External resources

Useful links

Trusted external resources that support the committee's work and researchers: free analysis software, ethics and publishing references, reporting guidelines and checklists, and retraction monitoring. All links open in a new tab.

Data analysis & statistics software (free)

Fully free tools for statistical analysis and sample-size calculation — no paid software.

R (R Project for Statistical Computing) r-project.org Free, open-source environment for every kind of statistical analysis and graphics, extended by thousands of packages. jamovi jamovi.org A free, easy point-and-click interface built on R; ideal for students and those new to statistics. JASP jasp-stats.org Free software for both classical and Bayesian analyses, with a simple interface and publication-ready output. G*Power (power & sample size) psychologie.hhu.de Free tool for sample-size and statistical-power calculations — useful for justifying sample size in research proposals. PSPP (free SPSS alternative) gnu.org/software/pspp A free program that mirrors SPSS's interface and syntax — ideal for anyone used to SPSS who needs a no-cost alternative. Orange (visual data mining) orangedatamining.com Free, open-source visual tool for data analysis and machine learning by dragging and connecting building blocks.

Programming & analysis notebooks (free)

Free languages and platforms for reproducible analysis and data science.

Python python.org A free, widely-used language for statistics, data science and machine learning, with vast scientific libraries. RStudio Desktop (open-source) posit.co A free, open-source workbench that makes writing and running R code far easier. Jupyter jupyter.org Free notebooks that combine code, results and explanation in one shareable document. Google Colab colab.research.google.com Free in-browser Python notebooks with no installation, including limited free GPUs.

Reference & citation management (free)

Organize sources and insert citations and reference lists automatically.

Zotero zotero.org A free, open-source reference manager that captures sources in one click and builds citations in Word and Google Docs. Mendeley Reference Manager mendeley.com A free reference manager from Elsevier with a cloud library and a Word citation add-in. JabRef jabref.org A free, open-source manager built on BibTeX — ideal for LaTeX users.

Writing & office (free)

Write documents and papers and collaborate at no cost.

LibreOffice libreoffice.org A free, open-source office suite (documents, spreadsheets, slides) that replaces Microsoft Office. Overleaf (free tier) overleaf.com A collaborative in-browser LaTeX editor with a free plan — great for equations and precisely formatted papers. Google Docs docs.google.com A free cloud document editor for real-time collaborative writing, with citation add-ons.

Surveys & data collection (free)

Build surveys and collect field data, including offline.

KoBoToolbox kobotoolbox.org A free platform for mobile field data collection that works offline — popular in health and field research. LimeSurvey (Community) community.limesurvey.org Free, open-source survey software you can host on a university server for unlimited surveys. EpiData epidata.dk A free tool for data entry, validation and basic analysis, common in epidemiological and clinical research. Google Forms forms.google.com A free, quick way to build simple questionnaires and export responses to a spreadsheet.

Systematic review & bibliometrics (free)

Screen studies for systematic reviews and map the literature and citations.

Rayyan (free tier) rayyan.ai A free tool for collaboratively screening study titles and abstracts in systematic reviews. VOSviewer vosviewer.com Free software for building and visualizing bibliometric maps of publications, citations and keywords. Publish or Perish harzing.com A free program that retrieves and analyzes citation metrics (such as the h-index) from several sources.

Images, figures & graphics (free)

Analyze scientific images and prepare publication figures and diagrams.

ImageJ / Fiji imagej.net The free, open-source standard for scientific and microscopy image analysis and quantitative measurement. GIMP gimp.org A free, open-source raster image editor — a Photoshop alternative for preparing images and figures. Inkscape inkscape.org A free vector-graphics editor for producing high-quality, scalable scientific figures (SVG). draw.io (diagrams.net) diagrams.net A free tool for drawing flowcharts and workflow diagrams (such as a PRISMA flow diagram).

Reproducibility & sharing (free)

Share data, code and materials openly and citably.

OSF (Open Science Framework) osf.io A free platform for managing research projects, pre-registration, and sharing data and materials. Zenodo zenodo.org A free repository (from CERN) that archives data and code and gives them a permanent DOI for citation. GitHub github.com Free hosting for code and projects with version control; integrates with Zenodo to archive releases.

Ethics & ethical publishing

International references for research and publication ethics and choosing a trustworthy journal.

COPE — Committee on Publication Ethics publicationethics.org Guidance and decision flowcharts for handling research misconduct, authorship disputes, and publishing errors. ICMJE Recommendations icmje.org Standards for authorship, disclosure, and publishing ethics in medical journals, including who qualifies as an author. WMA Declaration of Helsinki wma.net The foundational ethical principles for medical research involving humans — the cornerstone of ethics-committee review. CIOMS International Ethical Guidelines (2016) cioms.ch Detailed guidelines for health-related research involving humans, with particular attention to low-resource settings. Think. Check. Submit. thinkchecksubmit.org A simple checklist for choosing a trusted journal or publisher and avoiding predatory journals before you submit. DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals doaj.org A vetted index of trustworthy open-access journals; inclusion is a useful quality signal.

Guidelines & reporting checklists

Standard checklists for reporting different study types transparently and completely.

EQUATOR Network equator-network.org The central hub for all reporting guidelines; helps you pick the right checklist for your study design. CONSORT — randomized trials consort-statement.org The standard checklist and flow diagram for reporting randomized controlled trials. PRISMA — systematic reviews prisma-statement.org Reporting guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. ARRIVE — animal research arriveguidelines.org Reporting guidelines for studies using animals, ensuring transparency and reproducibility.

Retraction monitoring

Follow retraction news and search for retracted papers before you cite them.

Retraction Watch & its Database retractionwatch.com · retractiondatabase.org The leading blog tracking scientific paper retractions and their reasons, alongside a searchable database of 50,000+ retractions. Check any reference before citing it. BlogDatabase · retractiondatabase.org