8 Graduate Student Research Tools

For graduate students in nearly every field, research is a fact of life. Keeping your graduate student research organized and moving forward can be a challenge, but there are a myriad of good apps that can help. Here is a list of free graduate student research tools that can lighten the load:

LIST YOUR RESEARCH TASKS

1. Prioritize and schedule your graduate student research tasks with Todoist. Available on multiple platforms, use this free tool for task management, collaboration, and more. Another free task manager is Wunderlist. Use these apps to develop your research strategy, then break the project down into a series of manageable steps.

ORGANIZE YOUR FILES AND NOTES

2. Keep all of your notes and files in one place using Evernote. Keep a notebook for each project, and create a note for each source you use. When you organize your notes by source, attaching the article directly to the note, finding what you need when you compose will be a breeze!

MARK THE PASSAGES RELEVANT TO YOUR TOPIC

3. Use iAnnotate to mark up PDFs. Access articles on your phone or tablet, and make notes as you read. With this app on your mobile devices, you can make progress on your project in spare moments between classes.

MANAGE YOUR SOURCES AS YOU GO

4. Manage your sources, annotate articles, generate citations, and share it all with collaborators using Mendeley, a powerful free tool. Zotero is another tool for organizing your sources. Not only can you create a bibliography easily, but you can create lists of sources by topic for use in later projects.

PRESENT YOUR FINAL WORK

5. When you’ve completed all of your graduate student research and you’re ready to present your findings, use Silk for a data-rich presentation. Or try Prezi for a dynamic narrative. Either one offers a visually interesting alternative to the standard PowerPoint.

When it comes to completing research, success depends mostly on time-management and organization. With these tools at your fingertips, the organization piece is covered!