Digital

An overview of digital tools for scientific publications and project funding

Published

Digitalisation continues to evolve, with the emergence of new digital tools. SaaS platforms, web portals, mobile applications and more are innovations that have changed our personal and professional daily lives.

Paradoxically, scientific research has been at the forefront of the use of various cutting-edge technologies, like big data in the so-called “omics” approaches in biology for example, but it’s lagging behind for the in-depth digital transformation of its daily activities.

This paradox is undoubtedly linked to the existence of a multitude of digital tools, often complex and poorly integrated. This heterogeneity is a source of confusion among researchers, many of whom are sticking to basic tools such as Excel or Google Calendar to manage their work.

Here are some examples of digital tools that are fairly widespread in two key areas for research: scientific literature and project funding.

Digital tools for scientific literature

The volume of scientific publications is an key indicator of research activity. And since a few years, it has been increasing continuously.

However, researchers face a problem: They have to pay a fee to be able to access articles from their peers and even their own publications. Hence the emergence of the “open science” movement that has led to the creation of numerous platforms enabling researchers to write their articles, publish them, make them available to the scientific community and freely consult them.

Digital tools for scientific literature meet several needs of researchers:

  • Exploring
    The most used are specialized search engines that help scientists quickly find articles of interest for them and stay up-to-date with the evolution of their field;
  • Writing
    Research is increasingly dependent on collaborations between laboratories. Collaborative writing tools have emerged to help researchers write their articles while closely following the changes made by others;
  • Publishing
    Thanks to open access platforms, all researchers can view their articles for free. They can also maximize the exposure of their work. Finally, a set of tools designed to support the publication of articles brings additional functionalities, such as the integration of executable code in an article;
  • Assessing
    New collaborative platforms are changing the way in which the scientific value of publications is evaluated. The evaluation system becomes more open and instantaneous, avoiding the traditional filter of scientific journals.
ExploreWritePublishAssess
Scientific Watch
Google Reader
Netvibes

Visualisation 
ACS ChemWorx
Elsevier

Search & Management
EndNote
RefWorks
PapersBibTexCiteUlike
Google ScholarMendeley Zotero
Collaborative
Atlas
Authorcafe
Authorea
Fidus Writer
Stackedit
Typewrite 

Specialized Tools
Ludwig
Ref-n-Write
Writefull
Open access platforms
eLife
F1000Research
GigaScience
PeerJ
ScienceOpen 

Sharing
biorXiv
Figshare
Peerage of Science 

Support & Advice
Collage Authoring Environment
Exec&Share / RunMyCode
Google Charts 
Peer Assessment
F1000
Journal Review
Labii
Paper Critic
Pubmed Commons
ScienceOpen

Altmetrics
Altmetric
ImpactStory
PLOS Article-Level Metrics PlumAnalytics 

Digital tools for the funding of scientific projects

Project funding is a major issue for scientific research. Despite the effort of public authorities and various foundations, the budgetary resources allocated to research are not always up to the task.

It is therefore necessary to find additional sources of financing. Crowdfunding is an example of a worthwhile alternative to finance small and inexpensive research projects more quickly.

Projects requiring large investments follow a more traditional and heavier cycle, based on the filing of a funding request. Several tools have been developed to help researchers in this activity.

FranceUSA
Crowdfunding PlatformsCysmykDavincicrowd
Thellie
ExperimentSciFun Challenge
SciFlies
Consano
Support Tools for Funding DocumentsGrant Forward
Instrumentl
Pivot COS
Publiconn
LabsExplorer
Grant Forward
Instrumentl
Pivot COS
Publiconn
LabsExplorer

Key takeaways

Modern research is changing and scientific projects are increasingly dependent on complex technologies. Nevertheless, this technological dependence is not accompanied on a daily basis by a profound transformation of scientific activities. This paradox is partly explained by the heterogeneity, the complexity and the lack of integration of available tools.