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45 Software Tools for Writing Thesis

Boost Your Thesis Writing with Essential Software Tools

Dr. Sowndarya Somasundaram

Writing a thesis is a significant milestone in any academic journey. It demands an immense amount of dedication, research, and organization. To streamline your thesis writing process and ensure a well-crafted and cohesive document, it’s crucial to equip yourself with the right software tools. In this article, iLovePhD will explore some of the most important software tools you need to effectively write your thesis. These tools encompass a range of areas, including research, writing, organization, and productivity. Let’s dive in!

Discover the must-have software tools for writing a successful thesis. Streamline your research and boost productivity today!

Master Your Thesis Writing with These Essential Software Tools

1. reference management software.

Comprehensive reference management software , such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote, is a must-have tool for any thesis writer. These tools help you organize and manage your references efficiently, generate citations in different formats, and create a bibliography effortlessly. They save time, eliminate the risk of citation errors, and facilitate the seamless integration of references into your thesis. Here is a list of the top ten reference management software tools:

Zotero is a free and open-source reference management tool that helps you collect, organize, and cite research sources. It has a user-friendly interface and offers features like web browser integration and collaboration options.

1.2 EndNote

EndNote is a popular reference management software used by researchers, students, and librarians. It allows you to store, organize, and format bibliographic references, and it offers a wide range of citation styles.

1.3 Mendeley

Mendeley is a reference manager and academic social network. It enables you to organize your references, collaborate with others, and discover new research articles. Mendeley offers both free and premium versions.

1.4 RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool that helps you store and organize your references. It offers features like citation formatting, collaboration options, and document sharing.

Citavi is a comprehensive reference management and knowledge organization tool. It allows you to manage references, create citations, and organize your research materials. Citavi is commonly used by students and researchers.

JabRef is an open-source reference manager that specializes in handling bibliographies in BibTeX format. It is cross-platform compatible and offers features like customizable citation styles and integration with LaTeX editors.

1.7 ReadCube Papers

ReadCube Papers is a reference management tool that focuses on enhancing the reading experience of research papers. It offers features like PDF annotation, article discovery, and cloud-based reference syncing.

1.8 Paperpile

Paperpile is a reference manager designed specifically for Google Docs and Google Scholar. It provides seamless integration with Google services and offers features like citation formatting and collaboration tools.

Colwiz is a reference management, collaboration, and research discovery platform. It allows you to organize your references, collaborate with colleagues, and discover new research articles.

Qiqqa is a reference management software that offers features like PDF management, annotation tools, and citation generation. It also includes advanced features like full-text search and note-taking capabilities.

These are just a few of the popular reference management software tools available. Each tool has its own unique features and capabilities, so it’s worth exploring them further to find the one that best suits your needs.

2. Word Processing Software:

While this might seem obvious, using powerful word-processing software is essential. Microsoft Word and Google Docs are popular choices due to their robust features and compatibility. These tools provide a professional writing environment, including features like spell check, grammar correction, formatting options, and word count tracking. Additionally, they offer collaborative features, making it easier to seek feedback from advisors or peers. Here are the top five word-processing software tools:

2.1 Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular and widely used word-processing software tools. It offers a comprehensive range of features for creating, editing, and formatting documents. It includes a user-friendly interface, collaboration tools, templates, and advanced formatting options.

2.2 Google Docs

Google Docs is a web-based word-processing tool offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online, collaborate in real-time, and easily share documents with others. Google Docs also provides cloud storage, offline access, and seamless integration with other Google services.

2.3 Apple Pages

Pages is the word processing software included in Apple’s iWork suite. It is designed specifically for macOS and iOS devices and offers a clean and intuitive interface. Apple Pages provide a variety of templates, advanced typography tools, collaboration features, and seamless integration with other Apple products.

2.3 LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is a free and open-source word processing software that is part of the larger LibreOffice suite. It offers a range of features comparable to Microsoft Word, including extensive formatting options, styles, templates, and compatibility with various document formats.

2.4 WPS Office Writer

WPS Office Writer is a popular word-processing tool that provides a free alternative to Microsoft Word. It offers a familiar interface, supports a wide range of file formats, and includes features such as document collaboration, templates, and extensive formatting options.

Please note that the popularity and preference for word processing software can vary depending on individual needs and preferences.

3. Research Databases and Search Engines:

Conducting thorough research is a cornerstone of thesis writing. Access to reliable research databases , such as PubMed, JSTOR, or IEEE Xplore, is vital. These platforms provide access to a vast array of scholarly articles, journals, books, and conference papers. Additionally, search engines like Google Scholar and Scopus can help you discover relevant literature and enhance your research capabilities. Here are the top five research databases and search engine tools commonly used:

PubMed is a widely used research database in the field of medicine and life sciences. It provides access to a vast collection of biomedical literature, including articles from scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings.

3.2 Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible search engine that indexes scholarly literature across various disciplines. It includes articles, theses, books, conference papers, and more. It provides a convenient way to search for academic resources from multiple sources.

3.3 IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore is a digital library that focuses on electrical engineering, computer science, and related disciplines. It provides access to a vast collection of technical documents, including journal articles, conference papers, standards, and ebooks.

3.4 ScienceDirec t

ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering access to a wide range of scholarly literature in various fields. It covers subjects such as physical sciences, engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences. ScienceDirect includes journals, books, and conference proceedings.

JSTOR is a digital library that provides access to a vast collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources across multiple disciplines. It covers subjects such as arts, humanities, social sciences, and more. JSTOR is particularly useful for historical research and accessing older publications.

These tools offer comprehensive access to scholarly literature and can be valuable resources for researchers, academics, and students. However, depending on your specific field or research area, there may be other specialized databases and search engines that are more relevant to your needs.

4. Note-Taking Tools

Keeping track of ideas, concepts, and findings is crucial during the research process. Note-taking tools like Evernote, OneNote, or Notion can be immensely helpful. These tools allow you to create and organize digital notes, attach files, insert images, and even collaborate with others. The ability to access your notes across different devices ensures seamless integration with your thesis writing workflow. Here are the top five note-taking tools commonly used in research:

4.1 Microsoft OneNote

OneNote is a versatile note-taking tool that allows you to create and organize notes in a free-form manner. It offers features such as text formatting, audio and video recording, image embedding, and cross-platform synchronization.

4.2 Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-taking tool that enables users to capture, organize, and search their notes across multiple devices. It offers features like text formatting, web clipping, file attachments, and collaboration options.

Zotero is a powerful research tool specifically designed for academic and research purposes. It allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share research materials such as articles, books, web pages, and more. It also integrates with word processors for easy citation management.

Notion is an all-in-one productivity tool that can be used for note-taking, task management, project planning, and more. It provides a flexible and customizable workspace where you can create and organize notes using a combination of text, tables, lists, media, and more.

4.5 Google Keep

Google Keep is a simple and lightweight note-taking tool that integrates well with other Google services. It offers basic note-taking features, including text, voice, and image notes, as well as checklists and reminders. It also syncs across devices and allows for easy collaboration.

These software tools provide various features and functionalities, so it’s worth exploring them to find the one that best fits your specific research needs and preferences.

5. Plagiarism Checkers

Maintaining academic integrity is of utmost importance when writing a thesis. Reference checkers like Grammarly and Turnitin can help ensure proper citation usage, prevent accidental plagiarism, and improve the overall quality of your writing. These tools provide detailed reports on potential issues and suggest corrections, thereby enhancing the credibility and originality of your work. There are several plagiarism checker tools available for researchers to ensure the originality of their work. Here is a list of ten popular plagiarism checker tools used in research :

5.1 Turnitin

Turnitin is one of the most widely used plagiarism detection tools, often integrated into educational institutions’ systems. It compares submitted work against a vast database of academic content, publications, and internet sources.

5.2 Grammarly

While primarily known as a grammar and writing assistance tool, Grammarly also offers a plagiarism checker feature. It scans the text for similarities against various online sources and provides a detailed report.

5.3 Copyscape

Copyscape is an online plagiarism checker used to detect copied content. It searches the web for matching content and provides a list of URLs where the content has been found.

5.4 Plagscan

Plagscan is a comprehensive plagiarism checker that compares documents against multiple sources, including academic journals, websites, and its extensive database. It offers a detailed report highlighting potential matches.

5.5 DupliChecker

DupliChecker is a free online plagiarism checker that scans the text against various online sources and offers a percentage of similarity along with highlighted matches.

5.6 Unicheck

Unicheck is a cloud-based plagiarism detection tool specifically designed for educational institutions. It compares submitted documents against a massive database to identify potential instances of plagiarism.

5.7 Quetext

Quetext is an AI-powered plagiarism checker that scans documents for similarities against an extensive database of academic content and web sources. It provides a detailed report with highlighted matches.

