30 Best Online Research Tools for Academic Research

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Researching a topic thoroughly can feel daunting at times. Whether crafting a paper for school or prepping an article for work, the process often comes with pressure. You’re racing against the clock and grappling with a mountain of information. Where do you even start? What do you need? What’s most relevant to your specific project? Answering these questions can help you sift through sources faster to produce better summaries, papers, and articles. This blog will help boost your writing and research skills by introducing you to the best research tools for your next project.

Unriddle’s AI research assistant is a valuable tool to help you achieve your objectives, such as enhancing your writing and being able to write efficient papers, summaries, and articles with AI. With this virtual assistant, you’ll get the support you need to navigate any research process so you can focus on crafting your next assignment or article.

Why Is Research Important?

Research is a foundational component of knowledge and learning. By studying a subject, you build a wealth of information that helps you understand a topic and communicate your findings to others. This process not only enables you to master the material at hand but it also promotes critical thinking skills that apply to any area of life.

Research is critical to effective decision-making, as it allows you to make informed choices based on evidence instead of assumptions or personal biases.

Your Secret Weapon for Navigating Life’s Challenges

Research allows you to understand the big and small issues that affect your life and the lives of others. For instance, if you’re feeling under the weather, reading about your symptoms and possible remedies can help alleviate anxiety and even assist you in making decisions about your health care.

Similarly, research can help you better understand social issues such as racism or climate change so you can make informed decisions about how to respond to these issues and their impact on your life.

The Key to Business Success

Whether running a solo venture or managing a large corporation, research can help you succeed. Before starting your business, you likely researched whether your idea was viable. Now, you’re probably watching your competitors and studying your target audience to help you make informed decisions about your products or services. As time passes, you’ll continue researching to help you solve problems, seize opportunities, and adapt to changing market conditions.

A Path to the Truth

We are bombarded with inaccurate or misleading data in the current information age. Research helps us sift through this information to disprove lies and support truths. We can uncover reliable information and better understand the world by utilizing credible sources and conducting our investigations.

A Means to Identify Opportunities

Research helps us analyze situations and find solutions. The more we investigate, the better we can address our challenges and pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Research enables us to determine our strengths and weaknesses in business and discover ways to enhance efficiency and profitability. In our personal lives, research can help us identify and assess opportunities for career advancement, education, and personal growth.

Confidence Building

The more we learn about a subject through research, the more we can understand it and communicate our findings to others. This process builds our confidence, translating to improved performance in school, the workplace, and beyond.

What Is a Research Tool?

Research tools include the devices or instruments used to collect data, such as a paper questionnaire or computer-assisted interviewing system. They are used to measure a variable or to collect the information needed to answer a research question. Careful selection of research tools can help the researcher achieve goals and save time.

AI for Academic Research

Collaborative Research

Academic Research

Research Team

Research Process

Industry Research

Research Skills

Research Collaboration

Endnote Vs Zotero

Best Citation Manager

Academic Search Engines

Good Websites For Research

How To Use Google Scholar

Easybib Alternative

Academic Search Engines

Best AI Tools For Research

What Are the Tools Used in Research?

Data Collection Tools: The First Step to Research Success

Collecting useful data is a key part of any research project. Many research tools exist to help you gather either quantitative or qualitative data. While quantitative data is largely numerical, qualitative data consists of descriptive information. Here’s an overview of some popular data collection tools:

Surveys and Questionnaires: Tools like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Qualtrics gather quantitative and qualitative data.

Interviews and Focus Groups: Tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and specialized software like NVivo for coding and analyzing interview data.

Observation: Tools like tally sheets, observation logs, or apps like Evernote and Trello to record observations.

Data Analysis Tools: Uncovering the Stories Behind Your Research

After collecting data, you need to analyze it to uncover the insights that will help answer your research question. Different analysis tools exist for quantitative and qualitative data.

Here’s a look at some of the most common tools used for each type of data:

Statistical Analysis: Software like SPSS, R, SAS, and Stata for statistical testing and data manipulation.

Qualitative Analysis: NVivo and Atlas. It is used to analyze textual data through coding and thematic analysis.

Data Visualization: Tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel for creating visual representations of data.

