Blogpilot133

Free software for journalists: Tutorials, bookmarks and open source tools for journalistic research, investigations and privacy and other digital tools for investigative journalism and data driven journalism or datajournalism:

• This software has features such as powerful mathematics-oriented syntax with built-in plotting and visualization tools, it is free software which runs on GNU/Linux, macOS, BSD, and Windows, compatible with many Matlab scripts. A syntax which is largely compatible with Matlab is the Octave syntax.
• Download Social Network Visualizer (SocNetV) - A user-friendly and free software tool for Social Network Analysis and Visualization.

Nov 05, 2014 Zotero is a another free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials. If you want to learn about how to install and use reference management tools, check our Training Section with different modules that include free-download tutorials for Mendeley and Zotero. In the absence of a good case management software solution, there are free tools for investigators to upload and send documents, write notes, make edits and track activities. This software offers secure file sharing and storage solutions. We find and review high-quality free educational software and websites - mostly for kids, but also for grown-ups. We have a large selection of web-based software (check the Online tab), as well as Windows educational software to download (under the Downloads tab). Many of the software titles are multilingual.

Independent media tools for journalists and investigative reporting

With free open source software it is possible to run research tools for sensitive documents or data on your own computer or server instead of spying cloud services.

Tutorials and tips: How to use open source research tools for investigative journalism

• Tips, tools and How-tos for safer online communications: Surveillance self-defense
• How to build interactive maps with CartoDB
• Understanding language data: Open-source NLP software can help
• How to scrape structured data from websites with Python and Scrapy

Free software and open source discovery and research tools for journalists:

Search engines for fulltext search and discovery

Research methods, techniques and technology: Fulltext search, Information retrieval, Desktop Search, Enterprise Search and faceted search

Tutorials:

Open source search tools:

• Open Semantic Search: Own semantic search engine
• Open Semantic Desktop Search: Own search engine for single desktop users and laptops
• InvestigateIX: Secure search engine on encrypted external devices
• Recoll: Desktop search for Linux
• FESS: Enterprise Search engine with user interfaces for search and crawling of files and websites
• Kibana for Elastic Search: Search and datavisualization of a Elastic Search index
• Banana for Solr: Search and datavisualization of a Solr index
• HUE Solr search: Search and datavisualization of a Solr index
• Open Semantic ETL for Solr or Open Semantic ETL for Elastic Search: Tools to import files and documents of different file formats to a search index
• Apache Manifold CF: Tools to import files to an Elastic Search or Solr search index

Search libraries and APIs

If you want code yourself, you can use this powerful engines as base:

• Solr: Index and search API
• Elastic Search: Index and search API

Databases, digital archives, data management systems, document management systems and content management systems

Methods: Archive, database, forms, categories (tagging), classification, meta data, repository, document management (DMS), content management (CMS) or enterprise content management (ECM), knowledge management, knowledge base, bookmarks

• Zotero: Bookmark database and citations manager with tagging and annotation features
• Docear: Bookmark database and citations manager with mindmap, tagging and annotation features
• LibreOffice Calc: Open source spreadsheet program
• Document cloud: Document management system for paper based documents like scans or PDF
• Semantic Mediawiki: Extends Mediawiki to a semantic data base
• Drupal CMS: The CMS module fields provides an easy to use UI to create own content types, data fields and forms
• Agorum: Automated extraction of structured amounts of money from bills

Tagging and annotation

Methods: Annotation, Tagging, Social Tagging, Folxonomies

Tutorial: Tagging and annotation for collaborative investigative journalism

• Zotero: Bookmark database and citations manager with tagging and annotation features
• Docear: Bookmark database and citations manager with mindmap, tagging and annotation features
• Document Cloud: Tagging and annotation for paper based documents like scans or PDF documents
• Neonion: Collaborative annotations within text
• Pundit: Annotations within text and within images

Text mining, text analysis and document mining

Method: Text mining, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Named entities extraction

• Text mining tutorial: How to analyze large document collections: Text mining with the search engine Open Semantic Search
• Understanding language data: Open-source NLP software can help
• Overview project: Showing most used words and trees of most used words
• Jigsaw: Text mining tool (not open source, but free download)