5.8 Plagiarism CheckerX

Plagiarism CheckerX is a software-based plagiarism detection tool that scans documents against online sources, academic databases, and publications. It offers an easy-to-understand report highlighting similarities.

5.9 WriteCheck

WriteCheck is a plagiarism checker developed by Turnitin. It allows users to submit their work and receive an originality report, indicating potential matches found in the database.

Viper is a free plagiarism checker that scans documents for similarities against online sources. It provides a detailed report and also offers additional features for academic users.

6. Project Management and Task Tracking software Tools:

Thesis writing involves managing numerous tasks, deadlines, and milestones. Employing project management and task tracking tools like Trello, Asana, or Todoist can greatly aid in staying organized. These tools enable you to create task lists, set deadlines, allocate priorities, and collaborate with others. Visualizing your progress and breaking down the writing process into smaller, manageable tasks boosts productivity and helps you meet your targets effectively. When it comes to project management and task tracking tools for thesis writing, there are several options available. Here are five popular ones:

Trello is a highly visual project management tool that allows you to organize tasks and projects on virtual boards. You can create lists, add cards for individual tasks, set due dates, and collaborate with others. Trello’s flexibility makes it suitable for organizing research materials, outlining chapters, and tracking progress.

Asana is a comprehensive project management tool that helps you track tasks, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and communicate with your team. It provides features such as task dependencies, subtasks, and file attachments, making it useful for managing complex thesis projects with multiple contributors.

6.3 Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a powerful project management software that offers robust features for planning, scheduling, and tracking projects. It allows you to create Gantt charts, set milestones, allocate resources, and monitor progress. While it may have a steeper learning curve compared to other tools, it offers extensive functionality for managing large-scale thesis projects.

6.4 Todoist

Todoist is a simple yet effective task-tracking tool that helps you create and manage to-do lists. It allows you to set due dates, prioritize tasks, and create recurring tasks. You can also collaborate with others by sharing tasks and adding comments. Todoist’s intuitive interface and cross-platform availability make it a popular choice for individual thesis writers.

6.5 Evernote

Although not strictly a project management tool, Evernote is a versatile note-taking application that can be invaluable for thesis writing. It allows you to capture and organize research notes, save web clippings, create to-do lists, and attach files. With its powerful search functionality and synchronization across devices, Evernote helps you stay organized and retrieve information quickly.

The choice of the tool ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences. It’s a good idea to try out a few options and see which one aligns best with your workflow and project requirements.

7. Data Analysis and Visualization Tools:

For research involving data analysis, tools like SPSS, R, or Excel can be invaluable. These tools provide powerful statistical analysis capabilities, allowing you to draw meaningful insights from your data. Additionally, visualization tools like Tableau or Python’s Matplotlib can help present your findings in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand manner. There are several popular data analysis and visualization tools used in thesis writing. Here are the top five tools:

R is a widely used open-source programming language for statistical analysis and data visualization. It provides a vast number of packages and libraries specifically designed for data analysis. R allows you to perform various statistical tests, create visualizations, and generate reports, making it a popular choice among researchers.

Python is another powerful programming language commonly used for data analysis and visualization. It offers libraries like NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib, which provide efficient data manipulation, analysis, and plotting capabilities. Python’s versatility and ease of use make it a preferred choice for researchers in various domains.

7.3 Tableau

Tableau is a popular data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing charts, graphs, and dashboards. It provides a user-friendly interface for exploring and analyzing data from various sources. Tableau offers advanced features for storytelling and data presentation , making it suitable for thesis writing and research projects.

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a software package widely used in social science research. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for data analysis, including descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing. SPSS also offers data visualization capabilities to present research findings effectively.

Microsoft Excel is a widely available spreadsheet program that offers basic data analysis and visualization functionalities. It is often used for organizing and manipulating data, performing simple statistical calculations, and creating basic charts. While Excel may not be as powerful as specialized data analysis tools, it remains a popular choice due to its familiarity and ease of use.

These tools provide researchers with a range of options for data analysis and visualization, allowing them to choose the one that best suits their needs and preferences.

Conclusion:

Writing a thesis can be a challenging yet rewarding experience. By equipping yourself with the right tools, you can streamline your workflow, enhance your research capabilities, and produce a well-structured thesis. Remember, the tools mentioned in this article are meant to assist and optimize your writing process, but it’s crucial to adapt them to your specific needs and preferences. Embrace these tools, and let them empower you to create a compelling thesis that showcases your academic prowess. Happy writing!

Various Software Tools for Writing Thesis:

Writing Softwares for Thesis

Research Tools for Thesis Writing

Citation Management Tools for Thesis

Plagiarism Checkers for Thesis Writing

Grammar and Proofreading Tools for Thesis

Formatting Tools for Thesis Writing

Reference Management Tools for Thesis

Data Analysis Tools for Thesis Writing

Literature Review Tools for Thesis

Time Management Tools for Thesis

Collaboration Tools for Thesis Writing

Presentation Tools for Thesis Defense

Thesis Writing Templates and Samples

Tips and Techniques for Thesis Writing

Common Challenges in Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing Resources and Guides

FAQ on Tools for Writing Thesis

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Dr. Sowndarya Somasundaram

5 Free Data Analysis and Graph Plotting Software for Thesis

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writing software for phd thesis

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AI For Dissertation: Best AI Tools For Masters & PhD Thesis Writing

Writing a dissertation can be a daunting task for master’s and PhD students, but AI tools are transforming this challenging process.

From generating detailed mind maps to providing accurate citations and real-time research insights, AI-powered writing assistants streamline every aspect of thesis writing.

In this article, we explore the best AI tools available, highlighting how they can:

  • enhance your academic writing,
  • simplify complex tasks, and
  • help produce high-quality, well-structured content.

Best AI Tools For Masters & PhD Thesis Writing

Heuristi.ca – mind map maker.

Heuristi.ca is an AI-powered writing tool designed to streamline your dissertation writing process.

This AI tool helps you write your thesis or research paper by creating detailed mind maps tailored to academic writing.

You input a topic, like “organic photovoltaics,” and the AI generates related concepts and real-time insights. This assists in organising your literature review and structuring your academic writing.

The AI assistant ensures coherence by connecting related ideas, making writing more manageable and efficient. It helps avoid plagiarism by providing original content and AI-driven citation suggestions. 

By automating and streamlining aspects of the writing process, Heuristi.ca helps you meet deadlines and maintain academic standards.

Open Read – Generate Summaries 

Open Read is an AI-powered writing tool designed to enhance your thesis writing process. With Open Read, you can upload research papers and receive AI-generated summaries, making literature reviews more manageable.

ai for dissertation

The tool offers real-time features like paper Q&A and AI summaries, which streamline your academic writing tasks.

For example, you can upload a PDF and get a concise summary, along with detailed insights into the paper’s background and significance.

This AI tool helps you write your dissertation by breaking down complex information into bite-sized chunks, saving you time and effort.

Open Read also helps ensure academic integrity by providing accurate citations and checking for plagiarism. 

Explain Paper

Explain Paper is an AI tool that simplifies the academic writing process.E xplain Paper supports dissertation writing by making research more digestible and manageable. 

To use Explain Paper, simply:

  • upload a research paper,
  • select the text you want to understand, and
  • choose an explanation level. 

The AI provides clear explanations tailored to different educational levels, making complex research accessible. 

You can select a dense paragraph and have it explained as if to a middle schooler or a college student. This helps in breaking down intricate concepts, streamlining your literature review.

The tool also ensures your writing adheres to academic standards by providing coherent summaries and related resources.

Paper Brain

Paper Brain is an AI tool designed to streamline your academic writing process. You upload a research paper, and the AI analyzes and generates concise summaries, making it easier to grasp complex topics.

This AI-powered assistant helps you write your dissertation by providing clear and concise explanations, ensuring coherence and adherence to academic standards.

writing software for phd thesis

You can upload a paper on graphene thickness measurement, and Paper Brain will summarise its key points and answer specific questions about the research.

This tool is invaluable for literature reviews, as it simplifies the extraction of relevant information. Graduate students writing a thesis can benefit from Paper Brain’s AI technology, which makes writing tasks more manageable and efficient. 

Einblick is an AI-powered writing tool that simplifies data visualisation for your dissertation or thesis.

Einblick can analyze and present data coherently, helping you write your dissertation with accurate, well-organized charts and graphs.

This tool is simple to use – you upload your dataset, describe the chart you need, and Einblick generates it.

This tool helps you visualise complex data quickly and efficiently, which is crucial for academic writing and literature reviews.

Let’s say if you need a scatterplot of N2O versus CH4 emissions. Einblick creates it in seconds. This AI assistant streamlines the thesis writing process by providing clear, tailored visual aids, ensuring your research paper meets academic standards.