Text Mining: Tools like Python (with NLTK or SpaCy) and RapidMiner for analyzing large volumes of text data.

Literature Review Tools: Building a Foundation for Your Research

Before you start your research project, you need to understand what has already been done on your topic. This is accomplished through a literature review. Numerous tools can help you perform this crucial step efficiently.

Here are a few of the most popular literature review tools:

Academic Databases: Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, and Scopus are used to access academic papers and articles.

Reference Management: Tools like Zotero, EndNote, and Mendeley are used to manage citations and references.

Systematic Review Tools: Covidence and Rayyan for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Collaboration Tools: Working Together to Improve Your Research

Most research projects benefit from the insights of multiple people. Collaboration tools can make the process of working together smoother. Here are some standard research collaboration tools:

Document Sharing: Google Docs, Dropbox, and SharePoint for collaborative document creation and sharing.

Project Management: Tools like Trello, Asana, and Basecamp to manage research projects.

Communication: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom for real-time communication and collaboration.

Ethical Research Tools: Keeping Your Work Honest and Trustworthy

Ethics is a critical part of any research project. Ethical research tools help ensure you don’t cut corners while conducting your study. Here are some of the main types of ethical research tools:

Informed Consent Management: REDCap and Qualtrics manage participant consent digitally.

Anonymization: Tools like ARX and sdcMicro anonymize sensitive data.

Bibliometric and Citation Analysis Tools: Understanding the Impact of Your Work

Bibliometric tools help researchers quantify the academic literature on a particular topic. This helps assess the impact of certain studies and understand publication trends before starting a research project. Citation analysis tools specifically focus on examining research papers’ citation metrics.

Here are some common tools in these categories:

Citation Tracking: Web of Science and Scopus for tracking citations and measuring impact.

Bibliometric Analysis: Tools like VOSviewer and Bibliometrix are used to analyze publication trends and co-authorship networks.

Data Storage and Management: Keeping Your Research Organized and Secure

Storing and organizing your research data is vital, especially when working on a large project or collaborating with others. Here are some standard tools for research data storage and management:

Cloud Storage: Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox are used to store research data.

Data Management Plans: DMPTool for creating and managing data management plans.

Database Management: MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft Access for structured data storage.

Experimentation and Simulation Tools: Conducting Research to Answer Your Questions

Some research projects involve experimentation to uncover new information. There are many tools available to help with experimental and simulation research. Here’s a look at a few of them:

Laboratory Equipment: Tools like CRISPR technology, spectrometers, and other lab equipment for experimental research.

Simulation Software: MATLAB, Simulink, and ANSYS for modeling and simulating complex systems.

Writing and Publishing Tools: Getting Your Research into the World

After you complete your research project, you’ll need to write about your findings and share them with the world. Several tools can help you prepare your work for publication. Here are some of the most common writing and publishing tools:

Writing Assistance: Grammarly and Hemingway for improving writing quality.

Plagiarism Detection: Turnitin and iThenticate to check for originality in research writing.

Publishing Platforms: Overleaf for LaTeX documents and journal submission platforms like Manuscript Central.

Field Research Tools: Collecting Data Outside of the Office

Depending on your research project, you may need to collect data outside of the office. Here are some tools that can help with field research:

GPS and GIS Tools: ArcGIS, QGIS for mapping and spatial analysis in field research.

Mobile Data Collection: KoboToolbox, Open Data Kit (ODK) for collecting data in remote locations.

30 Best Online Research Tools For Academic Research

1. Unriddle: Your Research Sidekick

Unriddle is an AI research tool that helps you read faster and write better. You can quickly:

Find information in documents

Simplify complex topics

Take notes

Write with the power of AI

A Trusted AI Assistant

Unriddle is trusted by thousands of researchers and students, from the classroom to the boardroom. The app generates an AI assistant on top of any document so you can quickly find, summarize, and understand information with no more endless skimming. Unriddle understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about.

Unriddle's Powerful Features

Highlight text, and Unriddle will use AI to show you the most appropriate sources from your library. Never lose a citation again. Generate text with AI autocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with suggestions based on the context of your work. Step into a collaborative workspace where everyone can contribute and chat with the same documents in real time and much more!

