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Software for Research (using Windows)

• AI in Python (specifically the section on Semantic Networks)
• Arranger ($19) an idea organizer for Palm Pilot
• Atlas of Cyberspaces (formerly Info Spaces) has lots of sophisticated examples
• BAILANDO Information Visualization research project investigating ways to present abstract information
• CoBase an associative (fuzzy) query generator
• Everything2 an online community
• Innovation tools has news, blog, and articles about brainstorming and creativity
  
• Intertwingle  a 1998 proposal by Jamie Zawinski
• LifeStreams [dead]
• Lucid [dead]
• memes.net  a collection of thoughts organized on the principle that relationships are fundamentally more important than hierarchies, folders, categorizations or keywords
• MerzScope [dead]
• MindMan by Micheal Jetter [absorbed by Mind Manager]
• MindSet  project aiming to create a modeling language for thinking about thoughts
• Neuro Linguistic Programming, "create the knowledge necessary to learn how to operate our own minds"
• OSMIC/Project Xanadu  stimulating note about how existing software goes wrong and how it could be much better
  
• Open Idea Project [dead]
• Peba-II on-line animal encyclopedia, with dynamic text generation when you ask for information
• ThinkMap corporate-oriented software ($1,195; 888-278-8600) with templates -- spider, timeline, and relevance -- for concept maps that show up on other web sites
• ThoughtStream   Palm-based open-source software for idea mapping
• Visual based tools compared  A chart comparing the Brain, MindManager, Inspiration, MindMapper, SmartDraw, Snag-it, Notemap, Brainstorm, and Haystack
  
• Visual Net by Antarcti.ca [dead?]
• Visual Thesaurus (Plumb), a good example of Thinkmap software
• WikiWikiWeb interactive web page creation
• Xanadu ZigZag an attempt at multidimensional database representation

   "The Network of Knowledge" in Engines of Creation - K. Eric Drexler: Chapter 14

    Joyce Wycoff's InnovationNetwork with mindmapping, idea workout, and "good morning thinkers" column

    Jan W.A. Lanzing's Concept Mapping Homepage. Jan W.A. Lanzing's Concept Mapping Homepage.

    Mind Mapping Site  (the contents are in German). Produced by Maria Beyer - Mind Mapping trainer, and seminar leader in Germany.

    World Wide Brain Club

MANAGING INFORMATION

Notetaking: outlining rough drafts; managing miscellaneous notes; clipboard extenders

A good basic notetaking program such as InfoMagic (free), TreePad (4 versions), MyInfo ($34.95) or a composition tool such as RoughDraft (free) not only gets the scraps of information off your desk, it

• uses less computer space to store information than a collection of separate files in your word processing program
• makes it easier and faster to view, search, and manipulate any or all of your notes at once
• combines the hierarchical overview and organization available in Windows Explorer with the text entry and formatting capabilities of WordPad

The second biggest drawback is that most programs in this category are notorious for instability and losing important information, especially as data files get larger.  Regular backups, whether provided by the program itself or something you set up using other software, are especially important.

Two kinds of notetaking programs exist.  Those with a one-window (single-pane) workspace, such as RoughDraft, PC Outline for Windows, or, more elaborately, Brainstorm, are essentially composition tools: they are most likely to help you outline and develop single projects.  Users of DOS-based programs such as Grandview 2 or MemoryMate often insist that Windows-based offerings have never quite equalled their predecessors.  Existing programs do have limitations or drawbacks -- some of which are listed in the table below.
 

Programs for outlining, rough drafts, managing note cards with citations (typically a single-pane workspace)

program, price, trial period	limitations, drawbacks	features
RoughDraft, free	imports only Word 6.0, Word 97 files, not newer;	sophisticated two-pane tool, with either files, snippets, or commonly used words and symbols available in the second pane; includes rich text formatting and exports .rtf
Mega Hyper Edit; ($10).  Stitch your notes into a running logbook, and save them to one continuous free-form data file.	not flexible; notes have no structure apart from the order entered	Good for precisely one type of notetaking: maintains a contiguous list of notes, stored in rich text file and loaded automatically on program start-up. Entries are either typed in or pasted, and each entry is appended to the previous entries, with a dated separator bar inserted to help keep them in order. Tray icon. Built-in to do list and address book.
Microsoft OneNote ($49 educational; $80 on amazon)	few features and over-priced for basic notetaking; anemic search capabilities; no viewer for sending files to computers that don't have the program; needs a powerful external microphone for the potentially useful audio notetaking to function effectively; handwriting recognition still a work in progress; cannot create tables	Relatively cheap option for transcribing lecture or interview notes: allows sound recording simultaneous with text note taking. Allows somewhat awkward handwriting (on tablet PC). Using multiple tabs makes this somewhat like a 2-pane browser. Handles lots of rich text formatting.
PC Outline for Windows ($40)	many features simply duplicate those in word processors	includes rich text formatting, 10 levels, more control than a word processing outliner
NoteGenie ($49) trial version limited to 20 cards; refundable within 30 days after purchase		3 sorting levels (Keywords, Topics, Groups); the Manage Files function allows manipulation of more than one card at a time.
Knoesis Index Card Lite ($49) 60 day trial; Pro version promised in 2003	An incomplete, but potentially valuable tool for managing lots of quoted text and linking that quoted text to its bibliographic source (only four types allowed:  book, journal, newspaper, web page).  No easy way to browse, much less manipulate, more than one card at a time.  Program cannot export more than 1200 cards at once.  Although notes can be exported to an rtf document, export  is not seamless, cite-while-you-write: some clean-up of the imported material is necessary since there's no way to set preferences for the export.  No help file included with version 1.1, and only minimal help on the sometimes slow-loading website.	For people who use paper notecards extensively to manage quotations or notes from printed material.  Can link each note to one or more subject and keyword headings; handy list of publishers allows subsequent material from the same publisher to be accessed by pull-down menu rather than re-typing.   Uses Open Database Connectivity Standards, and pledges  "We will never use proprietary standards or technology to limit how widely a researcher can disseminate information."   Not a general notetaking program, but seems promising as a specialized citation manager, especially if the Pro version (price only by email inquiry) integrates as promised with the Endnote bibliography program.
BrainStorm ($65)	no rich text formatting, exports to .txt files for use in a word processor; automatically places each paragraph in a separate entry (though pressing shift+enter allows paragraph returns within a single entry), with maximum 64,000 characters per paragraph; the publish as HTML command leaves the word "BrainStorm" embedded on your page; During March 2002, Norton Antivirus identified the "Uninstal.exe" file as a backdoor trojan; BrainStorm said this was a false positive and that Norton definitions after 22 Mar 2002 no longer give such a warning.	solid single-pane outliner (and one can open more than one window simultaneously for jumping between different parts of an outline) for composing and manipulating rough drafts; most distinctive: automatically (using "Namesakes") or even manually (using wildcards) creating hypertext links between identical pieces of information, thereby allowing for many lateral linkages absent in traditional outlining; use the paste special (Paste Formatted) command to retain original paragraphing; "Magic paste" can be used like an integrated clipboard extender; publish to HTML
Scholars Aid ($74); 60 day trial	Notetaking functions are subordinated to the bibliography program, so not particularly useful for non-academic notes.	Basically a bibliographic reference manager, but allows notetakers to attach bibliographic references to their notes, and then insert the notes together with the references into a paper.
NoteMap ($150) (904) 273-5000	expensive higher-end outlining tool marketed to lawyers by legal software company (Casesoft)	can Mark specific items and then Gather those items  in a new location for further work; Task Pane on the left  holds a list of all outlines and can be used to create templates for new outlines

By contrast, programs with two window panes -- i.e., those somewhat resembling the Windows Explorer internal file manager, with a hierachical outline in one pane and the content of individual notes in a second pane -- are more likely to be used to manage a wide variety of miscellaneous, often unrelated, information.  Two-pane notetaking programs such as Treepad Plus, TexNotes, or MyInfo are also known as "notes management" programs.

Some desirable features to look for in a notes management program:

1) full text searching of all notes in the notetaking program (not merely, as in some programs, searching confined to a single note)
2) unlimited notes: the possible size for each note, for each folder/node, and for the overall data file is limited only by the computer, not by the program
3) drag-and-drop hyperlinks: hyperlinks retain both the original name and original url address when dragged into the notetaking program
4) copy-and-paste hyperlinks: hyperlinks do not turn into plain text when transferred into the notetaking program using copy and paste; e.g., TexNotes does this successfully when pasting from the IE browser, but not from other browsers
5) flexible tree structure:  notes are organized in a tree structure that is at least as flexible as Windows Explorer, i.e., you can create and view as many, and as few, levels of folders and documents as you want for each branch
6) returns to last-viewed note:  program can open to the most recently viewed note, not just to the root directory. Remembering more than one recently visited note is even better.
7) second best when 6) is not available:  saves tree setting at close: folders/nodes left open at the close will display as open when the program is restarted;
8) on-screen "floater" ("shooter"):  allows drag and drop data entry in a single step, without opening the main program, as in BlackHole, Netpad, or InfoSelect. (When no floater is available, a three-step work-around is to keep a program shortcut on the Windows taskbar.)  TexNotes' narrow view window partially achieves the same result, though it takes more screen space (even minimized) and requires the main program to be running.
9) autosave, either as the program is closed, whenever the program is open (at user-defined intervals), or both
10) automatic backup files generated on a user-specified schedule
11) a rich text format (rtf) editor makes possible to add formatting such as italics, bold, underline. Users who especially want a program that will preserve rtf formatting when  pasting in from elsewhere, a feature absent from most notetaking programs listed in this section, might prefer a more expensive general purpose information manager such as InfoRecall (which can toggle that feature on or off; $40), or a web download manager or annotation tool  [discussed below under Web Page Downloads].
12) paragraph formatting is preserved:  bullet points; also less common character formatting such as subscript and superscript
13) keyboard shortcuts for rapid-fire typing of multiple notes, combined with hierarchical folders for later sorting, as in MyInfo Professional or TakeNote (free; proprietary format from 1997 is a drawback)

Of course, notetaking programs are by definition more limited than all-purpose information managers [later section below].  Some notepad programs (the only example listed here is Textpad) are designed to handle programming languages; see dmoz for examples.