Tavily is an AI-powered research assistant designed to streamline your dissertation writing process. You simply input your research topic, and Tavily creates an AI agent that scours the internet for relevant information.

This AI tool ensures that the data you receive is accurate and up-to-date, helping you write your dissertation or thesis with confidence.

If you’re researching organic photovoltaic devices, Tavily will provide:

  • detailed summaries,
  • key findings, and
  • relevant sources.

This AI writing assistant makes the literature review process more manageable by automating and streamlining the search for academic papers.

It also offers tailored content that adheres to academic standards, ensuring coherence and quality in your writing.

Graduate students find Tavily invaluable for meeting deadlines and enhancing academic writing skills. The tool’s ability to analyse and synthesise vast amounts of data in real-time allows you to focus on the writing process. 

Using AI technology, Tavily helps you achieve academic success by providing a solid foundation for your thesis or dissertation.

Power Drill

Power Drill is an AI-powered writing tool designed to assist you in the dissertation writing process. To use Power Drill, you start by uploading your data sets, which can be:

  • web pages, or
  • files. 

The AI then analyses these data sources, providing insightful summaries and answers to specific questions.

This helps streamline the research and writing process, making it easier to organize your thoughts and structure your thesis.

You can upload a research paper, and Power Drill will highlight key points and generate concise summaries. This AI tool helps you write your dissertation by breaking down complex information into manageable parts, saving you time and effort.

ai for dissertation

Graduate students find Power Drill particularly helpful for meeting deadlines and adhering to academic standards.

The tool ensures coherence in your writing by offering accurate citations and reducing the risk of plagiarism.

Power Drill can also scan vast databases and provide real-time insights, helping you achieve academic success and write a compelling thesis or dissertation.

SciSpace is an AI-powered writing tool designed to simplify the academic writing process for dissertations and theses.

You upload your research papers, and SciSpace provides detailed summaries and key insights, making literature reviews more manageable. This AI tool uses natural language processing to extract essential information, helping you organise and streamline your writing tasks.

When you upload a PDF, SciSpace offers a concise “too long; didn’t read” summary, highlighting conclusions and significant points.

This is especially useful for graduate students who need to write their dissertation or thesis efficiently.

SciSpace also includes an AI writing assistant, which helps ensure coherence and adherence to academic standards by generating accurate citations and checking for plagiarism.

Using AI technology, SciSpace can analyze vast databases and provide real-time insights, making your writing process more manageable.

This tool helps you meet deadlines and achieve academic success by automating and streamlining various aspects of academic writing, ultimately supporting you in creating well-structured and high-quality written content.

Next Net – For Drug & Health Research

Next Net is an AI-powered tool tailored for those in the drug and health research fields. This AI assistant helps you write your dissertation or thesis by providing comprehensive, real-time searches of the latest literature and research data.

writing software for phd thesis

You input your query, and Next Net uses advanced AI technology to scan vast databases for relevant information.

For example, if you’re researching new drugs, Next Net offers detailed insights into recent developments, gene expressions, and clinical trials.

This AI tool streamlines the literature review process by organizing complex data into manageable, easy-to-understand summaries.

Graduate students find Next Net invaluable for its ability to generate accurate citations and ensure academic integrity.

Next Net’s AI-driven approach makes writing a thesis more efficient, allowing you to focus on creating well-structured, high-quality content. This AI tool is essential for achieving academic success in the health research domain.

Chat GPT, Perplexity, Bing

ChatGPT , Perplexity, and Bing are AI-powered writing tools that significantly enhance the academic writing process. Each tool leverages artificial intelligence to assist with various aspects of dissertation and thesis writing.

ChatGPT uses advanced natural language processing to generate coherent, detailed responses to research queries. You can ask it to help:

  • outline your thesis,
  • draft sections of your dissertation, or
  • provide insights on complex topics.
It’s particularly useful for brainstorming and refining ideas, making writing tasks more manageable. You can also create templates to help you generate texts faster.

Perplexity , another AI tool, excels at providing real-time, accurate references for your research paper. By asking Perplexity detailed questions, you get precise, sourced answers that streamline your literature review. 

Bing, integrated with AI, offers a balanced approach to research. You can specify the type of response you need—creative, balanced, or precise—making it a versatile assistant for academic writing.

Bing’s AI can scan vast databases to find relevant information, helping you write your dissertation or thesis with comprehensive, up-to-date data.

By automating and streamlining the writing process, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing help you achieve academic success with well-researched and well-written content.

AI Tools For Thesis and Dissertation Writing

From Heuristi.ca’s mind mapping to ChatGPT’s brainstorming capabilities, these AI-powered assistants streamline literature reviews, ensure academic standards, and provide accurate citations.

Tools like Open Read and Explain Paper simplify complex concepts, while Einblick and Next Net offer data visualization and real-time research insights.

By leveraging these AI tools, graduate students can enhance their academic writing skills, meet deadlines, and achieve academic success efficiently.

writing software for phd thesis

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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How to write a PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide

A draft isn’t a perfect, finished product; it is your opportunity to start getting words down on paper, writes Kelly Louise Preece

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Congratulations; you’ve finished your research! Time to write your PhD thesis. This resource will take you through an eight-step plan for drafting your chapters and your thesis as a whole. 

Infographic with steps on how to draft your PhD thesis

Organise your material

Before you start, it’s important to get organised. Take a step back and look at the data you have, then reorganise your research. Which parts of it are central to your thesis and which bits need putting to one side? Label and organise everything using logical folders – make it easy for yourself! Academic and blogger Pat Thomson calls this  “Clean up to get clearer” . Thomson suggests these questions to ask yourself before you start writing:

  • What data do you have? You might find it useful to write out a list of types of data (your supervisor will find this list useful too.) This list is also an audit document that can go in your thesis. Do you have any for the “cutting room floor”? Take a deep breath and put it in a separate non-thesis file. You can easily retrieve it if it turns out you need it.
  • What do you have already written? What chunks of material have you written so far that could form the basis of pieces of the thesis text? They will most likely need to be revised but they are useful starting points. Do you have any holding text? That is material you already know has to be rewritten but contains information that will be the basis of a new piece of text.
  • What have you read and what do you still need to read? Are there new texts that you need to consult now after your analysis? What readings can you now put to one side, knowing that they aren’t useful for this thesis – although they might be useful at another time?
  • What goes with what? Can you create chunks or themes of materials that are going to form the basis of some chunks of your text, perhaps even chapters?

Once you have assessed and sorted what you have collected and generated you will be in much better shape to approach the big task of composing the dissertation. 

Decide on a key message

A key message is a summary of new information communicated in your thesis. You should have started to map this out already in the section on argument and contribution – an overarching argument with building blocks that you will flesh out in individual chapters.

You have already mapped your argument visually, now you need to begin writing it in prose. Following another of Pat Thomson’s exercises, write a “tiny text” thesis abstract. This doesn’t have to be elegant, or indeed the finished product, but it will help you articulate the argument you want your thesis to make. You create a tiny text using a five-paragraph structure:

  • The first sentence addresses the broad context. This locates the study in a policy, practice or research field.
  • The second sentence establishes a problem related to the broad context you have set out. It often starts with “But”, “Yet” or “However”.
  • The third sentence says what specific research has been done. This often starts with “This research” or “I report…”
  • The fourth sentence reports the results. Don’t try to be too tricky here, just start with something like: “This study shows,” or “Analysis of the data suggests that…”
  • The fifth and final sentence addresses the “So What?” question and makes clear the claim to contribution.

Here’s an example that Thomson provides:

Secondary school arts are in trouble, as the fall in enrolments in arts subjects dramatically attests. However, there is patchy evidence about the benefits of studying arts subjects at school and this makes it hard to argue why the drop in arts enrolments matters. This thesis reports on research which attempts to provide some answers to this problem – a longitudinal study which followed two groups of senior secondary students, one group enrolled in arts subjects and the other not, for three years. The results of the study demonstrate the benefits of young people’s engagement in arts activities, both in and out of school, as well as the connections between the two. The study not only adds to what is known about the benefits of both formal and informal arts education but also provides robust evidence for policymakers and practitioners arguing for the benefits of the arts. You can  find out more about tiny texts and thesis abstracts on Thomson’s blog.

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Write a plan

You might not be a planner when it comes to writing. You might prefer to sit, type and think through ideas as you go. That’s OK. Everybody works differently. But one of the benefits of planning your writing is that your plan can help you when you get stuck. It can help with writer’s block (more on this shortly!) but also maintain clarity of intention and purpose in your writing.