2. Zotero: Your Personal Research Assistant

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

3. Paperpile: Goodbye Messy Stacks of Paper

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.

4. Dovetail: A Single Source of Truth for Research

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 the better:

Forecasting

Planning

Decision-making

Dovetail integrates with other helpful tools like:

Slack

Atlassian

Notion

Zapier for a genuinely efficient workflow

5. EndNote: Automatic Citation Management

Putting together papers and referencing sources can be a huge, time-consuming task. EndNote claims that researchers waste 200,000 hours per year formatting citations. The tool automatically formats citations to address this issue, 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.

6. Glimpse: Quick Survey Insights

For Max Iskiev, market research analyst at HubSpot, one research tool stands out: Glimpse. He told me, “Glimpse is my favorite research tool. It’s quick and easy to use, allowing me to design and launch short surveys for real-time insights on trending topics.”

Not only is Glimpse valuable for doing quick pulse-checks on the latest trends, but it also leverages the power of AI for even deeper insights. “Glimpse really shines when it comes to open-ended questions, using natural language processing and AI to analyze emotion and sentiment, saving time, and offering invaluable insights,” Iskiev shared.

7. Delighted: Survey Templates for Easy Feedback Collection

With ready-made survey templates to collect:

NPS data

Customer effort scores

Five-star surveys

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

8. SurveyMonkey: A Leader in Online Surveys

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

Team performance

Hotel feedback

Post-event feedback

Employee exit

9. Typeform: Engage Survey Respondents

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.

10. Answer the Public: Find Out What People Want to Know

Answer the Public is a sister product to UberSuggest, both brainchildren of Neil Patel. As its name suggests, Answer: the Public watches what people are searching for and lets you keep track of how things change over time. By studying the changes, you can be at the front of trends—positive or negative—so you can respond to the changes quickly. It’s billed as an excellent tool for public relations professionals to give them a heads-up on how their company is faring in the public eye.

If you fall on the wrong side of public sentiment, you can be right on top of salvaging the situation and improving to regain trust. If you’re doing something right and see gains in positive engagement, you know to keep up what you’re doing and may even want to expand upon it.

11. Google Scholar: Your Go-To for Academic Research

Are you looking for an academic article, thesis, or abstract? Google Scholar should be your first stop. Google Scholar helps you find related works, locate full documents in your school library, and access scholarly research. Google created Google Scholar, which differs significantly from a general online search. Google Scholar combines academic articles and ranks them based on the authors, publication location, and citation record. That means the top results generally represent the most reliable scholarship on your topic.

12. JSTOR: A Digital Library for Academic Research

For journal articles, books, images, and even primary sources, JSTOR ranks among the best online resources for academic research. JSTOR's collection spans 75 disciplines, with strengths in the humanities and social sciences.

The academic research database includes complete runs of over 2,800 journals. If you're looking for images, turn to Artstor, which offers over 2.5 million images of the arts, sciences, and literature. However, JSTOR is not an open-access database. That means you'll need to log in through your university library, which typically includes off-campus access.

13. Teamscope: Collecting Clinical Data Made Simple

Data collection can be incredibly time-consuming for those conducting clinical research. 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. These are too easy to lose, tricky to manage, and challenging to collaborate on. With Teamscope, you can easily:

Collect

Store

Electronically analyze data

14. Heap: Insights on the Entire Customer Journey

Heap is a digital insights platform that provides context for the entire customer journey. This helps businesses improve:

Customer feedback

Conversion rates

Loyalty

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

15. Smartlook: Qualitative and Quantitative Analytics in One Tool

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.

16. Library of Congress: The Largest Library in the World

As the most extensive library in the world, the Library of Congress is an excellent online resource for academic research. Students can search its collections for:

Digital resources

Videos

Audio recordings

Photographs

Maps

The library's materials include notated music, web archives, legislation, and 3D objects. Its extensive collections contain materials on almost any topic. For example, you can search historic American newspapers from 1777-1963 with the Chronicling America tool or look up pirate trials in another digital collection.

