If you have already learnt some research methods and want to improve your research skills further, the following are some free and/or paid software that can help you extend your skills.
EndNote
EndNote is perhaps the most versatile software to help you with referencing. It saves you time by giving you the power to download and store citation files in a library—that you can organise and share with up to 100 colleagues. You can insert any of the citation into a word document within 5 seconds. EndNote can auto-formate your citations and bibliography in any output style of your choice, e.g. Vanocur, APA, AMA, etc. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, EndNote can do you a lot more than that. But all of that comes at the cost of—ahem—250 USDs.
Mendely
Mendeley is a great free referencing software from Elsevier, which is a decent alternative to EndNote for basic referencing. It can get most of the jobs done. In addition, there is a Mendeley plugin for chrome that can help you easily import references from the pages you visit. The only problem is that editing output styles can be a headache, because you need to know some coding. This is not always a problem, but in case, for example, your journal needs from you a custom version of Vancouver, then you might need to spend some time figuring it out.
Get it here https://www.mendeley.com/
Jamovi
If you love both Money and SPSS, then Jamovi is for you (and me). SPSS has established itself as the gold-standard statistical analysis software among medical researchers, but not all free things are worthless — some are just priceless, and Jamovi is one of them. If you have purchased SPSS for thousands of dollars, you will definitely slap yourself for doing so, if you just download and check what Jamovi offers you for free.
More great softwares to come. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts.