You can do this by creating a  thesis skeleton or storyboard , planning the order of your chapters, thinking of potential titles (which may change at a later stage), noting down what each chapter/section will cover and considering how many words you will dedicate to each chapter (make sure the total doesn’t exceed the maximum word limit allowed).

Use your plan to help prompt your writing when you get stuck and to develop clarity in your writing.

Some starting points include:

  • This chapter will argue that…
  • This section illustrates that…
  • This paragraph provides evidence that…

Of course, we wish it werethat easy. But you need to approach your first draft as exactly that: a draft. It isn’t a perfect, finished product; it is your opportunity to start getting words down on paper. Start with whichever chapter you feel you want to write first; you don’t necessarily have to write the introduction first. Depending on your research, you may find it easier to begin with your empirical/data chapters.

Vitae advocates for the “three draft approach” to help with this and to stop you from focusing on finding exactly the right word or transition as part of your first draft.

Infographic of the three draft approach

This resource originally appeared on Researcher Development .

Kelly Louse Preece is head of educator development at the University of Exeter.

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writing software for phd thesis

Tools and software every PhD holder must have

Tools and software are beneficial in all fields. By using tools you can make your work a hundred times easier than doing it manually. Aside from that, it saves you a lot of time and helps you produce accurate data.

There are several tools a PhD candidate uses to write their thesis and conduct research for their project. There are numerous tools available for taking notes, writing, analyzing data, collecting data, and so on.

Since you have a lot of data to handle and it may be difficult for you to record everything manually at times, these tools will simplify your work and not let you drown in a pool of unorganized data.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of essential tools you should have while pursuing a PhD. This has been created after research and experience. Read carefully and make the most of these tools.

Taking notes could be an essential tool for you. There are times when you come up with ideas or a statement hits you in the middle of another task. You can easily jot down those ideas in your note-taking tool and go over them later. It will be extremely useful in ensuring that you do not overlook any single relevant idea or statement related to your project or research.

You can use the web version of these tools to access them from any device, including your mobile. There are numerous apps available for taking notes, but we have picked the best for you. You can select whichever option is more convenient for you.

  • Google Drive

Word processing software

Writing will be your primary focus during your PhD studies. As a result, you require good software that allows you to write without undue stress. There are numerous word processing tools available to assist you in writing smoothly and you can easily navigate through your document with these tools. Microsoft Word is popular and older word processing software for writing. You can write your thesis easily with the help of these tools.

Aside from that, Google Docs is becoming increasingly popular and provides a plethora of options that make your work much easier. You can collaborate, make edits, provide feedback, and accept or reject suggestions in real time. This is a fantastic feature that elevates Google Docs above other word processing applications. Aside from this, you can use a variety of other tools to get started writing.

  • Microsoft Word
  • Google Docs
  • Libre Office

Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis software will assist you in performing specialized complex statistical analyses on your data while saving you a significant amount of time. You will undoubtedly use these tools to analyze your data and create a good thesis that incorporates strong data. Many universities use these tools and train their students to use them as well. There is a lot of good software available for this purpose. You can also find out what software your university is using and get access to it.

Project manager

You may find it difficult to keep track of everything while researching or writing your thesis. The project manager tool assists you in keeping track of your progress and maintaining a complete record of your research and writing. These tools monitor the overall progress of your project and alert you if you are falling behind schedule. If you work in a group, the entire group can record progress and get a bigger overview of the project.

Survey research

Surveys are an essential component of your research. Surveys may be required to learn more about specific topics. These tools are very useful for such purposes. They will not only allow you to create your survey forms but will also assist you in easily analyzing all of the collected data. These tools are simple to use, but they produce excellent results. You can easily distribute these forms to people and quickly collect all of their information. You can even transfer the collected data to other tools.

  • Google Forms
  • Survey Monkey

Reference managers

A reference manager can make your life much easier. You can use these tools to create a reference list and manage all of your sources in one place. These tools will significantly help you in multitasking. Doing these tasks manually will necessitate a considerable amount of your time and effort, and as PhDs, you should not waste your time on tasks that can be easily completed with the assistance of some tools. If you are writing your thesis or dissertation, you can definitely go for these tools.

Aside from writing, you will need graphics, diagrams, illustrations, or art to highlight certain points or to make your thesis more presentable. In this case, you must employ software or an app to assist you in creating some fantastic designs. There are numerous tools available for this purpose, but we have selected the best ones that provide the best results while remaining simple to use. You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to use these tools, but you can still produce some amazing results. You can even use these tools to create stunning presentations.

  • Strata 3D modelling

These tools can be obtained for free or at some cost. You can visit the website of these tools to know about the pricing. However, avoid spending a lot of money on expensive tools. Furthermore, most universities have access to these tools, so before investing your money, check with your university and request access.

I hope you found this article useful. Please let us know in the comments section which tools you use and would like to add to the list.

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Embracing the Digital: A Review of Scrivener for PhD Students

writing software for phd thesis

https://unsplash.com/photos/GnvurwJsKaY

I admit, I can be a little old-fashioned when it comes to research and writing. While you’d still need to pry my paper planner out of my hands, the pandemic has changed the way I write and compile research. As a result of this, I’ve been embracing new software that might make my pandemic PhD a little easier.

As a tried-and-true Microsoft Word loyalist, the idea of learning a new word-processing technology seemed overwhelming. However, when I started to hear people talk about the many capabilities of the word-processing software Scrivener for academic writing, I was intrigued. I was first drawn in by the promise of word count goals. In these dark winter-plus-a-pandemic days, the only thing keeping me motivated is small, attainable goals, so this function is what prompted me to download the free trial. For just over a month, I’ve used Scrivener as the primary word-processing software for my thesis writing and I have some initial thoughts that might help other PhD students considering switching to this software.

The Positives

The software is very customisable:.

Even though I’ve been using the software for about a month, I still feel like I’m learning about Scrivener’s seemingly infinite possibilities. The software seems really adaptable for a variety of long-form writing, including fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing. It can also be used to organise your research documents, which I don’t use because I’m wedded to Tropy for those purposes, but it’s still a great option. You can customise its appearance and its functionality to your liking.

There are great outlining capabilities:

Scrivener has a great variety of options for outlining chapters and sections of your work. They have a flashcard function, which allows you to write a brief description of the section and then move it around with ease. I really found it helpful to have a clear 1-2 sentence summary of my main goal for each section as I work on writing my chapter to keep me focused on the task at hand. Going on tangents and getting lost in the enormity of the project have been major obstacles for me in the PhD-writing process, so this definitely helps.

Word count targets:

Of course, the function that initially drew me to the software has continued to be one of my favourites. I set a rough word goal for each sub-section of my chapter and it displays in a convenient little progress bar. Something I’m currently experimenting with is the daily word goal functions, which automatically calculates how many words you need to write per day to finish by a deadline. I’m enjoying this function, especially since it allows you to set your “writing days” each week.

The Negatives

It can be a bit overwhelming:.

It didn’t take me very long to figure out the basics of the software, but some of the more complex features took me a long time to get the hang of. Fortunately, there is a really extensive handbook for the software, as well as a forum to ask questions and many blog posts/YouTube videos/etc. to consult. I did feel like the learning curve was a bit distracting and did take away a bit of time I could have otherwise spent researching and writing, so I wouldn’t recommend trialing Scrivener when you’re on a tight deadline.

The citation system is a bit unintuitive:

I find the footnoting options pretty unintuitive for citation purposes. If you tend to use a lot of explanatory footnotes, you might like Scrivener’s capability to see your footnotes side-by-side with the text (using a function they call the Inspector) but for doing citations, the system felt clunky. There aren’t any numbers associated with the footnotes either, so they can be pretty hard to keep track of. If you usually use Mendeley or Zotero for automatically inserting footnotes into Microsoft Word, I believe you’d lose this capability in Scrivener.

Exportation to pdf or doc formats can be problematic:

As an extension of the previous point, I’m not entirely sure what the document will look like when I export it to doc or pdf formats. As I’m still in the earlier stages of writing, I’m not overly concerned about this. I plan on exporting back to Word well in advance of any deadlines, to avoid any technical difficulties. However, if you’re someone in the final stages of writing or if you plan on exclusively using Scrivener for your writing, I would test these functions a bit more to save yourself time re-formatting, if there are any issues.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, for me and for now, Scrivener works. I enjoyed the 30-day free trial and I plan on purchasing the software afterwards as a small pandemic PhD luxury. I actually think that a good part of my enjoyment from it stems from the fact that it feels like a “change of scenery” in this lockdown PhD life. Instead of looking at a Word document all day, I can look at a Scrivener document all day or switch back and forth between the two. I hope that this review was helpful to anyone else who might be considering using Scrivener or any PhD students looking to embrace the digital in new ways!

