Science 2.0 Tools
ResearchGate can be seen as the Facebook for scientists and researchers. Here they can share papers, ask and answer questions in forums, and find collaborators in the same field of research. This online platform incorporates many features from a typical social network, while also providing scientific services beneficial for scientists.
Mendeley is an online platform, which can be used to share research papers, discover research data and collaborate with other scientists. Not only can it do that, but it’s also a great tool for organizing and extracting metadata from PDFs. It’s also available as an app on Android and iOS.
Zotero is an open-source reference management software, which manages bibliographic data and research materials. Other features include in-text citation generation, online syncing and web browser integration. It’s compatible with the processors Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org Writer and NeoOffice. Using the Zotfile plugin you are able to sync PDFs to a mobile PDF reader.
Qiqqa is a freeware/freemium reference management software that combines PDF reference management tools a mind map brainstorming tool and a citation manager. Researchers and/or research groups are able to store, synchronize and collaborate on their PDF documents using the Qiqqa Web Libraries.
Docear bundles useful applications for academics such as, mind mapping, PDF and reference management. Future features applications include integration for a word processor, PDF editor and an academic search engine. This software has two key features uncommonly offered: Importing PDF annotations and structuring all information into a mind map.
Open Knowledge Maps is a visual search engine for scientific knowledge. It supports researchers by providing a simple interface to add the desired topic and thereby, portraying main areas and linked documents at a glance. Additionally, this tool not only helps increasing the visibility of research findings, but also identifying open documents and relevant concepts regarding the topic, which is especially helpful for the first evaluation of a new research question.