More:

• Wikipedia list of open source text mining software
• Tapor: Text Analysis Portal for Research

Reconcilation and merging

Methods: Compare, merge, reconcile, link, clustering

• Fuzzy search with lists: Checks, if there are search result for each list entry
• DocDiff: Shows and visualize the differences between two versions of a text
• Fslint: Compares two directories and searches for same files which are in both directories

Graphs and social network analysis (SNA)

Tools to analyze and visualize connections and relations:

• Network analysis tutorial: How to visualize connections & relations in documents with Open Semantic Search
• Gephi: Desktop tool for analysis and data visualization of networks, connections and graphs
• Cytoscape.js: Javascript library for data visualization of networks, connections and graphs
• Semantic Mediawiki: Very flexible CMS for linked data
• Detective: Python/Django and neo4j graph database based CMS for connections

Privacy, security, safety and encryption

Digital security: Protect your research, sources and whistleblowers with privacy tools and encryption tools:

Methods: Encryption (PGP, OTR) and anonymization

Tutorials:

• Surveillance self-defense: Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications

Open source tools:

• Tails - the amnesic incognito live system Linux based operating system for encryption and anonymous access of the internet
• Truecrypt: Hard disk encryption for windows
• GNUPG: Open PGP based - Email encryption
• Enigmail: Encryption plugin for the Thunderbird E-Mail client
• Tor project: Anonymity online
• OTR: Encryption for chats and instant messaging
• Textsecure: Messenger for encryption (like Whatsapp but for privacy)
• Jitsy: Encrypted communicator (like Skype but open source and safer end to end encryption)
• Redphone: Encrypted voice over IP communicator for smartphones
• Secure Drop: Upload platform for whistleblowers
• Global Leaks: Another upload platform for whistleblowing

Media monitoring, news filtering, news pipes and alerts

Open source software for media monitoring, news processing, news filtering and alerting:

• Open Semantic Search rules for news pipes and alerts: Filters and alerts for news from different news sources and data sources. Has a very powerfull filter and search query language (Apache Lucene based), f.e. supporting fuzzy search. Supports many file formats and data sources because you can use all standard connectors for Solr.
• Mozilla Thunderbird: Desktop software for reading, filtering and autotagging RSS-Feeds
• Streamtools: Visual news pipes for stream processing from the New York Times Lab
• Huginn: Ruby on rails and SQL based agents

Extract data or convert data

Methods: Data integration, extraction, data converter, data migration, ETL (Extract Transfer Load), Scraping

Extract text or structured data from documents

• Documents: Tika content analysis toolkit: Extract text and meta data from documents of many different file formats
• CSV tables: CSV Manager: Import big csv spreadsheets to Solr based search engines
• PDF tables: Tabula: Extracts spreadsheets from PDF documents
• Scans and images: Optical character regognition (OCR)

Extract text from images (OCR)

• Tesseract: OCR Software to recognize text from images
• Scantailor: Deskewing low quality scans

Download Free Research Social Tool Software Small Business

Extract text from sound files (speech recognition)

• CMU Sphinx: Open source speech recognition toolkit

Extract structured data from websites (Scraping)

• Portia: Extract structured data from websites by a visual user interface
• Scrapy: Extract structured data from websites by Python scrapers

Extract transform load (ETL) Frameworks for import and transform or convert data

• Transform to plain text: Tika content analysis toolkit
• Apache NiFi: Extract, transform, load and distribute data
• Talend Open Studio: Import and transform data to other formats
• Kettle: Import and transform data to other formats
• LogStash: Import and transform data from datasources like logfiles to an structured search index

Data visualization

Method: data visualization

Tools for data visualization or data visualisation:

• Kibana for Elastic Search: User interface for search, interactve filtering and data visualization
• D3js data driven documents: Data visualization library for Javascript programmers
• CartoDB: Open source webapplication and mapping tool for data visualization of spatial data
• Apache Zeppelin: Interactive data analysis and data visualisation plattform
• TimelineJS: Creating timelines
• Cytoscape.js: Javascript library for data visualization of networks, connections and graphs
• Semantic result formats: Data visualizations for data from a Semantic Mediawiki