Vesna Curlic is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Edinburgh, though she is originally from Toronto, Canada. Her current research examines immigration, medicine and ethnicity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. She can be found on Twitter at  @vesnacurlic .

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Best Software Tools for Writing Thesis

writing software for phd thesis

A significant milestone in your academic career is the completion of a thesis. It requires a substantial amount of commitment and research skills for its completion. It’s critical that you familiarize yourself with the necessary software tools in order to quicken and streamline the writing of your thesis.

In this article, we will delve into a selection of essential software tools imperative for proficiently writing your thesis. These include various domains such as research, writing, organization, and productivity.

Table of Contents

1. Word processing software

Word processing software serves as the foundation of your thesis writing process. These tools provide a structured and user-friendly environment that empowers you to bring your ideas to life.

Let’s delve into the top word-processing software tools and discover how they can elevate your thesis writing:

1. Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a classic and widely recognized word processing software that’s trusted by countless writers, including thesis authors. It provides a wide range of features for document creation, editing, and formatting. With its user-friendly interface, collaboration tools, templates, and advanced formatting options, Word ensures that your thesis is not only well-written but also adheres to academic standards.

2. Google Docs

Google Docs, a web-based word-processing tool, is an excellent choice for thesis writers who need seamless collaboration with advisors or peers. It allows real-time collaboration, making it easy to seek feedback and make revisions together. Google Docs also offers cloud storage and integrates effortlessly with other Google services, ensuring your work is accessible from anywhere.

3. LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is an open-source word processing software that rivals Microsoft Word in functionality. It offers a range of features, including extensive formatting options, styles, templates, and compatibility with various document formats. What’s more, it’s completely free to use, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious thesis writers.

4. WPS Office Writer

WPS Office Writer provides a free alternative to Microsoft Word without compromising on features. It boasts a familiar interface, support for various file formats, document collaboration, templates, and extensive formatting options. If you’re looking for a powerful word processor without the price tag, WPS Office Writer is worth considering.

2. Reference Management Software

Thesis writing revolves around citing a multitude of sources, from research papers and books to articles and websites. Managing these references manually can be an overwhelming task, prone to errors and inefficiencies. This is where reference management software comes to the rescue.

Here’s how reference management software tools can make your thesis writing journey smoother:

Zotero is a free and open-source reference management tool that assists you in collecting, organizing, and citing research sources effortlessly. With a user-friendly interface, web browser integration, and collaboration options, Zotero helps you keep your references in order and saves you precious time.

2. Mendeley

Mendeley, a reference manager and academic social network, not only helps you organize your references but also facilitates collaboration with peers. Its combination of reference management, research discovery, and free and premium versions makes it a robust tool for thesis writers.

EndNote is a trusted reference management software used by researchers, students, and librarians. It excels in storing, organizing, and formatting bibliographic references, offering a wide range of citation styles to meet your thesis’s specific requirements.

4. RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based reference management tool designed to simplify reference storage and organization. Features like citation formatting, collaboration options, and document sharing enhance its utility for thesis writers.

Citavi is more than just a reference manager; it’s a comprehensive knowledge organization tool. It allows you to manage references, create citations, and organize research materials effectively—a favorite among students and researchers alike.

JabRef specializes in handling bibliographies in BibTeX format, making it a go-to choice for LaTeX users. Its cross-platform compatibility, customizable citation styles, and integration with LaTeX editors make it indispensable for certain thesis writers.

7. ReadCube Papers

ReadCube Papers focuses on enhancing your reading experience of research papers . It makes studying and citing sources easy with features including article finding, PDF annotation, and cloud-based reference syncing.

8. Paperpile

Paperpile is tailor-made for Google Docs and Google Scholar users. It interacts perfectly with Google services and provides citation formatting and collaboration tools, resulting in a smooth thesis writing process.

Colwiz is a platform that integrates research discovery, collaboration, and reference management. It enables you to find fresh research articles, work with colleagues, and organise your references—all essential parts of creating a thesis.

Qiqqa is a robust reference management software that comes with citation generating, annotation tools, and PDF management. Its note-taking features and full-text search provide your study an additional level of sophistication.

3.Search engines and research databases

Researching a thesis thoroughly is an essential part of the writing process. It is essential to have access to reputable research databases such as IEEE Xplore, JSTOR, or PubMed.

These platforms give users access to a wide range of academic books, journals, conference papers, and articles.

They enable you to explore the vast landscape of academic knowledge, uncover relevant sources, and strengthen your arguments with credible citations.

These tools are like treasure troves of academic knowledge, housing a vast collection of scholarly articles, journals, books, and conference papers across various fields. They serve as your gateway to relevant literature, enabling you to discover, access, and cite high-quality sources efficiently.

1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free search engine that indexes a large range of scholarly literature from a variety of disciplines. It’s your one-stop-shop for finding academic resources, including conference papers, articles, books, thesis, and more. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive coverage make it an indispensable tool for thesis researchers.

PubMed is a reputable research database largely focused on life and medical sciences. It offers access to a sizable library of biomedical literature, comprising books, conference proceedings, and articles from scientific journals . Whether you’re a medical researcher or not, PubMed can be a valuable resource for cross-disciplinary insights.

3. IEEE Xplore

If your thesis delves into electrical engineering, computer science, or related disciplines, IEEE Xplore is your go-to digital library. It provides access to a variety of technical documents, such as eBooks, conference papers, journal articles, and standards. It’s a goldmine for those seeking the latest advancements in technology.

4. ScienceDirect

One of the top full-text scientific databases, ScienceDirect offers access to a vast collection of academic publications across several disciplines. ScienceDirect offers everything from engineering and physical sciences to life, health, and social sciences. It is a valuable tool for thorough study because it contains books, journals, and conference proceedings.

JSTOR is a digital library that provides access to a vast array of books, academic journals, and original sources from a variety of subject areas. Although JSTOR is especially helpful for historical research and obtaining previous publications, scholars from all backgrounds can benefit from its extensive database.

4. Plagiarism Checkers

Maintaining academic integrity is paramount when it comes to thesis writing. Plagiarism, whether intentional or accidental, can have severe consequences on your academic and professional future. This is where plagiarism checkers step in as invaluable allies.

The sophisticated software tools known as plagiarism checkers are made to examine your thesis and compare it to a large database of scholarly articles, books, and online sources. They meticulously scan your work, identifying any instances of text that resemble existing sources. Here’s how these tools are incredibly helpful:

1. Turnitin

One of the most popular programs for detecting plagiarism is Turnitin, which is frequently included into the systems of educational institutions. It checks your thesis for the greatest level of authenticity using a large database of scholarly articles, books, and online resources.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly, known primarily as a grammar and writing assistance tool, also offers a robust plagiarism checker feature. It scans your text for similarities across various online sources and provides a detailed report, helping you maintain the originality of your thesis.

3. Copyscape

One online plagiarism checker that is well-known for its capacity to identify plagiarised material is Copyscape. After conducting a web search for relevant content, it returns a list of URLs containing the content. It’s an important tool to make sure everything you do is original.

4. Plagscan

Plagscan is a thorough plagiarism checker that evaluates your thesis against a variety of online resources, scholarly publications, and its own large database. It provides an extensive report that highlights possible matches so you can quickly resolve any problems.

5. DupliChecker

DupliChecker is a free online plagiarism analyzer that compares your text to multiple web sources. It helps you keep your thesis unique on a tight budget by providing a percentage of similarity along with highlighted matches.

6. Unicheck

A cloud-based plagiarism detection tool made especially for educational institutions is called Unicheck. In order to prevent plagiarism and maintain academic integrity, submitted papers are compared to a huge database.

Quetext uses artificial intelligence to compare your documents to a large database of scholarly articles and online resources to find similarities. It generates a full report with highlighted matches to ensure that your thesis is free of unintentional plagiarism.

8. Plagiarism CheckerX

Plagiarism is the act of copying another person’s work. CheckerX is an easy-to-use program that compares your thesis to publications, scholarly databases, and web sources. It provides an easy-to-understand report that highlights similarities, making it a simple alternative for researchers.

9. WriteCheck

Turnitin’s WriteCheck is a plagiarism detection tool. It offers a proactive approach to academic integrity by enabling users to submit their work and receive an originality assessment that indicates possible matches detected in the database.

Viper is a free plagiarism detector that compares your writing to online sources to find similarities. It is an affordable alternative that gives academic users extra features and a comprehensive report.

5. Project Management Software Tools

Writing a thesis requires managing several assignments, due dates, and milestones. Using project management and task tracking apps like Trello, Asana, or Todoist can help you stay organised.

With the help of these tools, you may prioritise assignments, make task lists, set deadlines, and work with others. Keeping track of your work and segmenting the thesis writing process into smaller, more manageable steps will help you achieve your goals more effectively and more productively.