Another route to notes management is to buy a bibliographic program  that includes notetaking, e.g., TakeNote! ($35), Endnote 6 ($99 academic), or Nota Bene.  See bibliographic software in a later section below.

 Programs for managing miscellaneous notes (typically a two-window workspace)

program, price, trial period	limitations, drawbacks	features
Keynote (free)	few drawbacks; cannot export/print entire tree as a single rtf document; cannot import/export entire files (though it can export individual notes or nodes to html); imports html only as txt files;	rft editing, including "virtual nodes" that allow editing of rtf files NOT held within the Keynote datafile; strong encryption; unlike most outliners, can maintain several tabs, each with its own tree and editor, inside a single file
TreePad Lite 2.9.4; free;  see chart to compare with Plus ($30), Safe ($35), and Biz ($44) versions	Lite version does NOT  preserve hyperlinks, lacks rtf; maximum recommended Lite text database is 15 Mb;	built in backup function; searching of all files or one note; import from .txt and .csv files; export to .txt or .html files; generates statistics about each subtree. Can use this program to move non-rtf files from MyInfo to TexNotes.
TreePad Plus ($30; 21 day trial), Safe ($35), and Biz ($44) versions	maximum recommeded text database is 40Mb	Established program, and competitors often include TreePad converters; includes .rtf import/export; handles images; autosave at designated intervals; a variety of free Treepad utilities allow export to XML, Palm, Psion, Pocket PC, CSV (for export to spreadsheets and databases)
NoteKeeper (free)  NoteKeeper Pro ($20)	requires Internet Explorer 4.1 or higher	Pro version adds 128-bit encryption.
InfoMagic (free); Info Magic Extra ($19.95, trial expires after 3 months)	free version has not been updated in years;  freeware download takes place in DOS
Golden Section Notes ($25)	icons for folders and notes look too much alike (similar shape and color); reordering notes is somewhat clumsy (no easy way to promote-demote, drag and drop only works when creating a child note, not a sibling)	handles rtf, pictures; folders summarize information about notes (are not merely unusable screen, as in Infoseek)
MyInfo 2 ($35) 40 day trial; freeware version 1.9 is no longer available	When MyInfo added new features in 2002, it adopted the same $35 price as others in this category, probably deterring potential users who needed fewer features from considering what is an especially outstanding tool; still no on-screen "floater", and the new tray command for entering a note without opening the program, while perhaps better than nothing, takes two steps and isn't especially useful; limit of 65,000 separate notes per outline. Drag and drop works, but it separates the url name from the url address and displays both separately.  Keeps history of last 9 notes viewed during a session but erases at close. Advanced search merely lists the notes where a searched term appears without highlighting where the term is within each note; relevance ranking for search results often merely ranks every single item as 100%. Doesn't support copy-paste of hyperlinks or web page formatting from non-IE browsers.	fast!  full-text searching; flexible export (file: save copy as) of file, branch, or individual note to to rtf, HTML, txt; uses previously saved hierachy settings when program re-opens; flexible autosave including whenever the window is minimized; can open to last used note; unlimited storage per note; can build multiple notes using pre-formatted and custom templates.  Dispenses with the "folder" metaphor: (unlike Infoseek or TexNotes) every entry at every level can contain notes.   Can put hyperlinks anywhere, including in the tree outline.  "Jump to Page" for moving more quickly within the program, and a tool for inserting multiple template blanks at once.  Version 2 adds ability to handle rtf formatting, images, OLE objects from MS-Word or Excel; can clone notes in order to place duplicates elsewhere in the outline;  comments on outline items; password protection; can categorize each note using up to 64 mostly user defined fields (columns); can sort notes using up to three fields.
TexNotes ($35); 60-day trial; no freeware version. Similar to MyInfo, but with more features. Price has jumped from $15, but the program is also much improved.	TexNotes files are about twice as large as MyInfo files; program can zip files for smaller size, though that will slow performance on larger files.  Default places notes in folders (called "notebooks") that cannot themselves be edited to display user-determined info; instead, the company's ad appears within each folder, along with a count of the number of notes in the folder. Moving multiple items remains somewhat clumsy. Drag and drop still doesn't preserve hyperlinks, even if the link is highlighted before dragging. A potentially distracting plethora of options display in the default install, but the View command can be used to conceal unneeded options. History of recently viewed notes erases at close. Doesn't preserve hyperlinks or web page formating when copy-pasting from non-IE browsers.	fast, with several features absent from MyInfo: 1) contextual search results (i.e., displays some of the words in the line of text where the searched term appears) 2) tabbed note history for returning quickly to recently viewed notes 3) preserves hyperlinks and web-page formatting when doing copy-paste from the IE browser -- though not from Opera or Mozilla  4) a regular screen/narrow screen toggle to facilitate drag and drop from other windows  5) a calendar tool that can append an unlimited number of reminders to specific notes 6) zoomable print preview 7) flexible options for headers and footers. Like MyInfo, can open to last used note; rtf formating; flexible auto save (but not at minimize to tray); imports rtf, html, doc, csv (databases), Treepad, and Keynote files; export as RTF, HTML or plain text; copy and paste hyperlinks (only in IE). Can be used to produce a distributable e-book (which runs as a self-contained .exe file on the recipient's computer); offers a forum where users can discuss bugs;
MyBase ($35)		rtf, WebCollect addon allows web pages to be saved directly from IE
Note Center ($12)	no rtf; individual note size limited to a few MB;	web-oriented notes program; saves in pseudo-html (.hnc) format; works best when saving from or posting to HTML pages
Action Outline ($25); 30-day trial w/limited sub-items	no italics, bold, or underline; control-k to insert links (no drag and drop, no copy and paste); no automatic or manual alphabetizing; opens last used outline only with all subfolders closed; no auto backup;	especially simple keyboard shortcuts (enter to start a new sibling; insert to start new subnote); full-text search; cut and paste branches within a file; automatic titles within the body of each note; export to HTML using a free add-on; many formatting options when exporting and when printing; autosave
Textpad ($16.50)	not possible to organize notes into folders, just a single list of notes, though creating a Textpad Workspace works ok for single projects	a two-panel (actually three-panel) text editor with many features -- e.g., autosave; backup before save;  line numbering toggle; flexible sort; join lines; compare files; spelling check -- lacking in the notepad program that comes with Windows; nonetheless, files save as txt rather than a proprietary format (just like notepad): can be used to edit web pages or as a programming IDE;
AlfaPad ($20); 30-day trial	can print only one note at a time; no backup; autosave only if closed; "branches" can't have content, only "notes"; no child notes directly under other notes; drag and drop moves hyperlink address but not the hyperlink name;	can open to last used note; rtf formating; full text search; export as text or HTML; password protection; 60-day money back guarantee;
Secure Notes Organizer ($30); 30-day trial	only opens to root setting; no autosave; no auto backup; search feature disabled in trial version	rtf formatting; security features; global search; daily diary functions;
Data Collector ($29)	download site doesn't always work	rtf editor; claims 100 MB data files work smoothly, with larger possible
Vault ($25); trial version holds only 100 topics	no italics, bold, or underline; no copy and paste of hyperlinks; drag and drop moves hyperlink address but not the hyperlink name; note insertion is clunky, requires three steps; maximum 16 MB/note;	autosave; powerful full-text searching; emailer; phone dialer; hyperlinks active via a button; exports to html, txt, xml; optional password protection; opens to last viewed note; backs up previous version when saving
Skwyrul PRO v4 "careware"; free; Those who find the program useful are asked to make a donation to charity.	puts the words "new data note" at the beginning of every note; no auto save when closing; Scratchpad function is less flexible than a drag-and-drop "floater"; prone to crashes on Windows 2K	Free; Scratchpad function can save all clipboard text without opening the main program; auto backup; includes commands for favorites, sub-texts, macros, hyperlinks, in-note data-grids, and a simple time planner.  Can export the entire data tree (but not individual notes) to HTML.
Jot+ Notes 2.5 ; $25; TEL orders (724) 850-8187; from King Stairs Software (London)	max 1 MB (1 million characters)/note; large notes (over 200 KB) can be slow to load; no copy and paste of hyperlinks, drag and drop moves hyperlink address but not the hyperlink name; creating a new note requires 2-3 steps/note; all folders and sub-folders close each time the program is closed	unlimited overall storage; flexible autosave; flexible formating including superscripts and subscripts; option for display always on top; export (file: save copy as) an entire file of notes to rtf, HTML, txt; export to MS Word with a plug-in.  Non-owners can access files with a reader.
Black Hole Organizer $24.95; 30 day trial	no copy and paste of  hyperlinks; drag and drop separates the url name from the url address and displays both separately.  Takes a few seconds to start; pop-up for naming new folders and new documents sends you to the middle of the screen instead of to the outline. After 30 days features in the trial version begin to disable at specific intervals.	autosave; has a "floater" (can insert any image); opens to last-used window; automatically tracks creation dates and date last modified; rich text formatting that includes highlighting; can handle images; export to txt and rtf (older versions exported only to .db and xml formats)
WhizFolders Organizer 4.2.2 ($15) and Whiz Folder Pro ($26); 90 day trial	"English spelling-checker, support for basic rich text editing--bold, italic, bulleted lists, indentation, paragraph alignment, color of text and background, insertion of pictures and OLE objects." Note that all these features are only supported in the new WhizFolder document types with the extension .wzfolder.	This file format also supports very large topic sizes. The Pro version continues to support the old .wzn file formats. You can also drag and copy topics from the old .wzn files to the new .wzfolder format files.”
InfoTree32v3.6; ($39.95) InfoTree32 XT; ($49.95); 30 day trial; disables after 45 days	both versions do NOT preserve drag and drop hyperlinks;	the basic version is similar to WhizFolders, but includes to do lists with sort by date;  the basic version lacks integration with MS Word and is not based on a the MS Access database while the XT version includes these features
Personal Knowbase 2.0.1 ($39.95); 30 day trial; Bitsmith Software	lack of folders or other hierarchies	instead of folders, uses keywords (multiple keywords possible for each note) to organize notes; includes e-mail archives, tickler files; option to place notes in tree-like categories and subcategories