Charts and diagrams

• Datawrapper - Webapp and user interface for easy generating charts
• NVD3: Javascript library for easy programming of charts with D3

Maps and mapping (spatial data)

Create interactive maps and visualize spatial data (geodata) with open source software for mapping:

• CartoDB: Open source webapplication and mapping tool for interactive maps
• QGIS: Open source desktop tool for maps
• Leaflet: Javascript library for interactive maps
• Open Layers: Powerfull javascript library for maps
• Open Street Map: Open source and open data for maps
• GeoParsePy: Open source for geo parsing to extract geodata for mapping like places and locations from text
• Serving tiles: How to run your own map server with open source software

Visualize events on a timeline

Create timelines with open source timeline tools and visualize events on interactive multimedia timelines:

• Odyssey.js: Combines a timeline with a map for timelines for spatial data

Graphs, networks, connections and relations

• Network analysis tutorial: How to visualize connections & relations in documents with open semantic search
• Gephi: Desktop tool for analysis and data visualization of networks, connections and graphs
• Cytoscape.js: Javascript library for data visualization of networks, connections and graphs
• Sigma js: Javascript library for data visualization of networks, connections and graphs

Redact documents and delete meta data

Clean sensitive documents and delete meta data stored invisible inside the document files or photos like serial numbers of hardware (i.e. of your photo camera) or software or user names:

• PDF Redact Tools: Most secure way to delete meta data from PDFs
• MAT: Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit: Userinterface to delete meta data from different document formats and image formats

Statistics and analytics

Method: Data analysis, statistics, chart, diagram, data visualization

• LibreOffice Calc: Open source spreadsheet program
• Statistical software: Specialized computer programs for statistical analysis and econometric analysis
• Business Intelligence: Tools for statistics and analytics
• Programming with R or Python or another programming language
• Business Intelligence: Tools for statistics and analytics
• Mining of massive datasets: Book (free PDF download) explaining data mining methods

Universal open source toolset

The ultimate universal open source toolset is a Linux distribution like Debian GNU/Linux or Ubuntu Linux comming with thousands of packages of free software and open source tools, software libraries and programming languages.

You dont have to remove your existing operating system: With open-source virtualization software like Virtual Box for Windows or Mac you can run a Linux distribution within a window in your existing operating system environment.

Maybe you want to start with Linux on your existing system environment with the preconfigurated Debian based virtual maschine (VM) Open Semantic Desktop Search providing a preselected and preconfigurated collection of tools for investigative journalists.

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

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.

1. REF-N-WRITE Academic Writing Tool

Ref-N-Write is a fantastic research tool for beginner writers and non-native English speakers. This is a Microsoft Word add-in. This tool allows users to import research papers into MS Word. Then the tool allows you to search the research documents while you are writing your research paper or academic essay. In essence, this tool is similar to Google search engine; the difference is that instead of searching the internet you are searching research papers and academic documents stored on your computer. REF-N-WRITE functions within MS Word and the search results are displayed in a panel that pops up from the bottom. You can expand the search results and jump to the exact location in the source document in a few clicks. This research tool is fantastic to lookup for writing ideas from related research papers or documents from your colleagues. The REF-N-WRITE tool also comes with a database of academic and scientific phrases. You can use this to polish your writing by substituting colloquial terms and informal statements in your text with academically acceptable words and phrases. REF-N-WRITE also features text-to-voice option that helps you pick up grammatical errors and sentence structural issues.

Useful Links:

• REF-N-WRITE Phrasebank
  

2. Free Online Statistical Testing Tools

One of the most important requirement while writing up your research is the use of appropriate statistical methods and analysis to back up your claims. Whether you are doing quantitative or qualitative research, statistical analysis will be an indispensable part of your workflow. There are plenty of research tools available that allows you to do a wide variety of statistical analyses for your research. However, most of the time, you will find yourself performing basic calculations stuff such as mean, standard deviation, confidence intervals, standard error, etc. to make your work sound scientific. Also, you need to use some form of statistical test to test the significance of the difference between two groups or cohorts and compute the p-value. Some of the widely used statistical tests for this purpose include T-test, F-test, Chi-square test, Pearson correlation coefficient and ANOVA. Following are the list of free popular statistical research tools available online. These tools will allow you to cut and copy your data directly from your spreadsheet and perform the required statistical analysis.