There are various common solutions to consider when choosing project management and task tracking systems for thesis writing. These are five popular ones:

Trello is a visually appealing project management solution that allows you to organise tasks and projects on virtual boards. You can work with others, add cards for specific tasks, make lists, and establish deadlines. Trello’s adaptable design makes it ideal for tracking your overall progress, organizing research resources, and outlining chapters. Trello makes it simple to see your thesis project through to completion.

Asana is a feature-rich project management application that facilitates team communication, task tracking, responsibility delegation, and deadline setting. Task dependencies, subtasks, and file attachments are some of its characteristics, which make it perfect for organising complex thesis projects with several participants. Asana reduces confusion and keeps all project participants updated.

3. Microsoft Project

A powerful tool for managing projects, Microsoft Project provides a wide range of tools for organizing, arranging, and monitoring tasks. You can use it to make Gantt charts, assign resources, define goals, and track advancement. Although the learning curve may be higher than with other applications, it provides unmatched functionality for organizing extensive thesis projects, guaranteeing that you precisely meet every deadline.

A simple yet incredibly powerful task-tracking app, Todoist helps you make and keep track of to-do lists. You may prioritize activities, set deadlines, and make repeating tasks with it. Working together is also a breeze because you can remark and discuss tasks. Todoist is a popular alternative for individual thesis authors who want to keep organized and focused due to its user-friendly interface and cross-platform availability.

5. Evernote

Although it isn’t specifically a project management tool, Evernote is a feature-rich note-taking program that can be very helpful when writing a thesis. You can make to-do lists, attach files, save online clippings, and take and arrange research notes with it. Evernote helps you stay organized and find information fast with its robust search capabilities and cross-device syncing. This is a great tool for incorporating your study into your writing without any problems at all.

6. Tools for Data Analysis and Visualisation

Thesis writing often involves extensive data collection and analysis. Whether you’re conducting experiments, surveys, or analyzing existing datasets, the ability to derive meaningful insights from your data is crucial.

Python, a well-liked programming language for data analysis is well-known for its versatility. Python’s modules, such as NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib, allow you to swiftly manipulate data, do statistical analysis, and generate amazing visualizations. Its user-friendly syntax makes it accessible to researchers from various backgrounds, enabling them to unlock the full potential of their data.

R is an open-source programming language specifically designed for statistical analysis and data visualization. It offers an extensive collection of packages tailored for various research domains. R empowers you to conduct complex statistical tests, generate detailed reports, and create custom visualizations to illustrate your research findings effectively.

Tableau is an effective tool for data visualisation that is excellent at producing dynamic and eye-catching graphs, charts, and dashboards. It offers an easy-to-use interface for examining and evaluating data from many sources. Tableau is a great option for thesis authors who want to show their findings in an engaging way because of its sophisticated storytelling and data presentation features.

A popular software program in social science research is called SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). It provides a full range of data analysis methods, such as regression analysis, hypothesis testing , and descriptive statistics. Additionally, SPSS has data visualization features that let you show your study findings accurately and effectively.

The widely used spreadsheet application Microsoft Excel provides basic functions for data analysis and visualization. Excel is a very useful tool for organizing and editing data, conducting basic statistical calculations, and making basic charts, even though it may not have the sophisticated statistical capabilities of specialized applications like R or SPSS. It is a preferred option for many academics due to its familiarity and ease of usage.

7. Note-Taking Tools

Thesis writing is not just about compiling research materials but also about synthesizing information, connecting ideas, and keeping track of your progress. Note-taking tools play a pivotal role in this process by providing an organized and efficient way to capture and manage your thoughts and research findings. Here’s how these tools can be helpful:

1. Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is like a digital notebook that allows you to create and organize notes in a free-form manner. Its versatility shines as you can format text, record audio and video, embed images, and sync your notes across devices. This tool is excellent for keeping detailed research notes, jotting down ideas, and creating structured outlines for your thesis.

2. Evernote

Evernote is a well-known note-taking app that excels in capturing, organizing, and searching notes across different devices. It includes text formatting, web clipping, file attachments, and collaborative tools. Evernote’s powerful search functionality makes it easy to find specific information within your notes, ensuring that you never lose valuable research.

Zotero is a dedicated research tool designed for academics and researchers. It enables you to gather, organize, share, and cite study resources, including books, papers, and webpages. Zotero integrates seamlessly with word processors, making it a valuable asset for managing citations and references in your thesis.

4. Google Keep

Google Keep is a simple note-taking application that integrates effectively with other Google services. While it may not have the advanced features of some other tools, its simplicity is its strength. You can make checklists, reminders, and notes in text, audio, and image notes using Google Keep. It syncs seamlessly across devices and supports easy collaboration.

Notion is a versatile, all-in-one productivity tool that is not just for taking notes. Notes can be created and arranged using text, tables, lists, media, and other elements. Notion’s flexibility is ideal for managing not only research notes but also task lists, project plans, and more, all within a single workspace.

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writing software for phd thesis

TRANSFORMATION

In these transformation sessions, I help you achieve the lifestyle you long for. More relaxation time, more confidence, better time management, more family time, whatever it is, we work together to transform your lifestyle into one that brings your more contentment.

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  • Jun 7, 2021

Useful Software for PhD Researchers

I have been asked what my top software picks for prospective and current PhD researchers are a few times now, so here's my answer!

Microsoft Office

The Microsoft Office package is extremely useful throughout your PhD, so it is definitely worth spending some time familiarising yourself with each of the programmes. It's very likely you will be writing your thesis and other important documents up in Word, whilst Excel is great for planning (I use it to create Gantt charts to plan each academic term/year) and PowerPoint is also really useful for designing research posters and presentation slides.

Referencing Software

Referencing is an important part of your PhD thesis, and something you'll do throughout the duration of your degree. Referencing manually is extremely time-consuming, increases the risk of making errors, and doesn't allow you to keep all your notes or PDFs in one place. Here's where referencing software comes in. I personally use EndNote , but there are various others to choose from as well, including Zotero and Mendeley

Note-Taking

Before starting my PhD, I'd never used Microsoft OneNote but now I can't live without it!! I have 3 notebooks - one for my PhD, where I store a whole variety of notes linked to my research, training notes, opportunities, etc, as well as useful links, document attachments and checklists. I have another where I store my notes from readings. OneNote is excellent for this, as there is a search function making it easy to scan for keywords in all of your notes at the same time, as well as the ability to tag key theorists, titles, or keywords that you may need to come back to. I also have another notebook for personal things like my shopping list or ideas for family days out, as well as for my writing, such as drafts for this blog, picture book ideas, writing opportunities, etc. If OneNote isn't your cup of tea, there are other great note-taking options out there, such as EverNote .

writing software for phd thesis

Organisational Tools

I admit I don't actually use software for this - I use a paper diary (well it's the family organiser so it's easier to have everything in one place and we're all at home presently so it works!) but I would definitely recommend looking into a digital alternative. I've heard Trello and Microsoft To Do are great for making to do lists and managing your time and tasks.

Virtual Meeting Software

Virtual meetings have been the thing for 15 months already! So you've probably already familiarised yourself with many of the main online meeting platforms. But if you haven't, it would be a good idea to gain some familiarity with the key ones - for example, Microsoft Teams , Zoom , Webex , and Google Meet , as I doubt they'll be going away any time soon! It would also be useful to have some knowledge of these platforms if you plan on attending a variety of webinars and meetings, or even organising your own online meetings or interviews.

writing software for phd thesis

Research Skills and Databases

Developing research skills and the ability to locate important papers, statistics, and information relevant to your research, is an invaluable skill for PhD researchers. So one of the first skills you want to master at the start of your PhD is how to use the library search functions and how to use the key databases in your area of research. In addition to the library search function, I use Web of Science and on this platform, I've set up alerts so whenever a paper is published relating to the keywords I have set, I get an email. This saves so much time as I don't have to trawl through the millions of papers out there looking for updates each month. It would also be wise to familiarise yourself with Google Scholar , ResearchGate and Academia.edu which are also very useful for finding resources too.

Professional Development

Professional development is such an important part of the PhD journey, and one that often isn't given as much attention as it deserves. The first port of call should be the trainings organised or shared by your university, but I would also strongly recommend complementing your professional development activities with free courses from places like LinkedIn Learning (most universities subscribe so you can access the videos for free), Coursera , FutureLearn , and edx.org .

Social Media

Social media isn't an essential part of the PhD journey but it is super useful for connecting with other PhD researchers and academics, creating a web presence for yourself, assisting with public engagement and looking for future opportunities. Twitter is probably the overall best for academia, but other sites like LinkedIn and Academia.edu are good too. To help you get started, look for trainings on effective social media use and personal branding on the sites mentioned previously.

writing software for phd thesis

Graphics and Design

Depending on the nature of your research, you may or may not get opportunities to design images and graphics. If you do however, and especially if you use social media, it can really help to use dedicated software to produce professional-looking images. My favourite application is Canva as you can produce so many amazing designs for free, from social media posts, to research flyers, to infographics.