Do some comparisons:  Tucows and other shareware sites continually list new programs in this category.  Bad notetaking programs, e.g., most of the "sticky notes" programs such as Post-it® Software Notes or SuperNotes, lack most of the above features and merely transfer clutter from scraps of paper to the more scarce and constrained (two-dimensional) monitor space.  If you really want a sticky notes program, DeskNotes 3.0: "The Ultimate Sticky Note Application" ($24.95; unlimited trial period) is better than most: notes can be organized into notebooks; it does arithmetic calculations from within any note in one step; handles image files; has lots of ways to customize the look of each note.

Here's another, more detailed, overview of Windows outlining programs.

Some other notetaking programs, not recommended, are listed below for reference:

• Accordia ($19.95); Accordia iT ($29.95) based on organizing information into “books”, the basic version allows only 9 sections within each "book"; the iT version ($29.95) allows unlimited number of sections within each "book"
• InfoCentral (free) a PIM abandoned by Novell/Corel; freeware versions that run on Windows 95/98 still available, e.g. at Freeware Home
• InfoMagic Extra    folders and documents can't be nested, has just one level of each
• Netpad 3.4SE unlimited; free.  An excellent program, but development of this program ended in 1999.  Included a handy on-screen floater, ability to copy and paste wide variety of formats including hyperlinks, full-text searching, full-text indexing.
• Memoirs 2000 Pro [appears discontinued] ($24.95); 30 day trial; some features were limited in the trial version; tree-based; tray icon; password protection and shredder; all future versions were free to registered users;
• Notebase ($19, 15 trial uses) Despite a couple of good features (drag and drop of url addresses and the ability to "pack" an entire file for reading by someone who doesn't have the program), lacks auto save and has only limited searching (searches only note titles and individual notes, NOT the entire datafile).
• NoteKeeper (free; $20 for version with 128-bit encryption)  Notes cannot be hierarchically ordered, just one long list.
• Outline 1.5 [dead?] ($30, 20 day trial) Ays software; can have only the current branch of the outline open; sometimes crashes at close. Positive feature: unusual for such programs, individual notes can be placed under more than one heading (using Links command).
• SquareNote3.5 (free) a DOS-based program (though it will run under older versions of Windows up to Windows 98, it unfortunately will NOT run under NT, 2000, or XP) requiring a few command-line entries to set up the program.  Allows only 50 notes per note file. A more recent version, SquareNote 4.1 ($49), allows unlimited notes per file, though it is unable to handle rtf files.  For users who can work in a DOS partition or an older version of Windows, it's simple and fast, with good search capabilities.  Can organize info in this program, export to a text file, then import into a more graphically oriented organizer such as Writer's Blocks.
• TreeText ($23.95) Version 1.2.0 last updated October 14th 1999  

Watch to see whether the XML-based Outline Processor Markup Language (OPML) standard launched in 2000 starts to reinvigorate development and interoperability of notetaking programs.

Clipboard extenders

Clipcache ($19.95) put clips in a single level of groups

Clipmate ($20) put clips into a hierarchical arrangement of groups; more features than Clipcache, but also sometimes more unstable, at least in earlier versions.

all-purpose information managers, free-form databases

Unstructured information managers allow users to impose varying degrees of structure as they go along.  No best unstructured all-purpose information manager is currently available.  MultiCentrix and Zoot are essentially one-man programs that are well-integrated and relatively responsive to individual users, but also idiosyncratic and apt to fall behind current best practice in some areas.  Info Select, by contrast, is produced by a larger company that is relatively unresponsive to individual users, does not offer access to a trial version on its own website, and forces users to pay for a steady stream of upgrades. AskSam is a high-end, but specialized, textual database tool rather than a wide-spectrum information management tool.  InfoHandler, still the cheapest of the programs listed below despite a recent price increase, offers especially good value in this category.

You might also consult this chart comparing several text-based tools, including ADM, Ariadne, AskSam, InfoSelect, MyInfo, OneNote, Personal Knowbase, Treepad, and Zoot.

Not recommended:

• Brownbag Memorymate ($14.95)  Outdated.  Single-pane, multi-purpose, index-and-retrieve database that handles many standard file types, but has not kept up:  basic limitation is that it allows only 400 lines per record, the same as when it was a DOS program a decade ago; larger files are automatically broken into records within that limit.  The reminder function is probably too prominent for a program in this category.

spreadsheets

paper file management software

•  File-Ease Links ($39.95) create a searchable database of paper files and documents, add supplementary information as desired, and print Avery labels.  The preset categories and data entry fields are aimed at business users, but they can be bypassed entirely.  Lacking hyperlinks, this would NOT be useful to manage electronic files.
• Taming the Paper Tiger ($150; 30-day trial only by paying $4.95 for shipping; $180/user for networded version) create a searchable database of numbered files.  Another program not aimed at managing electronic files.

convert paper to electronic files using scanner software

• Scansoft Paperport Deluxe ($99) and Paperport Pro Office ($199). Scan documents with the powerful optical character recognization (OCR) software, then search and manage the results electronically, along with downloaded web pages, pdf's, and other electronic files. Can also organize and edit digital photos. The more expensive Pro Office version can organize and edit pdf's, tools that might be handy for team collaboration. Telephone orders possible at (888) 372-1908.
• PaperMaster Pro ($199).  Similar to PaperPort, though the electronic file management is aimed more narrowly at pdf's only. Added feature: can be used to turn a scanner into a fax machine.
• FineReader Pro ($295). OCR software designed to handle a long list of languages written in Roman and Cyrillic alphabets. Integrated with MS-Word 2003 and MS-Powerpoint 2003.
• SilverFast SE ($49) and SilverFast Ai ($228). When you need to scan images, especially color images, rather than documents.
• Adobe Capture ($400). Converts documents only to pdf.  Cheaper, more flexible programs are available.

bibliography and citation management software

At least five free programs are available:  BiblioExpress v2 (the freeware version of Biblioscape), Bibliographix Basic, an exclusively German language program Literat, DOS-based Papyrus (was $99, but now free; the program runs under DOS but can be used with various Windows versions of MS Word and Word Perfect), and Scholar's Aid 2000 Lite.  Three of these freeware programs also offer upgrade paths to more sophisticated programs.  Of the five, BiblioExpress has a simple interface that people new to this sort of software find easy to use and has plenty of features for users who simply want to manage citations and don't need the database to download references automatically from an online library database.  Another BiblioExpress advantage is that those who like the program but eventually want more features can upgrade to Biblioscape Lite, Standard, or Professional -- discussed below.

Researchers who wish to download references automatically from a library database can consider paying for the special-purpose BookWhere module, or they can purchase a bibliography manager that already includes that feature.  Such downloads take place using the ANSI standard Z39.50, a very useful feature, doubly so if a user also has library passwords for access to journal and magazine databases such as ABI-Inform.  Note, however, that further development of Z39.50 has proceeded in three different directions, two of which seem unlikely to be backward compatible with the existing standard.  Which databases (and which libraries) will migrate to each of the three new standards seemed uncertain as of early 2002.  By early 2003, several commercial vendors appeared to have abandoned efforts at Z39.50 compliance, though ArticleFirst, Current Contents, and ABI/Inform Global were among the databases that were still downloadable via Z39.50 connection.

