Sussex Researcher School

Technology for Research

There is a range of software available to help you carry out your research - we've collated information below to help you decide what might be useful. Explore the drop-down menus to find out more.

 Technology Training

Technology for organising & writing up your research
Evernote- for organising notes & research materials

Evernote is a suite of software designed for note making and archiving, making it useful tool for research. 

We offer an online module which will guide you through Managing your Research with Evernote.

Benefits & considerations:

Free & paid versions available
Keep all your research in one fully searchable & backed-up location
Add information by creating 'notes' from a range of sources (webpages, audio, text, scans, photos, PDFs, videos)
Organise notes into notebooks & stacks, & tag for quick searching
Collaborate by sharing notes & notebooks
Synchronisation across multiple devices & online

Scrivener- word processing program

Scrivener is a word-processing program designed especially for writers which provides a system for documents, notes and metadata. Scrivener has been described as a literary management tool and may be helpful for writing your thesis.

Our online module Using Scrivener to write your thesis explains the key features of the software.

Benefits & considerations:

30-day free trial available & there after a small one-off cost
Useful for managing large writing projects (e.g. a thesis): breaks down your writing into smaller sections
Keep drafts, research notes, outlines & synopses all in one place Free & paid versions available
View PDFs, images, saved webpages & notes alongside your writing
Export as Word document or PDF

LaTeX- scientific document preparation

LaTeX is a document mark-up language & preparation system widely used in the sciences for document preparation.

We provide an online module, Document Preparation with LaTeX which will guide you through the basics of setting up a new document, including making tables and equations; adding figures and quotations; and creating sections, sub-sections and itemised lists.

Benefits & considerations

Creates flexible documents
Enables professional production of mathematical symbols & formulas in text
Extensive functionality for producing indexes, bibliographies & cross-references
Separates content & style so that you can concentrate on the text

LaTeX is available on Linux computers and also through Exceed on Demand, see ITS pages for more information.

Managing your bibliographic references

There are a number of software programs available to help you manage and cite references.

Read about through the options at choosing bibliographic software.

Mendeley

We offer an online module which explains how to use Mendeley, a desktop and web program for managing and sharing research papers, discovering research data and collaborating online, and managing your references.

Mendeley is not currently installed on Student PCs on campus, so you would need to download and install the programme on your own personal computer.


Zotero
We provide an online module which explains how to use Zotero, a free easy-to-use Firefox extension that helps you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It is similar to EndNote (see below), but many users find it more straightforward.

Zotero is installed on all Student PCs on campus - see the ITS pages for more information.

EndNote

Access information and help resources for using EndNote are provided by ITS online:

EndNote is installed on all Student PCs on campus, and personal copies can be purchased by staff and students at a discount - see the ITS pages for more information.

Technology for communicating your research
Twitter, Academia.edu, ResearchGate...

Being a modern academic researcher increasingly means communicating and disseminating our work online and making sense of the channels available to us. The internet provides powerful tools to help us reach out to others in our field, enabling wider engagement.

Our building your academic web presence online module will introduce you to the different ways in which you can promote yourself online and provide some pointers to get you started. 

WordPress for blogging

WordPress is a popular web-based blogging tool.

We offer an online module which provides step-by-step instructions for setting up your own research blog.

Benefits & considerations

Free & paid versions available
Entirely web-based – no need to install any software
Create as many different blogs as you like with WordPress & manage them all through one dashboard
Create pages for your site for more static information, as well as posts

Technology for analysing research
NVivo - qualitative research

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis software package designed for deep levels of analysis of rich text-based and/or multimedia information.

We provide an online module which introduces the software and is designed to help you get started.

We also offer a practical workshop, book a place or add your name to the waiting list by visiting our events page.

The University of Sussex has a site licence for NVivo, which includes home use. This means that you can install NVivo on your personal computer whilst you are a member of the University. See ITS pages for further information.

R - statistical analysis & graphics

R is a language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics.

We offer two workshops on R, the first provides an introduction, and the second focuses on graphics. Find out more, book a place or add your name via our events listings.

R is available on Linux computers and also through Exceed on Demand, see ITS pages for more information.

SPSS - statistical analysis & data management

SPSS is a statistical analysis and data management tool.

We offer a two-part practical workshop in SPSS, which covers the basics of using the program to get you started. Book a place or add your name to the waiting list via our events listing.

The University of Sussex has a site licence for SPSS, which includes home use. This means that you can install SPSS on your personal computer whilst you are a member of the University. See ITS pages for further information.

Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Publisher...

ITS provide a range of training courses which are available to all staff and students at the University, including courses in:

  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Excel
  • Publisher

They also offer the following courses which may be of particular interest to doctoral researchers:

  • Word 2013: Managing headers, footers and page numbering for your Thesis
  • Word 2013: Creating an automatic Table of Contents for your Thesis
  • Photoshop CS6 (for editing images)
  • Mindview 6: Getting started with mindmapping

View the full list of available ITS courses, where you can also book a place or sign up to a waiting list.

Online resources

Training materials for courses run by ITS can also be accessed online on the IT Courses Study Direct Site.

Further resources

 

Sussex Researcher School

E: researcher-school@sussex.ac.uk