Discipline-Specific Software

In addition to all of the programmes I've mentioned above, there will undoubtedly be others specific to your discipline, your research methodology, and your research activities. Find out what software is commonly used in your discipline - I'm a qualitative researcher in sociology so the software I make most use of is NVIVO but if I did quantitative research, I would be using SPSS. Each discipline has its preferred software programmes, so try to find out which ones are common in your discipline and get familiar with them.

writing software for phd thesis

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How to write a thesis (Bachelor, Master, or PhD) and which software tools to use

Published by joeran beel on 2nd march 2010.

Available translations: Chinese (thanks to Chen Feng) | Portuguese (thanks to Marcelo Cruz dos Santos) | Russian (thanks to Sergey Loy) send us your translation

Writing a thesis is a complex task. You need to find related literature, take notes, draft the thesis, and eventually write the final document and create the bibliography. Many books explain how to perform a literature survey and how to write scholarly literature in general and a thesis in particular (e.g. [1-9]). However, these books barely, if at all, cover software tools that help in performing these tasks. This is surprising, because great software tools that can facilitate the daily work of students and researchers are available and many of them for free.

In this tutorial, we present a new method to reviewing scholarly literature and drafting a thesis using mind mapping software, PDF readers, and reference managers. This tutorial focuses on writing a PhD thesis. However, the presented methods are likewise applicable to planning and writing a bachelor thesis or master thesis.  This tutorial is special, because it integrates the management of PDF files, the relevant content in PDFs (bookmarks), and references with mind mapping and word processing software. To make the tutorial better understandable, we provide many examples in which we assume that you want to write a PhD thesis about academic search engines. Please note that

  • All tools recommended in this tutorial are free and open source (except Microsoft Word)
  • All tools presented in this tutorial are based on Java and run on Windows, Linux and MacOS (again, except Microsoft Word)
  • Docear  may be substituted with FreeMind , MindManager , XMIND and most other mind mapping tools allowing to link PDF files
  • Foxit Reader may be substituted with Adobe Acrobat Reader or PDF XChange Viewer .
  • JabRef may be substituted with any other reference manager supporting BibTeX, e.g. BibDesk , Referencer and Mendeley
  • Microsoft Word may be substituted with OpenOffice , LaTeX or any other word processor that supports BibTeX out of the box or through plugins

As a bachelor or master student, completing your senior thesis will dominate your life for months. As a PhD student, you will spend years on compiling your PhD thesis. We highly recommend reading this and other tutorials to find the process that works best for you to organize your literature, to manage your references, and to write your thesis. Spending a few hours now will save you days, if not weeks later. This tutorial will be updated from time to time to consider the latest features of the tools presented here. Last update of this tutorial: November 2013

This tutorial is divided into three parts. The first part explains how to manage literature. The second part shows how to draft a thesis. The final part covers how to write a thesis, which includes the management of references and the creation of the bibliography.

Before we start, we present some user feedback for our software Docear and this tutorial. We hope it motivates you to complete the entire tutorial :-).

You have read my mind. You have put into practice what I could envisage yet not even come close to develop.
You are helping to tackle the biggest obstacle to my research
I really like SciPlore’s approach. Connecting papers through a mindmap is genious!
I’m in the middle of my PhD and was becoming overwhelmed with the amount of information I need to manage. Nothing else was really cutting it for me and I stumbled on Sciplore.
Great software! Trying to get my adviser and all the graduate students in our lab to start using SciPlore. Keep up the efforts!
I very much enjoyed using Sciplore and was very impressed by its performance and options.
Congratulations on a great time saver and program to make PDF Bookmarks useful.
I’d like to thank you for the great work you’re doing.
Thank you very much for the excellent software. SciPlore has helped me organise my notes and research while undertaking my Masters degree.
I was greatly surprised to find SciPlore, and it seemed to be exactly what I needed for my work
Just wanted to say that SciPlore is a wonderful program. I use it to organize my thoughts and my research. Can’t wait to see what’s coming!
Thanks for making SciPlore!

You may also want to check out this video of Docear , which gives an overview of the great features Docear offers for managing your academic literature.

writing software for phd thesis

Part I: Literature Management

Keeping track of related work in your field is key to writing a good thesis, especially for writing a good PhD thesis. This task entails knowing about the relevant studies, results, facts, and ideas in your field. Keep in mind that by the end of your literature review for your PhD thesis you will have read or at least skimmed through hundreds of papers and books. Without using tools, you must be a genius to remember every interesting fact and idea you have read. Before the computer-age, academics relied on index cards, (post it) notes, highlighting pens, indices, etc. With computers, and especially mind mapping software, new possibilities evolved. In this part of the tutorial we explain how use academic search engines to find relevant literature. Then we show you how to create summaries of your PDFs using bookmarks and how to keep an overview of all important information in a mind map. By the end of this part, your mind map will contain literally all information that you have considered to be important. Whenever you want to know something, you can look it up in your mind map, and read about it in more detail by clicking on the link to the PDF.

Searching for (Electronic) Literature

Knowing what others have done in your field of research is a prerequisite for any thesis. But how to find this related work? Due to computers and the internet, searching for literature has changed dramatically over the last years. Instead of using library catalogues, students can use full-text search offered by academic search engines and databases such as Google Scholar  and ACM Digital Library . In addition, academic search engines usually offer sophisticated ranking algorithms that help in finding the most relevant documents [10-12]. Dozens of academic search engines exist. Some focus on specific disciplines such as computer science, while others try to cover several or even all academic disciplines. For computer science, popular academic databases include Springerlink, ACM Digital Library ,  IEEE Xplore,   ScienceDirect and to some extent  Emerald Insight ( Wikipedia provides you with an extensive list of available resources). All these databases require a subscription to access their content. If you are lucky, your institution has an agreement that allows you to access some or all of these databases for free. Ask your supervisor or the staff in your institution’s library about which databases you can access. Free alternatives to commercial literature databases include  CiteSeer , SciPlore’s collection, which is accessible through Docear . Often, but not always,  Google Scholar  provides a free download link to articles in its listings. In this tutorial, we will focus solely on the management of electronic literature.

Storing Documents in a Folder Structure

Most academic search engines and databases offer to download scholarly literature as PDFs. The simplest way to store (and retrieve) these PDFs is by organizing the PDFs in a reasonably structured folder system. Each PDF can be stored in one folder labelled with an appropriate descriptor. Assigning meaningful file names, such as the article’s title, to PDFs is generally helpful. If one document falls into two or more categories, most operating systems allow creating a shortcut or alias for a file (see picture). Some users consider this approach as being too structured and prefer tagging instead.

Possibility: Save PDFs for your PhD in different folders

Possibility: Save PDFs relevant to your thesis in different folders

Tagging allows assigning multiple keywords (tags) to a file independent of the file’s physical storage location. Based on these tags, users can retrieve the files from their hard drive. Popular desktop tagging tools include  Tag2Find , iTag , and Punakea . There are also services that allow online tagging and storage of academic articles, e.g., CiteULike or Bibsonomy . However, the approach we present in this tutorial focuses on desktop tools and, more importantly, neither folder structures, nor tags are necessary . Of course, a good folder structure never hurts, but it is not a requirement.

Storing Files in a Single Folder

Especially at the beginning of a PhD, you should use academic search engines to search for the most relevant keywords in your field and store any paper you get on your hard drive. If you wanted to do a PhD about academic search engines, starting your research by searching information about Google Scholar, one of the leading academic search engines, might be useful. Let’s assume you have found a hand full of interesting PDFs and stored them in c:\literature\ Don’t spend too much time on judging the relevance of a PDF. If the title or abstract sound interesting, store it.

Your first PDFs for writing a PhD thesis

Your first PDFs for writing a thesis

Keeping Track of Important Information in PDFs

What you really need to know as a researcher is: Where have I read some information? Information for which you forgot the origin is worthless or even harmful to your thesis, because you may inadvertently plagiarize if you present certain information without proper attribution. You will have to reference the origin of information taken from other sources, ideally with a page number. As a first step, PDF readers are perfect to keep track of a PDF’s most important information. You need a PDF reader that can create bookmarks, highlight passages and create annotations. For best compatibility with Docear , we recommend the free version of PDF XChange Viewer . However, the free  Foxit Reader  or  Adobe Acrobat Reader  will do, too. Now, whenever you read an interesting PDF, you create a bookmark for every statement that might be interesting for your thesis. We would also suggest highlighting the interesting text directly in the document. Have a look at the picture.

