Links to research tools & resources

The following collection of digital tools for research, science and academic work includes both proven collaborative platforms and innovative AI-powered solutions that can optimise your research process.

The tools presented here support you in various aspects of your scientific work - from literature research and collaboration to data analysis and knowledge networking. While the classic platforms such as GRAIN, GitLab and GESIS Notebooks offer efficient working environments, the AI-based solutions open up new possibilities for discovering relevant research, linking literature intelligently and capturing scientific findings more quickly.

The following tools are either resources of the TU Freiberg, other Saxon universities or can generally be used freely

Freely usable tools

https://collab.hrz.tu-freiberg.de/grain

  • Collaborative work platform of the TU Freiberg
  • Enables data exchange and joint project work
  • for example: ShareLatex and Etherpad

https://tu-freiberg.de/urz/service-portfolio/collaboration/ownsky-cloud

  • Secure cloud solution for data exchange, calendar and contact management with full control over your own data
  • Collaborative editing of documents and projects in real time with integrated office tools
  • Flexible expandability thanks to numerous apps for task management, notes and other functions
  • The central file system must be integrated for use

https://gitlab.hrz.tu-chemnitz.de or via https://tu-freiberg.de/urz/service-portfolio/collaboration/gitlab-versionsverwaltung

  • Provided by Chemnitz University of Technology
  • Free to use for members of TU-Freiberg
  • Version management system for code and other files
  • Supports collaborative development processes
  • Project management with issues, merge requests and CI/CD pipelines

https://notebooks.gesis.org/binder/

  • Interactive Jupyter notebooks without installation
  • Uses external Git repositories (Github, Gitlab)
  • Ideal for reproducible research and analyses
  • Easy sharing of code and data analyses

GitHub Copilot is an AI-supported programming aid that can be integrated into the programming environment. This service is free of charge for members of universities, for example TU Freiberg. You can register using your TU Freiberg email address. Further information can be found here. LLMs for programming support models are also provided by openAI (GPT, o4), Google (Gemini) and Anthropic (Claude 3.5 or 3.7).

The following tools can be used freely with restrictions. Registration may be required (Google, ORCID). Paid subscriptions may be required for the full range of functions.

AI literature research

The following AI-supported tools for literature research answer formulated questions on the basis of trained models using indexed specialist articles. These offer an easy start in a specialised field or topic. However, the free use of the tools is limited.

ScienceOS and Paperpal can only be used after registration (new account or Google), offers extensive research and analysis of specialised texts. Paperpal supports the academic writing process and also offers an AI-supported review process to recognise major problems in manuscripts. Both tools enable a chat with specialist articles, in which "specific questions can be asked of a paper".

When using these external tools, it is important to bear in mind that they have data protection and copyright guidelines that may not meet your own requirements.

AI literature management

https://www.researchrabbit.ai/

  • Intelligent literature discovery assistant
  • Visualises links between publications and authorship
  • Makes it easier to find relevant research papers in your own subject area