17. PubMed Central: A Free Resource for Life Sciences Research

PubMed Central is operated by the National Library of Medicine, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Founded in 2000, it includes academic scholarship dating back to the 18th century.

PubMed Central is an open-access database that connects college students with life sciences and biomedical academic sources. It offers free access to scholarly literature and has over 7 million full-text records today, making it an excellent resource for life sciences or medical students.

18. Trello: Visual Project Management for Research

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

Various workflow options

Unique project board layouts

Tagging

Advanced descriptions

Integrations

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

19. Airtable: Organize Research with a Flexible Interface

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

20. Asana: A Task Management Tool for Product Teams

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.

21. Google Books: A Treasure Trove of Books

Whether you're looking for a recent publication or an out-of-print book, you'll find it on Google Books. In 2019, Google announced that Google Books contains over 40 million books. You can enter any search term to find books that contain matches. You can download the full text of any book in the public domain, which includes 10 million titles.

Make sure to check publisher and author information when using Google Books. The site also includes reference pages that link to book reviews. Keep in mind that you'll have more limited access to recent books. Still, Google Books is a great first step to finding sources you can look for later at your campus library.

22. Science.gov: Government-Funded Scientific Research

If you're looking for scientific research, Science.gov is an excellent option. The site provides full-text documents, scientific data, and other resources from federally funded research. A U.S. government site, Science.gov searches more than 60 databases and 2,200 scientific websites. You'll find over 200 million pages of research and development information, including projects funded by 14 federal agencies. Students in any STEM field can benefit from the resource.

23. Digital Commons Network: Peer-Reviewed Articles and More

University librarians curate the Digital Commons Network, which connects students with peer-reviewed articles. The site's other resources include:

Dissertations

Book chapters

Conference proceedings

Working papers

The Digital Commons Network includes scholarly work from diverse disciplines, such as architecture, business, education, law, and the sciences. It also allows users to access humanities, social sciences, and engineering scholarship.

24. Grammarly: An AI Proofreading Tool

No one’s perfect, especially in 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 spell check as you go.

25. Trinka: An AI Tool for Academic Writing

Another helpful grammar tool is Trinka AI. Trinka is specifically for technical and academic writing. It corrects spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes and offers explanations and additional information when errors appear.

ResearchGate has been described as social networking for research scientists. However, ResearchGate is also an excellent option for finding open-access academic sources. Scholars upload their work to ResearchGate, making it accessible to the public.

Over 20 million researchers worldwide use the site, which contains over 135 million publications. College students looking for scientific research can often find ResearchGate resources and connect with scholars.

27. Duplichecker: Plagiarism Checker

Another helpful plagiarism tool is Duplichecker, which scans 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 the amount of duplicate content. The interface is relatively basic, offering little additional information.

28. WorldCat: Search Library Collections

WorldCat is one of the best tools for looking for library resources. Connected to over 10,000 libraries, WorldCat is a database that allows you to search library collections. The database lists books and articles available at your local libraries, making it easier to find materials that are not available online. In addition to books, WorldCat contains:

Music

Videos

Audiobooks

Scholarly articles

You can also find digital research materials, including photos. Logging into WorldCat through your university library, you can access full-text articles and other resources. You can also use WorldCat to find sources to request through an interlibrary loan.

29. Enago Journal Finder: A Tool for Open Access Journals

The Enago Open Access Journal Finder sorts 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.

30. JournalFinder: Discover Relevant Journals for Your Research

JournalFinder is another journal tool that’s popular with academics and researchers. It makes it easy to discover relevant journals quickly by leaning into a machine-learning algorithm. This is useful for discovering essential information and finding the right journals to publish and share your work.

Complete Step-by-Step Guide On How To Use Unriddle's AI Research Tool

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Unriddle. I’ve also copied it below :)

From here, it's pretty simple.

Unriddle helps you read, write and learn faster.

Interact with documents via AI so you can quickly find and understand info.

Then start writing in a new Note and Unriddle will show you relevant content from your library as you type.

Get started by uploading a document.

Or read on for the full rundown.

Interact with documents

When you upload a document, Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of this data.

Click 'New' in the right sidebar and then select 'Upload' to get started.

