggle with finding your way around research papers and deadlines.