Tools of the Trade

A curated directory of the software researchers actually use - from literature discovery and reference managers to electronic lab notebooks, analysis pipelines, imaging and the new generation of AI research tools. Every entry is written by hand, and every outbound link is checked.

  • 254 tools listed
  • 20 categories
  • 214 free or open source
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127 tools in Discovery

Authorea

Online collaborative writing, citing, hosting of data and publishing.

DiscoveryReference ManagementFREE

Baidu Scholar

Baidu Scholar aims to become the biggest, most comprehensive research platform in China.

DiscoveryPlanningOPEN SOURCE

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

BASE provides more than 150 million documents, from more than 7,000 sources.

DiscoveryPlanningFREE

Benchling

Transform your R&D with the industry's most widely adopted Life Sciences R&D Cloud.

AnalysisDiscoveryFREE

BibSonomy

Online social sharing of bookmarks & lists of literature in a collaborative way

DiscoveryPublishingFREE

Biocompare

An online review resource of lab equipment for the world's scientific community.

DiscoveryPublishingFREE
Biomni logo

Biomni

General-Purpose Biomedical AI Agent

AI Research AssistantAnalysisFREE

Biostars

Focus on bioinformatics, computational genomics, and biological data analysis.

DiscoveryPublishingFREE

Browzine

Collection of scholarly journals on your computer, tablet, or smartphone

DiscoveryFREE OPEN SOURCE

Cambridge Structural Database (CSD)

Repository for small-molecule organic and metal-organic crystal structures.

AnalysisDiscoveryFREE

CERN Open Data

A portal that hosts several records, released as open data by the LHC experiments.

DiscoveryReference ManagementOPEN SOURCE

Chemspider

A web-based database of small molecules, with associated data and links.

DiscoveryPublishingOpen Source

Built something researchers should know about?

We add tools on reader suggestions, and we list open-source projects and one-person side projects on the same terms as funded platforms. Listing is free, there is no paid placement, and we write the entry ourselves after trying the tool.

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Missing a tool?

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How entries are chosen

  • It has to be alive. Links are verified, and tools that die or get acquired into irrelevance are retired rather than left to rot.
  • Researchers have to actually use it. Adoption in real labs matters more than a polished launch page.
  • Cost is stated plainly. Free, open source, freemium or paid - including when "free for academics" comes with conditions.
  • No paid placement. Nobody buys their way onto this list, and there are no affiliate links.
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What is in here

The directory covers the whole research workflow: planning and funding, literature discovery, reference management, lab notebooks and inventory, analysis and computation, figures and visualisation, writing, publishing, and data sharing. Alongside the long-established tools you would expect, it tracks the AI workbenches and foundation models now reshaping how computational research gets done.