Three of the leading programs -- Endnote, Procite, and Reference Manager -- have Z39.50.  Al  three were acquired by the same company (Research Information Systems, itself a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information), which has been attempting to unify the three programs without alienating their respective users.  Both Endnote and ProCite have "cite while you write" capabilities.  Each retails for $99-109 to students; faculty prices range $179-200, non-academic prices start at $240 for downloads, $330 for shipped copies.  Note that academic discounts are not offered for upgrades ($100), meaning that users who upgrade the program over several years are likely to pay 2-3 times their original price just to stay current.  Endnote is slightly cheaper than Procite or Reference Manager.  How to decide between them?

• Endnote (cheapest academic prices are $85 students; $170 academic via a third-party "perpetual license" to a single version; no CD or paper manual), with origins as a Mac program, is somewhat more user-friendly, e.g., it's organized into "libraries" and lets you examine downloaded references even while the rest of a query continues to download; limit of 32,000 references/database compared to unlimited database size for ProCite and Reference Manager. A new, apparently attractive, option for academic users is to rent the software from a company affiliated with ISI: a "perpetual" Endnote license, which is the same as buying the software, is $85 for students, $170 for faculty and academic staff.  Students can rent Endnote for 6 months for $30, 12 months for $50.  (Warning about rentals:  to computer users on a network who rent the program:  laptop connections to an organization's computer network may experience problems with the short-term rental version:  if a network server error ever undoes correct time/data settings, the license will immediately expire, requiring help from Endnote technical support to restore the program.)  There is a discussion list for Endnote.
• ProCite ($110 students, $276 regular download) is the most broadly flexible of the three: it is organized into "databases" with somewhat more powerful features for creating groups within a database, searching, defining more data fields than in Endnote, as well as using a larger number of pre-set and user-defined document types than in Endnote.  Both ProCite and Reference Manager can hold an unlimited number of references in a single database. Discussion lists and archived questions are available for ProCite users.
• Reference Manager ($110 students, $276 regular download) with origins in physical and medical science, offers the most powerful capabilities in a few areas, e.g., it is the only one of the three that allows users  to search within up to 10 of their own database files at the same time.  ProCite and Endnote only allow search of one "database" or "library" at a time.  Reference Manager is also better for groups that want to allow more than one person to edit the database simultaneously over a network.
• caution to users and prospective buyers of Reference Manager and ProCite: although both programs allow users to *send* internet queries to more than one external source, one should not be misled into relying upon this as a true meta-search tool: database configurations often differ from library to library, and when configurations do differ, both programs are apt to *report* results only from the FIRST successfully queried source, rather than from all queried sources.
• Users of the ISI bibliographic programs who need to analyze bibliographic information more intensively -- for example, when searching large numbers of citations for patterns or important articles to cite -- might consider RefViz (Bethesda, MD; 301 365-0720), a data visualization tool. 

Offerings cheaper than either the ISI big three or Nota Bene products include Biblioscape Lite, Bibliographix Pro, and Scholars Aid.  None of these three programs offer technical support by telephone.  None include electronic access to library bases via the ANSI standard Z39.50, though Biblioscape and Bibliographix attempt to make a virtue of this defect by noting that many library databases can now be web-accessed without the Z39.50 protocol.  In any case, as mentioned above, these non-ISI products also have entry-level freeware editions, making the transition toward a relatively powerful bibliographic tool especially painless.

• BiblioExpress.  Free and unlimited; free version can be upgraded to Biblioscape
• Bibliographix Basic  (free). This is the free, and somewhat crippled, version of the regular Bibligraphix program ($75 academic, $100 otherwise for Bibliographix Pro, no trial period for Pro). A relatively limited number of document formats (only nine) compared to most programs in this category, combined with no way to create new document formats will rule out this program for those who work with many kinds of sources, but students who use only a few types might be fine.  Database searches display only the first five hits. Idea manager for mind mapping allows only 20 ideas in the Basic version.  Not compatible with Word Perfect (except via rtf).  Bibliographix Lite, a version between Basic and Pro, has been discontinued.
• Knoesis Index Card Lite ($49) 60 day full trial.  An academic notetaking program designed to replace paper index cards.  Can export all notes and comments to an rtf file; can also automatically append a bibliography from those notes if desired, though only using whatever full citation format you have already entered in the database for each individual note.  Can cross-reference and search using multiple keywords and subject categories in ways that are impossible with paper.  Probably most useful if managing lots of textual quotations, whether alone or as an ancilliary tool coupled with Endnote, a feature supposedly offered in the Pro version (price not posted; must email the company).  Lacks pre-defined or user-definable library of bibliography formats, and offers only four source types (book, article, newspaper, webpage).
• Scholars Aid  ($74 student; $94 other; 60 day full trial) combines notetaking with bibliography management in an innovative way, though it also lacks some features available in other programs; includes very few predefined journal templates, though users can define own templates.  Half off the regular price for purchases of five or more copies.
• TakeNote! ($35).  Notes management, outlines built from note cards, bibliography management, and automatic reference generation -- all in a very inexpensive package.  Academic sales through Allyn & Bacon.

As for more expensive offerings, alternatives to Endnote or ProCite include Biblioscape Standard, Biblioscape Pro, Citation Pro, and GetARef.

• Bibliographix  ($75 academic, $100 otherwise for Bibliographix Pro). No student price below the general academic price. Trial only using the more restricted Bibliographix Basic. Offers many features in the big 3 ISI programs, including citation insertion within Word documents and web capabilities via an integrated web browser (though not Z39.50 client software capabilities), at a slightly lower price.  A relatively limited number of document formats (only nine) compared to most programs in this category, though new ones can be created.  Includes only a relatively small number of import filters, though new filters can be created.  Includes an import-export filter for BibTeX and an integrated LaTeX editor.  Includes a potentially useful idea manager (mind mapping) feature whose utility is currently limited by the fact that users can manipulate only those ideas already in the program's thesaurus.  Not compatible with Word Perfect.  Bibliographix Lite, a version between Basic and Pro, has been discontinued.
• Biblioscape  (also offers free and unlimited BiblioExpress).  Free version can be upgraded to Lite ($49 academic; $79), Standard ($99 academic; $139), Pro ($199 academic; $299), and Librarian editions.  A four-level alternative to ISI products, with a Lite edition that is substantially less expensive.  See the company's comparison of the four Biblioscape editions.  Offers a drag-and-drop utility called BiblioSidekick that approximates the cite-while-you-write feature of the ISI programs.  Has a good set of internal and external search tools (including SQL search commands) including find all titles within a given book or journal.   References can be organized into subject folders, a single title can even be placed in more than one folder.  Pro version includes notetaking that can be organized in a tree structure and simple to-do list, both absent from ISI products. Pro version also allows multiple and customizable formats for database reports.  Has moved entirely to web-based (Internet Explorer only) access to online databases: even its Pro edition does not include Z39.50 client software capabilities available in the ISI trio or added to Nota Bene products with Bookwhere.  Advantage of the integrated web browser is that web pages can be downloaded, stored, recorded and indexed in a bibliographic database all using just one program.  Has a large collection of import filters for importing references from library and other databases that are available on web pages; Biblioscape also says it will help creating new import filters.  Suggestions and pre-set filters are available for importing databases into Biblioscape from other programs.  Supports many languages including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
• Citation (45 day full trial; $149 academic download; $199 other download; with printed manual and CD prices rise to $205 academic; $255)  A somewhat less expensive Nota Bene offering that does not require moving to a new word processor; can be used not only to insert citations, but also to manage and insert exerpts from the material cited.  Again offering notes management features lacking in the ISI trio of products, Citation has especially large numbers of record types (58) and bibliography styles (over 1000); on the other hand, it lacks any easy way to create additional record types or bibliography styles.  A legal edition of the program (Legal Citation) is also available. Note: again, like Scholar's Workstation, an additional purchase of Bookwhere ($99 academic; $295 otherwise; 45 day full trial) is required for internet research and downloads -- the combination is called Citation Pro ($275 academic; $349).  The fact that there is no separate price for students means that students buying Citation Pro at the academic price are paying roughly twice the price for Endnote; however, for faculty and for non-academic users, the price for Citation Pro is roughly the same as for Endnote.  Citation product prices recently rose $50-75, so prospective academic users should note that "specials" are sometimes offered, typically at the beginning of each quarter, via the company mailing list. Volume discounts are available that drop prices 40-60 percent.
• GetARef ($129 student, $299 regular), from DatAid AB of Sweden; offers some notes management features absent from the big three ISI products; can use more than one database file in a single manuscript.  Like ProCite, GetARef can search more than one database file simultaneously.
•  Library Master ($199 educational; $129 students) plus another $99 for BookWhere module.  Was slow to move from DOS to Windows.
• Other offerings include  Refs (no recent developments), ResourceMate ($150; $300 for Pro version), and Scribe (limited to APA, MLA, and ISO styles).  
• RefWorks is a web-based reference manager that requires prospective users to contact for prices. WriteNote is a web-based annual subscription service offered by ISI.
  
• Bibliographic managers for specific fields also exist, e.g., legal researchers would probably be better served with 1 of the 3 versions of CiteIt!  ($55 student version, $155 Advanced, $200 Pro).
• Yet another route to formated bibliographies is to produce documents using a LaTeX text editor and manage citations using a BibTeX databank and formatting program such as BibEdit, BibMan(ager), Bibview, or Bibibamos (German), or Sixpack (Sixpack can import from and export to Endnote). This route is unfamiliar to many Windows users because it originated within the Unix operating system environment and receives far more attention from Linux users.  It's also a bit more complicated to use: a LaTeX text editor is not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processor; instead, it is a (fairly simple) typesetting language. Users who are willing to explore LaTeX and BibTeX are rewarded, however, with access to a world of often free and cheap software that produces documents that look professionally typeset. Lyx and WinEdt are two document processing programs that utilize BibTeX. 

Consult the reviews below for more information about bibliographic software.

• enthusiastic review of Nota Bene suite, Endnote, Procite, Reference Manager, GetARef by Felix Grant, Spring 2002  [this link is not readable in older versions of Netscape; use Opera or IE], who demonstrates his enthusiasm for several products by suggesting EndNote to download references, Biblioscape to format a temporary RTF document, and WordPerfect or Nota Bene to produce a final document
• very favorable overview of Biblioscape 5 including some screen shots by Tom Wilson, May 2002, though no comparison of the several versions of Biblioscape
• Endnote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Library Master, and Papyrus reviewed in somewhat pedantic detail by Francesco Dell'Orso, University of Perugia, Oct 2001. The site begins with a few remarks on the general ideas behind bibliographic software; it also has an extensive collection of related links.
• quick comparison (2001) of Endnote, Procite, and Reference Manager showing substantial convergence in these three programs owned by ISI; see also a similar, slightly more recent University of Oregon Comparison of Endnote and Procite
• very favorable review of the Nota Bene suite by Mark D. Szuchman, Nov. 2000, Journal of the Association of History and Computing
• 3 ISI programs evaluated clearly by  Peter Evans, 2000, who rated ProCite most highly.
• 10 programs reviewed thoroughly by Maggie Shapland, University of Bristol, 28 July 1999, who rated Biblioscape most highly, followed by Endnote.
• Nature review (29 July 1999) by 6 reviewers of Bibliographica 6.5, Bookends Plus 5, Bookwhere? 2000 3.0 (beta), Citation 7.0, EndNote 3.0.1, Papyrus 7.0, ProCite 4.03 and Reference Manager 9.0 (beta)
• 11 programs surveyed (5 evaluated more closely) by John G. Norman et al., in Berkeley's Chorus online magazine in 1998.
• over 20 programs reviewed briefly by Steve Osborn, Indiana University in January 1998; includes some links for each program.
• an evaluation of Scholar's Aid, 1999
• Some references from the 1980s and 1990s about bibliographic software

interviewing and transcription software

writing a questionnaire

Remark Office OMR ($699) is an SPSS module similar to Pinpoint.

Sphinx Survey  design, administer, process and analyze paper-based or on-screen questionnaires. Enter responses rapidly and  perform an automatic examination of the  data, including summary tables, graphs and analysis of reports. A more sophisticated version called Lexica aims to handle interviews with longer responses, more sophisticated lexical analysis.  Additional modules for internet, multimedia, scanner, data management, and syntactic analysis.

administering web-based surveys

• Perception
• The Survey System ($49 trial; $499 Basic; $999 Professional).  Computer aided telephone interviewing package, with additional modules for statistics ($200), email and web page surveys ($500), voice capture module ($500), and telephone interviewing module ($1500).  The Basic version is for surveys whose answers have 10 or fewer choices; the Pro version allows up to 500 possible answers and it groups respondents' answers by categories.
• Ci3 ($500 version handles 100 variables; $2000 version handles 250 variables) computer aided telephone interviewing.  A separate web interviewing module (CiW) handles 50 questions ($3000).  More advanced versions of either are available.
• Results for Research and Results for the Net (prices by inquiry).

computer transcriptions from tape

• Express Scribe (free) audio playback control software designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings. Can be controlled using the keyboard (with 'hot' keys) and/or foot pedals
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Scan Soft) Comes in five versions ($60, $100, $200, $696, $996).

• AutoComplete ($50) Offers a user-centered version of the AutoCorrect command in MS Word. Program learns previously typed words automatically and suggests appropriate words for auto completion based on previous typing and any user-programmed shortcuts.
  
• Microsoft OneNote ($49 educational; $80 on amazon). Program records sound simultaneous with typing of notes or commentary.
  

storage, backups

Figure out how much space your folders and files occupy using TreeSize (freeware) or STG FolderPrint Plus $22; the latter as well as TreeSize Professional ($35, includes all updates) include several features of a broader file management tool: printing more detailed reports; exporting results to Excel, HTML or ASCII; more complicated searches and filtering; what-if analysis of alternative disk size.

Backup software comes in two flavors: software that you use to back up important files (partial backup) and software that you use to mirror an entire drive (complete backup), typically to a secondary hard drive.  Examples of partial backup software include:

• Argentum Backup ($25) tray tool that does backups, manual or automatic, into a Zip format -- rather than a proprietary format that could leave you stranded
• InterBack ($29)  features automatic backups to an offsite location such as a university.
• Avantrix Backup Plus ($40) named backups according to the system date, password protection, backup tracking and full backup logging; restore to original or alternative location.
• Iomega QuikSync ($40) automatically backup revisions of your work; can save a specified or unlimited number of previous backups; CANNOT backup using CD-RW disks without additional software such as Adaptec DirectCD.

• Powerquest DriveCopy ($50) marketed as a tool to speed transfer of all programs and data to a new hard drive; works with drives up to 80 GB
• Symantec Norton Ghost ($70) copies of new files can be added to previously created images of the entire drive, eliminating the need to reclone the entire disk; can also erase an entire drive.
• Backup Exec Desktop Pro (Veritas; $129; 30-day trial; free support lasts only 30 days after purchase) includes features such as the ability to rebuild the contents of an entire drive or system without reinstalling and peer-to-peer protection of a small network of computers.

Here are the main storage options, roughly in order of increasing size:

1. Floppies hold 1.44 MB, but you can compress multiple files into a single zip file using WinZip ($29, 21-day trial), WinAce ($29), PKZip ($40), or a similar compression utility, to store 2-3 times that amount per floppy.  (Unlike earlier Windows operating systems, Windows XP includes a simple compression utility: right click on the desktop, create a new Compressed Folder). Compression ratios for some applications are higher; database files, for example, can often compress to 4-5 times the original.  A compression utility, either stand-alone or integrated into another program, is a useful first step in any backup method, not just floppies.

2. Even with compression, floppies increasingly have too little memory.  Personal USB flash memory devices need no cables or batteries and come in several shapes and memory sizes, including IBM Memory Key (8MB; $44-$49) -- most convenient for Windows ME and 2000 users (though it will not work at all with Windows NT) because it requires no special software drivers (for Windows 98 and earlier, IBM-supplied drivers do need to be installed) -- Agaté Technologies Q (16-64MB; $70-200) and Trek 2000 Thumbdrive (16MB for $69; 128MB for $400, 256-512-1028MB sizes also available; Feb 2001 review), either of which do require installation of special drivers for all version of Windows, whether via CD, floppy, or download from the company website. Some, such as DiskOnKey include a CPU in the device, making it possible to run applications from within the storage unit. For larger capacity, either the  cheap and small USB Drive (128 MB, $80) or DiskonKey (in seven sizes from 8MB to 512 MB for $500). A handy comparison chart shows JetFlash A as having the cheapest price/MB in this segment.

3. For storage guarding against on-site disasters, a more convenient alternative to putting disks in a lock box at the local bank is electronically transferring the files offsite.  Commercial versions of such locations are known as an "online storage box", a "virtual hard drive", or "internet drive".  Free online storage, such as Yahoo Briefcase (30MB) is the simplest route.  Free online storage service may be better than no backup at all, but keep in mind that companies can cancel a free service at any time (e.g., formerly free FileGenie (50MB) became $2.99/30 days, my docs online (20 MB) became $9.95/quarter, Xdrive and iDrive services became $4.95/month), offer a brief  free trial followed by murky pricing (e.g., StoragePoint's Webdrive), shift to a business model that does not include stand-alone back-up services (e.g., Connected TLM Service) or go out of business entirely (e.g., Atrieva's Filezone).

Slightly more expensive are online backup services, which automate the process of storing backups: iBackup ($30/year for 50MB,  BigVault ($36/year per 100 MB), @Backup ($50/year for 50 MB, $99/year for 100MB), SwapDrive ($90/year for 100MB), SystemSafe ($9.95/month), or FusionOne (became a business service provider).  Some universities offer similar services to their university affiliates, often at similar prices. Biggest complaint: uploading may be quite slow; e.g., perhaps an hour for every 100MB from a residential DSL line.