Useful Links:

3. Microsoft Excel

One of the widely used tools for research is Microsoft Excel. MS Excel has plenty of features that will come in handy when you are doing a research project. Excel is a must have research tool if your study involves a lot of quantitative analysis. Excel offers a wide range of statistical functions such as AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, SUM, etc that you can apply to the cells in a few clicks. You can visualize your data using a wide variety of chart types, for example, bar plot, scatter plot, etc. You can use pivot tables to organize and generate summaries of your data easily. For complex statistical analysis, you can use Data Analysis ToolPak Excel add-in. This add-in comes with a wide variety of statistical analysis tools such as Descriptive statistics, Histogram, F-test, Random number generation, Fourier analysis, etc.

Useful Links:

4. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free online research tool offered by Google. This tool allows users to search for academic literature, scientific articles, journals, white papers and patents across the web. This is an excellent tool for research. It not only searches well-known databases, it also looks for articles in university repositories, so your chances of finding the full-text PDF of the research article you are after is very high. You can set up keyword alerts so that Google Scholar notifies you when there is a new article in your field or from your co-authors. You can manage multiple libraries of papers. You can label paper or article, and Google Scholar will organize them for you. Google Scholar displays vital information about the article such as citation number, versions and other articles citing the current article. Google Scholar also alerts you if somebody else has cited your paper. You can download citations in a wide variety of formats – MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, – and you can easily export the citation to EndNote and other bibliography managers. On the whole, Google Scholar is an indispensable tool for researchers.

Useful Links:

5. ResearchGate

Download Free Research Social Tool Software Open Source

ResearchGate is a social networking site for people doing research. The site contains more than 11 million members that include scientists, academics, Ph.D. students, and researchers. Users can create an account using a valid institutional email address. Once successful, they can create a profile, upload pictures, list publications and upload full-text papers. ResearchGate is a perfect research tool for researchers and academics looking for collaborations. You can follow updates from your colleagues or peers with similar interests. You will be notified if somebody reads or cites your paper, and also you will know if the people you are following have published new research. You can email other members and request for full-text of their listed publications. ResearchGate also computes a RG score based on your profile and publications. This is different from H-score computed by Google Scholar or citation score given by journals. On the whole, ResearchGate is an excellent tool for research if you want to keep tabs on your colleagues’ research and collaborate with different institutions.

Useful Links:

• Review of ResearchGate: Pros and cons and recommendations

6. Plagiarism detection software tools

Plagiarism is seen as academic misconduct. Plagiarism is not taken lightly by academic and research institutions and is punished and penalized severely. Plagiarism occurs when you copy and paste a large chunk of text from a document written by someone else without giving credit to the author. This is seen as copying and taking credits for somebody’s work. Even if you paraphrase the text and use it in your text, it will still be seen as plagiarism. One of the common forms of plagiarism is self-plagiarism. Self-plagiarism is the use of one’s own previous work in another context without citing that it was used previously. This is because once you publish your work, the publisher holds the copyright for your text, so you need to either get permission from the publisher to reuse the text or you should cite the source. There are plenty of plagiarism detection software and online checking tools available that you can use to check how much of your text overlap with previously published materials. You can fix these mistakes before submitting your academic essay or research paper. Some of the tools for checking plagiarism are listed below.

Useful Links:

Download Free Research Social Tool Software Download

7. Project management tools

Download Free Research Social Tool Software Free

It is so easy for your research project to go out of hands when you are multi-tasking and dealing with multiple deadlines. It is good practice to choose a project management tool to keep on top of your research project. These tools can help you minimise the amount of time you spend on managing the project and instead concentrate on research work. Find a tool that allows you to lay out what is to be done, by whom and by then. Sometimes it would be helpful if you can visualize your tasks and the timeline for execution using simple diagrams such as a Gantt chart. There are plenty of research project management tools available; you can simply pick the one that suits your research project. Here are some popular research management tools used in the academic community.

Download Free Research Social Tool Software Downloads

Useful Links: