Digital Research Tools (DiRT)

This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.  Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you're looking for. We provide a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which we not only describe the tool's features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers.

Please provide feedback on DiRT and recommend tools not included here (yet).

If you're interested in contributing to this wiki, please email Lisa Spiro at lspiro@rice.edu.  Please see Guidelines for Contributors to learn how to add new information to the wiki.

If you are unfamiliar with some of the jargon, please see our Glossary page.

Types of Tools

I want to...

• Analyze statistics
• Analyze texts
• Author an interactive work
• Blog
• Brainstorm/generate ideas
• Build and share collections
• Collaborate
• Collect data
• Communicate with colleagues
• Compare resources
• Conduct linguistic research
• Convert/manipulate files
• Create a mashup
• Edit images
• Find research materials
• Focus
• Make a dynamic map
• Make a screencast
• Manage bibliographic information
• Mine data
• Network with other researchers
• Organize my research materials
• Perform qualitative data analysis
• Search visually
• Share bookmarks
• Share information
• Stay current with research
• Take notes/annotate resources
• Transcribe handwritten or spoken texts
• Use mobile devices
• Visualize data
• Write a paper
• Write collaboratively

Background Information

• About this wiki
• Articles and reports on digital scholarship
• Contributors
• Editors' Picks
• Guidelines for contributors
• Other sources of information about research tools
• Tips for selecting software

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.