4. High-capacity floppies.  Not to be confused with compressed .zip files, Iomega's Zip disks (100MB, 250MB, 750 MB) and Jaz disks (1 GB and 2 GB) offer relatively large storage capacities, but they can be a big disappointment.  1) Defects: anecdotal evidence suggests that defect rates, both for Zip drives and Zip disks, are relatively high.  Iomega is very prompt about replacing defective hardware, but they will not be able to replace your lost data or compensate you for lost time.   2) Backward incompatibility across different versions of Windows: unlike floppies, zip disks do not allow you to move back and forth between FAT/FAT32 (Windows 95 and Windows 98) and NFTS (typical on Windows 2000) systems.  This means that content saved to zip disks from an older computer cannot be readily used on a newer computer, and vice versa.  3) Relatively low transfer speed:  Zip disks, especially external Zip drives, are slower than CD drives; file transfer rates are 0.5 MB/second (parallel port) to 0.9 MB/second (USB port, even with USB 2.0) for external Zip drives (parallel port); an internal Zip drive connected to the faster IDE bus is somewhat faster, maybe 2.4 MB/second.  4) More incompatibility: each disk size requires a different Zip drive.  For example, although the Zip 750 drive can read older Zip 100 MB disks, but it cannot write to those older disks.  5) Cost: Zip disks are sturdy -- unlike CDs, you do not need to worry about scratching them -- but they are also 5-10 times more expensive than CDs.

Extra small high capacity floppies are available from Sony.  A Memory Stick (128MB, $90) is only 2 inches long, less than 1 inch wide, and 1/10th of an inch thick; besides the high cost of memory sticks, the disadvantages is that users must also buy something to read the Memory stick, either a MSAC-PC2 reader ($70) or a slower MSAC-US5 optical mouse ($90).

5. Another especially small storage device, marketed primarily for music collections, DataPlay is a write-once format on 500 MB disks the size of a US quarter ($5 each for a pack of ten).  The player/recorder typically costs $350.

6. CD-R and CD-RW disks hold 650-700 MB of data.  A CD that can write at 40X speeds can transfer about 6 MB/second. Be aware that CD-RW discs aren't readable on all CD drives (unless you install the software it was written with), and that CD-RW discs written in small packets (rather than all at once) may not be readable under some operating systems. CD-R, which often costs less than a tenth of CD-RW, is more sensible for longer-term backup. Baby CD-RW (Amacom Technologies) is a minature and portable CD-RW drive (4X speed).  Universal Disk Format (UDF) packet writing software such as Adaptec's Direct CD is a common choice for data backups.   Background info at McFadden's CD-Recordable FAQ. Remember that CD drives cannot read or write DVDs.

7. The main drawback being that they are so far less commonly used, removable hard disks (also known as cartridge-based drives) such as Castlewood ORB are less expensive than the first-generation Jaz drive, use less expensive disks ($29), transfers data faster (12.2 MB/sec), and yet offer more storage per disk (2.2 gigabytes).  Available in EIDE ($150) and Ultra SCSI ($160) internal versions and Ultra SCSI ($180) and USB ($200) external versions.  The drive and removable disks are just as small as Iomega's original Zip or Jaz drives: the drive is only 6.5" long and the disks are only 3.5".  Other examples include Iomega's Peerless (20 GB; $400; 15 MB/sec with Fire Wire), Amacom's Flipdisk (9GB; $400), Toshiba's Type II PC Card Hard Disk (5GB; $500), and the KanguruDisk (80GB).

8. Already displacing CD storage are disks created using rewritable DVD drives.  Faster and with much larger capacity than CD-R and CD-RW, and with even greater space devoted to error correction, rewritable DVD's have been hampered only by three competing standards.  The DVD+RW standard, probably the most promising of the three for most computer users, tends to be somewhat faster; like DVD-RW, it writes one-sided disks of 4.7 GB, two-sided disks of 9 GB. Most DVD drives can read most kinds of DVDs and CDs; a few makers have begun to offer drives that can read and write all of the competing DVD standards; consult an up-to-date compatibility chart to be sure. CD drives, by contrast, generally CANNOT read or write to DVDs.

Be aware that rewritable disks (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) are are rated for only 1000 re-writes. If you rewrite several times every day on a CD-RW, for example, it may fail within a year. Although the older DVD-RAM, by contrast, was designed to withstand 100,000 rewrites, it cannot function as a CD-RW drive

9. External drives without removable cartridges are simpler than removable hard disks.  They provide on-site back-ups only, not portability. Typical external drives weigh about 5 pounds, such as Maxtor Personal Storage LE (40 GB, USB 2.0, $199), LaCie USB hard drives (60GB, $229), or CMS Peripherals' ABSplus for Desktops (80GB, USB 2).

For portability, portable hard drives ("pocket" size external drives)  weighing 1 pound or less are also available, including the fast LaCie Pocket Drive (handles both Fire Wire and USB, 48 GB, 25 MB/sec., $699; TEL 503 844 4500), the CMS Peripherals Automatic Backup System Plus (40GB, USB 1.1 and 2.0, 5.8 ounces, $442), the small and cheap but slower Titanium Pokey Drive (USB, 20GB; 1.5MB/sec; $250), the heavier QPS Quad Slim Portable Drive (Fire Wire, 30GB; 400 Mbps; weighs 1.5 pound), and the disassembly-required Iomega HDD Portable Hard Drive (20GB, under 1 MB/sec with USB 1.1, $200).

10. Although tape drives are reliable -- tapes in good conditions can be expected to last as long as thirty years -- and easy to automate, tape drives never expanded much beyond servers and some workstations. Tecmar no longer sells Travan drives ($575 external), which stored 10/20 GB on a $35 tape and supported read-while-write and hardware compression, with throughput of 1 MB/sec. Exabyte VZA-1 Tape Drive is one possibility.

11. For greater storage capacity, look for IBM's new ruthenium-dusted Travelstar drives -- called antiferromagnetically coupled (AFC) and first introduced for notebooks -- once they begin to appear in removable drives. Separately, optical disk drives that store up to 30 GB per disk have been previewed by Toshiba, Sony/Pioneer, and Matsushita and may appear by 2003.

security

Theft recovery:  A computer that is stolen and subsequently connected to the internet can often be recovered if the computer has some sort of tracking software already installed.

• PC PhoneHome Lite (free) sends periodic emails to an address you designate; however, the Lite edition won't withstand a simple reformatting of the hard drive;
• PC PhoneHome Pro ($30 one time fee; Brigadoon Software) sends periodic emails to an address you designate, and does claim to survive hard drive reformatting
• P.P.I.R.T. Security Suite ($30; Cybergroup) The Password Protection Information Retrieval Technology suite includes 2048-bit encrytion, email notification for theft recovery found in other programs, a password manager, and a file deletion utility.
• ComputracePlus ($50 for 1 year; $150 for 4 years; 1-800-220-0733) option to delete data from a stolen machine; claims 95% recovery rate
• MobileSecure e-Service ($20; $15 on Amazon; Lucira Technologies) Lucira's own website seems to be down

web logs and peer-to-peer

Collaborative peer-to-peer file sharing was one of the original drivers of the academic internet.  Commercial providers of business oriented peer-to-peer include Consilient, Groove Networks, NextPage, Socialtext, and WorldStreet. 

Research teams might consider establishing a public or private wiki to facilitate web-based collaboration. A wiki runs on wiki server software, many varieties of which exist, including TWiki and PmWiki.
 

FINDING INFORMATION

Search tools

For quick searches, the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (free) makes Google even easier to use; toolbar searches of Google and other search engines are available within the Opera browser. For proximity searching (not available with Google), use AltaVista. 

Determine the best general search engine for your information needs. SUNY at Albany has a nice overview of How to Choose a Search Engine.

Consult ZD Net's Search Tools or Search Engine Reviews, Ratings & Tests or Search Engine Showdown for up-to-date information on the relative performance of various search engines.

Tools and tips for research trips

For notetaking in the field, an alternative to a new notebook computer is a bare-bones portable word processor.  You type data into plain text files, then upload to a regular PC.  Advantages include:  1) purchase price is one-tenth the price of a laptop  2) it can run 200-500 hours on AA batteries  3) it weighs less: only 1-3 pounds  4) most offer free 2-week trials.

• QuickPad ($200) weighs 1 pound; 4AA batteries last 400 hours; total capacity 70 pages of text in up to 10 files; lacks Cut, Copy, or Paste commands.  The newer QuickPAD Pro ($299) weighs 1.5 pounds, has a larger screen, and includes email software and built-in modem; 4 AA batteries last 200 hours; memory is expandable beyond the basic QuickPad with 8-128 compact flash memory cards ($30-100), which can be read from the USB port of a PC using a $30 memory card reader device; telephone for academic discounts (800) 373-8181
• AlphaSmart keyboard ($215-250; 2 pounds; free 2-week trial period; call 888-274-0680 or 408-252-9400, 6am-5pm PST).  Runs 200-500 hours on 3AA batteries.  File storage, however, is relatively limited:  total storage is 8 files, each with up to 10 pages of text.  Cables can be purchased for both serial port and USB connections, and the higher-priced model includes infrared (wireless) connections.  Add-on program called Get ($20) allows you to load files INTO AlphaSmart for on-the-road edits.
• Calcuscribe ($240 Uno; $280 Duo)  3 pounds; hinged screen offers more flexible viewing angles; capacity is 50 pages of text; 4AA batteries last 300 hours on the Uno, only 50 hours on the Duo
• Laser PC6  ($290-325) 2.75 pounds;  can switch from 4-line to 8-line display mode; capacity of 45 documents totalling 100 pages; includes simple speadsheet, database, and calculator programs; memory cartridges ($40) can add 200 pages of capacity

A third possibility is to use a 5-ounce Palm M125 ($199), plus an 8-ounce Palm M500 collapsible keyboard ($99), plus Documents To Go software ($70) in order to read and edit Word/Excel/Powerpoint files, plus a HotSync cradle ($30 serial port, $50 USB port) and HotSync cable ($20).  Base models come with 8MB of memory, 16MB expansion cards ($40) available separately.

With more money or borrowing power, light-weight portables from IBM, HP, Compaq, Sony, Sharp and Toshiba are clearly the way to go.  For example, an IBM X Series ThinkPad (3-pounds, 1 inch thick) has a 12.1-inch screen in a titanium case.
 

Computer utilities

startup manager programs offer a more streamlined way to control which programs and drivers launch at startup, e.g., Startup Sentry ($25) or Startup Genie ($33).

ANALYZING INFORMATION

Qualitative analysis

Instead, an older generation of textual code-and-retrieve software tools have continued to evolve in relative isolation from innovations in search engines and text mining.  Sage Publications Software (Scolari), a British firm, offers several prominent qualitative research software programs including Atlas ti, The Ethnograph ,  QSR NUD*IST Vivo 1.2 , and HyperRESEARCH.  For each of these tools, the user reads through the target text and codes each section by adding annotations to each section, e.g., key themes, issues, questions, or claims.  Such programs typically go beyond mere retrieval of coded data to facilitate theory-building, but the coding continues to rely almost entirely on human judgement.
 
 

program	US$	features
ClusterClick  10 day trial	39	full-text indexing program that includes display of spatial proximity for up to 100 documents per search
Concordance, 30 day trial	99	make word lists, word frequency lists, indexes, flexible concordances, web-ready concordances, can handle other languages including East Asian
Atlas ti	395 educational 715 standard	mindmapping, annotation, hyperlinks, Boolean searches, hierarchical browser for textual, graphical, audio, and video data
Kwalitan		Developed in the Netherlands by Vincent Peters
QSR NViVo	425 educational  701 standard	rich, editable text/multimedia  with finely focused searching, hyperlinking, modeling, and code-based theorizing; create, edit, code and explore compound documents that have embedded hyperlinks to multi-media files and complex webs of links between data and ideas
QSR NUD*IST 4 (N4)	235 student 325 educational 535 standard	split screen editing facilitates systematic analysis of large amounts of qualitative data; manages non-numerical, unstructured data with powerful processes of indexing, searching, and theorizing; import and export facilities for statistics, database, and table-handling programs (such as SPSS, Excel, MS-Access); node-based analysis;
MARTIN 2.0	free  test (1996)	projects are based on physical association between the parts of an analysis rather than on formal labeling structures
ResearchWare/HyperRESEARCH	360	code-and-retrieve data analysis program, for text or multimedia, with additional theory building features (Hypothesis Tester)
WinMAX  free trial	Ł85 student Ł175 educational Ł220 standard
Code-A-Text

Ethno 2 (free), a program that can be used online or offline to analyze sequential events

reviews:
Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) Networking Project
a 1998 comparison of Nud*ist and Atlas/ti
Eben A. Weitzman, Matthew B. Miles.  Computer Programs for Qualitative Data Analysis : A Software Sourcebook (1995).
 

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) software is a workplace tool used to analyze a business application such as the management of a database.  Business researchers might find the "functional decomposition diagram" (Visible Systems) useful for database-driven organizational charts and enterprise modeling, e.g., SilverRun (currently free) and Visible Analyst Workbench (student edition 800-333-8984, ext 304), lets the user design the architechture of a business. Configuration management software  includes Razor, ClearCase, Continuus, SourceSafe, PVCS.
 

quantitative analysis

queries, data analysis, data mining

SuperQuery (7 day trial).  The Office edition of SuperQuery ($149) directly reads MS-Access, and MS-Excel.  The Discovery edition ($449.95) directly reads MS-Access, xBASE, Borland Paradox,  MS-Excel, and Text Files as well as most of the other databases through ODBC drivers.

Insightful Miner a new product from the makers of S-Plus

statistics

1) relying upon the extensive and free interactive statistics resources at Statistics.com or the VassaarStats: Web Site for Statistical Computation or listed at John C. Pezzullo's Free Statistical Software page.
2) using a unix-based statistics package on a university server.
3) using a spreadsheet program.  See these basic tips and cautions about using Excel for statistical analysis.

a) On the plus side, Excel is a fine spreedsheet program that includes basic statistics functions; it even has some advantages over more powerful statistics programs in the construction of PivotTables [go to this link's appendix].   Commands such as Conditional Formatting (under the Format menu) are useful for exploratory data analysis.  With some tweaking, some more advanced graphical analysis (e.g., box-and-whisker plots), can also be conducted with Excel.   Dedicated Excel users may also want to take advantage of some of the free or inexpensive Excel add-ins such as the Power Utility Pak ($39.95) or Microsoft's own subscription-based Analyse-it (30 day evalutation period; student price: $25 for 1 year, $40 for 2 years, $70 indefinite).  A more full-featured add-in to Excel, which can also be used as a standalone program, is Unistat (prices unknown), a quite limited demo version requires a password from the company.  Yet another option is DataDesk/XL ($50).

b) On the minus side, although Excel is ok for some descriptive statistics (e.g., hypothesis tests for means, probability functions), limitations to be aware of include:  1) if you are performing multiple analyses on your data, you may have to re-format your spreadsheet repeatedly  2) many kinds of statistical analysis can only be done one column at a time  3) output is not documented to show how the result was reached and is not well organized for later use  4) missing values aren't handled consistently and can lead to errors in the results  5) Microsoft deliberately designed Excel's statistical functions to be relatively inaccurate.  Serious errors can crop up if Excel is used for regression analysis or ANOVA.

• SAS  (call 919-677-8000) an integrated suite including spreadsheets, graphics, data analysis, report writing, database access, and other component modules. For background information, see SAS Information Guides (York University).
• SPSS 12 ($600 academic for Base edition; still $150-200 student?) Began as a mainframe program in the 1960s, has an increasingly baroque, even bloated, menu-driven interface; handles up to 36,000 variables, unlimited cases; 800-543-2185 for info, but buy at a campus store.  Warning:  the "academic" version direct from SPSS is limited to 50 variables, 1500 cases.  Users focused on time series capabilities should consider the "Business" version of the Grad Pak, since the Trends module includes ARIMA, AREG. Conversely, the Advanced Models module has all the general linear model capabilities.  Users cannot get both Trends and Advanced Models without paying much more. Fortunately: online help is pretty good;  manuals are very expensive.  SPSS is also the distributor for Systat, which has some nice graphics.
• Stata 8 ($129 academic Intercooled if order thru a GradPlan)  Version 8 includes menu-driven interface AND traditional command-line access.  v-powerful analysis tools, especially model fit diagnostics.  Graphics, a weak feature in previous versions of Stata, have moved much closer to "publication quality" in version 8.  Used in many fields; a limited version (only 1,000 cases; only 99 variables) is available for $55 ($39 for one year); imports only from ASCII.  The difference between Small Stata ($55 thru GradPlan) and Intercooled Stata ($129 thru GradPlan) is the size of dataset that you may analyze. Small Stata is limited to analyzing datasets with a maximum of 99 variables on approximately 1,000 observations. Intercooled Stata can analyze datasets with as many as 2,047 variables, 800 x 800 matrices, and variables with up to 80-character strings.  Complete set of manuals, which includes many worked examples and some citations to recent research, costs an additional  $125 thru GradPlan.  NEW: an even more powerful version of the program, Stata Special Edition Stata/SE ($279 thru GradPlan), can handle 32,766 variables, 11,000 x 11,000 matrices, and 244-character string variables.  Discounts on upgrades to the more powerful "flavor" were $55 cheaper until April 30, 2002.  Individuals can buy Stata more cheaply as part of a group order.

• R  (free!)  If you've never used a statistics program before, R might seem insufficiently intuitive, but for anyone who has struggled through other stats programs, R is definitely worth a look.  R is a freeware environment of software tools for data analysis and graphical display based on the S language originally developed by Bell Labs. R resembles S-Plus, a commercial implementation of the S language sold by Insightful Corporation, with a few differences: R has static rather than dynamic memory (which makes R faster than S-Plus, but less robust when saving or if something crashes); S-Plus has even better graphics than R.  See the first appendix of the R manual for a brief tutorial.
• S-Plus (free download for students) student version is limited to 20,000 data points and expires after one year; regular pricing is only by inquiry.  Strong graphics, model fit diagnostics, and time series tools in a general package.
• Statistica ($75 student version; $795 base product) often top-rated software, with several expensive modules also available, including advanced models, design of experiments, neural networks.  Relatively high prices have slowed diffusion of this otherwise excellent product.
• DataDesk ($99 students; $390 faculty) visualization and exploratory data analysis package that combines relational database drilldowns with interactive statistical analysis
• GraphPad InStat ($79) an inexpensive statistics program with step-by-step guidance, results presented with prose in addition to numbers, and a check list to review the meaning and soundness of the results.  Aimed foremost at biostatisticians, but the low price and friendly interface might satisfy a wide range of users.
• BMDP (prices only by inquiry) acquired by SPSS, then sold to Meridian Marketing, this is a point and click approach that hotlinks plots, data tables, and statistical analyses -- changes in a plot or data table immediately cause corresponding changes in the other areas.