Use this assistant to answer specific questions about the text, summarize content and simplify jargon.

The trick is to be super clear about what you want.

If you're summarizing a research paper, for example, instead of saying “Summarize” or “Summarize this research paper”, say something like “Explain this research paper to me in simple terms. What method did the researchers use? What did they find? Why does it matter?”.

The second prompt will produce a much better overview of the paper because we're giving the AI more hints about what we want.

Automatic relations

Unriddle grasps the context behind each Note and Document in your library and automatically links them based on meaning.

Let's say you have a collection of nuclear physics papers in your library.

When you start writing a note about The Manhattan Project, simply mentioning "The Manhattan Project" will prompt Unriddle to find the connection between this note and the nuclear physics papers.

Even if you didn't explicitly mention the research papers, Unriddle's knowledge of Oppenheimer, his work, and the significant relevance of these papers means it understands the connection and automatically links them together.

In short, Unriddle shows you relevant content from your library at the exact moment you need it, even if you haven't explicitly mentioned it.

Citing your sources

Writing is hard when you have a ton of sources to track.

So we made it easy.

Highlight some text, click ‘Cite’ and you’ll see items from your library that contain information related to the selection of text you just highlighted as determined by our AI.

When you select an item Unriddle inserts a link into highlighted text that, when clicked, takes you to the referenced item.

Writing with AI

Click ‘New’ in the sidebar and hit ‘Note’ to open up a new note.

Here you’ll find all the text formatting options you’re used to and more.

Type ‘++’ to generate text based on the context of what’s already written.

Highlight text and click ‘Ask AI’ to open up the AI menu where you’ll find options to improve, expand, summarize and explain.

You can type custom prompts too!

Finally, you can open any note in a pane on the right side of the screen while interacting with documents. Just click the orange pencil icon at the top of the chat window.

Adjust the model, temperature and response length in the Setting sidebar.

Click the cog icon in the top right corner of the screen and look for "Chat Settings".

These apply across all documents but you can easily flip between them regardless of settings at the time of upload.

Model: the machine learning model used to generate responses.

Temperature: the amount of creative license you give to the AI.

Max length: the maximum number of words generated in a response.

Got feedback or questions? Send us an email and we'll get back to you within a day.

— Naveed

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Benefits of Using Research Tools

Provide Access to a Wealth Of Information

Research tools unlock access to a treasure trove of content. This includes:

Academic papers

Journals

Articles

Statistics

Books

And more

You can find relevant information on almost any topic using online research tools. Research tools are constantly updated with the latest data. This ensures you have access to the most credible and current information available.

Improve Efficiency And Speed

Research tools help you gather information quickly. These tools use search algorithms, filters, and indexes so you can locate the information you need almost instantly. This drastically reduces the time spent compared to traditional research methods. Many online tools also offer automated data analysis features like trend analysis, citation management, and data visualization to streamline the research process.

Many online research tools allow multiple users to collaborate, share resources, and build on each other's work to enhance collaborative research efforts. These collaborative platforms, such as Mendeley, Google Scholar, and Zotero, make connecting with other researchers easy. You can also access real-time updates to stay on track with the latest information, helping you ensure your research is current.

Boost Accuracy and Reliability

Reputable online research tools curate content from credible, peer-reviewed sources, ensuring the information you find is accurate and reliable. Many academic journals and scholarly articles also use citation management tools that help researchers properly cite sources, reducing the chances of plagiarism and increasing the credibility of their work. Research tools help you easily enhance the quality of your research.

Many Research Tools Are Free and Cost-effective

Most online research tools are free or offer a range of free services. Using these resources drastically reduces the costs associated with purchasing physical research materials. Open-access journals are also increasingly hosted online, making high-quality research available to the public at no cost.

Research Tools Can Be Tailored For Personal Use

Many research tools allow you to customize your searches with filters, keywords, and preferences, making finding the most relevant information easier. You can also save search queries and set up alerts to notify you of new research, keeping you informed on specific topics of interest.

Online Research Tools Are Eco-Friendly

Research tools help reduce the environmental impact of research. Accessing resources online minimizes the need for physical copies, contributing to environmental sustainability. Online research tools can help create a greener planet.