• WinBUGS (free; but register for unrestricted version); use WinBUGS in conjunction with R (or S-Plus) when you want to do Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations.  Command syntax also has a great deal of overlap with R, though the help and worked examples are better than anything available for R.  BUGS/WinBUGS is a powerful Gibbs sampler (after all, that's its name: Bayesian inference Using Gibbs Sampling), but it has only a small set of commands, and WinBUGS convergence testing, summary statistics, and graphics are relatively limited.  After preliminary convergence testing using the "diag" command within WinBUGS (which only computes z-scores), one typically imports the bugs.out file into one of the free and menu-driven modules based on the more expansive R and S-Plus environments:  CODA for S-Plus (Convergence Diagnostic and Output Analysis), Coda for R, or BOA (Bayesian Output Analysis).
• Bayesian Analysis, Computation, and Communication ; free add-on to Matlab, Gauss, S-Plus, or R.
• Econometric Software
• Gauss (Aptech Systems) 3.5 for matrices in econometrics; compare econometric programming packages such as S-Plus, TSP, E-Views, Ox, Matlab, or Octave; Vinod (2000) noted computational innaccuracies even in linear regressions and t-values, suggested Gauss takes about 2 weeks to learn and compared it to learning Fortran or the C programming language.  Modules available for additional calculations including MAXLIK for maximum likelihood, NLSYS for solving non-linear systems of equations, and OPTMUM for optimizing a function.
• LIMDEP 7.0 ($595 academic) econometrics: regression;  cross section, time series, panel data, maximum likelihood
• Mathematica ($140 students; $895 academic). See the Mathematica Tutorial (Merriam Lab at the University of Illinois). For intro calculus, see Calculus and Mathematica Home Page (University of Illinois Math Department).
• EViews Basics ($395) and EViews ($895) relatively easy to use point-and-click econometrics package based on object oriented programming; the high-end version includes database functionality.  Student version has limitations, but costs only $40.
• Oriana (Exeter Software), circular statistics ($125)
• SCA Forecasting and Modeling Package for Personal Computers  (call 312-455-0222) time series analysis, several modules including for high-end graphics
• Scientific Notebook ($99 students, $129 academic), which is part of Scientific Workplace ($230 student): word process and compute complex mathematical expressions within a single environment; requires either the MuPAD or Maple computer algebra engine, at additional cost.
• Matlab, JMP (from SAS), PV-WAVE,

• ModSim, model simulator software ($150; $100 students):  specialized tool for visualizing a mathematical model; can paste results into MS Word
• SigmaPlot ($499 academic) from SPSS; quantitative graphics; can use Excel worksheets inside; 800-543-2185
• Prism ($449) a hybrid program with lots of basic statistics, plus many but not all of the graphics features in SigmaPlot; see Prism vs. SigmaPlot comparison (by Prism)
• TableCurve 2D and 3D Suite ($699 academic) from SPSS; 2-D and 3-D curve fitting; 2D or 3D purchased separately cost $449 each (academic)

An alphabetical list of links to many statistical software providers appears on the Stata website.  A similar list, annotated with comments, appears on the Econometrics Journal website.  Clickly.com has a more business-oriented list of data analysis tools. NIST has a list of mathematical packages mostly from NETLIB and ITL.

When moving statistics data from one software package to another, two programs that can do the job are

• Stat/Transfer ($49 students; $149 academic), transfers data to/from spreadsheets such as Excel and databases such as Access, as well as among  Stata, SAS, and SPSS.  Also handles Access, ASCII (delimited), dBase, Epi Info, Excel, FoxPro, Gauss, HTML, JMP, LIMDEP, Lotus 1-2-3, Matlab, Mineset, Minitab, ODBC data sources, Osiris, Paradox, Quattro Pro, S-Plus, Statistica, and Systat.  Identical version can also be ordered from Stata.
• DBMS/Copy  ($295; Conceptual Software, Houston, TX)    When Stat/Transfer is not enough...

spatial analysis

• EasyGPS (free) connect Garmin, Magellan, or Lowrance GPS to mapping and information sites on the Internet; upgrade to ExpertGPS (two-week trial; $60; option pack that allows ArcView .shp export for additional $40)
• Mapland ($60 for the basic program; $500 package includes all available map templates) is a simple Excel-based mapping program
• AGIS for Windows ($49; 30-day trial; includes upgrades for 2 years; volume discounts available); supports Arc Export .e00, Arc Generate .gen, Map Info .mif/.mid, South African National exchange standard .nes, and Garmin GPS files.  Can convert scanned images using a public utility such as windig.
• Manifold ($245) has many features and is much cheaper than most full GIS programs (discussed below). Integrated GPS capabilitity, boasts editing features at least comparable to a CAD drawing program. Also prides itself on being the "most Windows" based of all full GIS programs.

Several companies offer big GIS program suites (costing over $1,000) and service packages, each of which has somewhat different features and preferred applications.

• Intergraph (Huntsville, AL) offers GeoMedia Web Map  which allows users to obtain and analyze GIS information from multiple sources; the GeoMedia program module, some data, and technical support are available free to academic users.
• ESRI (Redlands, CA), makers of ArcInfo/ArcView and the free ArcExplorer had early strengths, and remains very popular, in the environmental sciences, but for many new users the ESRI learning curve is unjustifiably steep, especially after ESRI in 2001 entirely abandoned the more user-friendly Atlas desktop program ESRI had acquired a few years earlier in hopes of attracting less sophisticated users.
• MapInfo (Troy, NY) offers relatively user-friendly desktop mapping tools favored in demography, geology, and business analysis.  [April 1999 Mapinfo vs ArcView comparison and a 1997 "architectural" comparison].  Vertical Mapper adds some analytic tools to MapInfo.  Autodesk World is another high-end desktop program. Maptitude ($399) is a less expensive desktop alternative targeting government, business, less-specialized educational users; the package includes some free data sets.

Many other GIS companies and data formats have existed:  Advent software, Arc/Info, ArcheoDATA, ARGUS, Arkeoplan, Atlas, AutoCAD, CALPLOT, dBASEIII, DMS Stereodigitiser, EPPL7, ERDAS, FoxPro, Genamap, GEODIS, GEOSOFT, GRASS, IDRISI, INFORMIX, Intergraph MGE, MAPS, MAP II, Mapfactory, MOSS, MVArch, Oracle, OSU-Map, PC Map, PCI, PLOT-10, ROOTS, SAS, SaTScan software, SDR Map, SERRL, SITEMODL, SOAR, Softdesk, SPANS, SPOT, STGMP, Surfer, SURFIT, VB-GIS, VISA, WAMS, Winchester Graphics.

A few more programs:

• GeoCommunity is an information site that includes some free downloads
• The Geographical Analysis Machine from the University of Leeds is a free explorary analysis tool.
• PopMap and MapScan, developed with support from the United Nations to bring easy-to-use GIS functionality to developing countries are available free of charge to academic institutions.
• SpaceStat is a DOS-based program for doing statistical analysis on spatial data that links with ArcView for graphical analysis.
• S-Plus is a leading statistical program that can be used for exploratory spatial analysis.
• GS+ for Windows ($499)  is a comprehensive geostatistics program for environmental and social sciences with semivariance analysis, kirging, and mapping.

temporal analysis

simulation software

• One exceptionally easy-to-use program is The MachK Neural Network Problem Solver ($149; trial version available), which has wizards for easy construction of what-if analyses of numerical data that can be imported from a spreadsheet or database.
• A more powerful general-use simulation program is Mathematica ($140 students; $895 academic); the Mathematica Link for Excel add-on allows users to share files with Excel.

•  Simul8 (Visual Thinking International) $495 for business simulations
•  Taylor Enterprise Dynamics 2000; they offer a free student version
•  Witness (Lanner) business process and throughput analysis
•  SIMPROCESS (free limited demo version available)
•  HiMASS
  

An overview of typical simulation programs is available at EuroSim Simulation Links and more information at Simul8 Simulation Links.

Several reviews of AgentSheets, Swarm, Ascape, Repast and other programs for simulation of complex systems.
 

PRESENTING RESEARCH

Document software

Presentation software

presentation advice

• "How to Talk", Kevin Clarke
• Public Speakers' Page sample speeches and other links
• E*Speechwriter collection of links for last-minute definitions, quotations, facts
• Garbl's Writing Resources Online
• see the brief notes taken in a seminar by Edward R. Tufte; more Tufte seminar notes; an article in Salon on Tufte and a longer set of notes on Tufte's principles; consult books by Tufte
• William S. Cleveland: Home Page Cleveland's work includes attention, missing in Tufte's work, to the psychology of information graphics
• Information Visualization (2001) Robert Spence focuses on computer-generated information and interactive information
• 117 Ideas for Better Business Presentations, Tom Kirby
• Allyn and Bacon public speaking website:  modules to assess, analyze, research, organize, and deliver a presentation
• some advice from a Hewlett Packard corporate speaking trainer PowerSpeaking, Frederick Gilbert
  

   
  

intellectual property

BUYING SOFTWARE

Miscellaneous
 

• http://www.hubcast.com Print the material you put together and deliver it to whomever and wherever you need it delivered

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