Marking important information for your PhD thesis

Highlighting important information for your thesis

This is the PDF of an article titled “Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO): Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar and Co.”. It is about how to get your papers indexed and well ranked by academic search engines such as Google Scholar. If you write your thesis about academic search engines, it might be interesting to keep in mind that this paper is the very first paper about academic search engine optimization. Additionally, the definition of “academic search engine optimization” might be relevant for your thesis. Therefore you create a bookmark for each of this information (see the picture). How detailed you create your bookmark structure is up to you. In the very beginning of your literature research, creating just one bookmark that briefly describes the paper (e.g. “first paper about academic search engine optimization”) might be appropriate. If you need more information, you could return to the paper later. Getting lost in all the information you read is very easy. Therefore, we recommend starting with only creating bookmarks for very important information. When you have finished reading the first PDF, you proceed with the other PDFs in the same way.

Managing Information from Multiple PDFs

In the long run, having information annotated solely in the PDFs isn’t very helpful. At this point, mind mapping joins the game. Mind maps were ‘invented’ by Tony Buzan in the 1970s [13]. A mind map is a diagram with a central topic and subtopics branching from it like a tree (see the picture for an example). Usually, a node in a mind map contains only one or two important keywords. Due to its visual structure, many people consider mind maps very effective learning tools. If you never used mind mapping before, the concept might appear strange to you at first. In fact, mind mapping isn’t the best solution for everybody. However, we urge you to invest 30 minutes and give mind mapping a try. We guarantee that the chance you will love mind mapping is really high.

Example of a Mind Map

Example of a Mind Map

In this tutorial, we use Docear  for creating mind maps as this tool is specially designed for students and researchers. Please download and install it.

Monitor all new PDFs in your Mind Map

Our goal is to keep track of all the information you have read in one single place. To achieve this, Open  Docear and create a new mind map, which you will use to manage your literature (press Ctrl+N ). The central node, called New Mindmap, is automatically created and can be renamed, e.g. to My Literature,  by either clicking on it or pressing F2 and typing the new name. One of Docear’s special features is monitoring a folder for new files. We use this feature to automatically include all our PDF in the mind map. The goal is that whenever you find a new PDF on the Internet, you store it in this special folder, to have it displayed immediately within your mind map. Create a new child node by pressing the Insert key on your keyboard or selecting Insert | New Child Node from the menu. Call this node Incoming Literature . Now, right-click on that node, select Add PDF Monitoring Directory and choose your literature directory (e.g. c :\myliterature\ ) . N ow, all PDF files (plus DOC(X), TXT, RTF, ODT and XLS(X)) that are stored in the specified folder are displayed in your mind map’s Incoming Literature node. Other files are ignored. And the best – also the PDF bookmarks are imported. The following picture illustrates this.

Monitoring a folder for new PDFs that are important for your thesis

Monitoring a folder for new PDFs that are important for your thesis

That means, as of now all the information you annotated in your PDFs are accessible and manageable in a single place – your mind map.

Giving Structure to Your Mind Map and Literature

After you have read the first PDFs and created bookmarks, you should start giving some structure to the information: Create nodes for all the important categories you plan to do research in (you can change them at any time later on). Then drag & drop the bookmarks from the incoming node to the appropriate categories. If you feel that one bookmark fits several categories, just create a copy of it. The following picture shows an example.

Giving Structure to your Mind Map and Literature (and hence to the PhD thesis)

Giving Structure to your Mind Map and Literature (and hence to the thesis)

Now you have a good overview of what you have read. On first glance, this might seem similar to a folder structure on your hard drive and indeed it is. However, there is one big advantage (and there will be more): In contrast to a folder structure, you have not only categorized your PDFs but the PDFs’ contents and you have direct access to all the bookmarks in all the PDFs via your mind map. Furthermore, creating, deleting, renaming, copying and moving nodes in a mind map is much faster than doing the same operations with folders in a file structure.

Deepening the Literature Review

To extend and deepen your literature review, you can basically go on as you did before. You find new PDFs, read them, create bookmarks, and categorized them within your mind map. Let’s assume you want more information about a certain topic that is already on your mind map. For instance, about differences between academic and classic search engine optimization. In this case, you can just click on the node “Differences between ASEO and classic SEO” in the mind map.

Add more bookmarks if a PDF is relevant for the thesis

Add more bookmarks if a PDF is relevant for the thesis

The PDF will open at the corresponding position in the paper, so you can read more about that topic and, if you like, create more bookmarks. Jumping to the in-text position of bookmarks only works when using Docear in combination with PDF XChange viewer. Other PDF viewers will open the front page of the PDF when clicking on the bookmark in the mind map. This behavior is due to the handling of bookmarks by the viewers and cannot be influenced by Docear . The new bookmarks can be easily imported by performing a right click on the respective node and selecting Import Bookmarks .

Import new PDF bookmarks to the mind map to complement the PhD literature review

Import new PDF bookmarks to the mind map to complement the literature review

After a while, you will have a large mind map with all the information that is important for your thesis. You can use the search function ( STGR+F ) to find nodes. To get a better overview, you can fold and unfold nodes by selecting a node and pressing Space .

Making Notes

Another feature that makes mind maps superior to simple file systems is the possibility to add notes. You can add any kind of text as a note to any node in the mind map. The note is shown in a hovering window when passed over by the mouse or in a separate window when clicked (see illustration).

Making additional notes in the mind map

Making additional notes in the mind map

Part II: Structuring and Drafting the Thesis

This is the second part of our tutorial on how to write a thesis. In this part, we cover how to structure and draft your thesis. There is lots of good literature on how to structure a thesis conceptually, so we will not cover this aspect in here. However, we will show you a practical way to devise, maintain and store the structure of your thesis in a mind map.

Typical structure of a PhD thesis in a mind map

A typical structure of a PhD thesis in a mind map

You start with devising a basic structure, which you can create in your literature mind map or in a new mind map, see the picture above for an example. You can then start drafting your thesis directly in the mind map. Create one node for each heading and one sub-node for each sentence (see picture below). You might wonder why not do this directly in a word processor. Simply, because it is much easier to move nodes of a mind map than to move sentences and paragraphs in a text document. Moreover, you have all the important information in your mind map already. Thus, restructuring your thesis in a mind map is much easier and quicker than using a text document. We guarantee that you will have to restructure your thesis several times before you are really happy with the structure. Additionally, you may put all the administrative data related to your thesis project such as deadlines or important contacts into your mind map, as you see in the left half of the picture above.

The following picture shows how a final mind map for a PhD thesis could look like (nodes with a circle are folded and contain additional sub-nodes). You will notice that the related work section is very similar, yet not identical to your literature mind map. Most likely you will not use all the literature you have read. Accordingly, your literature mind map will probably contain more information than the final related work section in your mind map/thesis. Therefore, we suggest using two mind maps: one for managing all your literature and one for structuring your bachelor, master or PhD thesis.

The complete draft of a PhD thesis in a mind map (nodes with a circle contain more sub nodes)

The complete draft of a PhD thesis in a mind map (nodes with a circle contain more sub nodes)

Keep in mind that your mind maps are not limited to containing PDF links. You can add text, pictures or formula, you can insert icons, link to other files and web pages, highlight nodes and much more (see Docear’s User Manual for details).  Again, have a look at the picture to get an idea of how your final mind map could look like. Now, read in the third part how to eventually write a thesis.

Part III: Writing the Thesis and Managing References

This is the third part of our tutorial on how to write a thesis. In this part, we finally explain how to write up a thesis and how to manage references.

How to Write the Thesis

Every thesis project will eventually come to the point where you start writing up everything that is in your mind map (see Part II of the tutorial) using the word processor of your choice. You could rightfully argue that typing every information twice, once in your mind map and again in your word processing software, is terribly inefficient. Docear offers a function to export your mind maps to Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, LaTeX, HTML, PDF, PNG, JPEG, SVG, and many other formats. However, we have to admit that the export function is not perfect. We suggest you try it to see if it fits your needs. Personally, we do not use the export function but draft our paper in Docear , and then write the entire paper/book/thesis/… in the text processing software. While this process requires more work, it has the advantage of carefully thinking about the text again. You will find more errors and enhance the quality of the text greatly if you write your thesis after you have structured it in great detail in the mind map than as if you had started directly in the text document. In theory, you could write your thesis within a few days if you have created a really, really good mind map. In practice, finally writing your thesis will probably take you a few weeks, because you will likely realize issues that you want to work on more during the writing process. Be assured that we know that a good export function is important and that improving Docear’s export capabilities is on our todo list. However, realizing this feature will not happen within the next few months or so.

Maintaining References

There is one important task that we have left out so far: The management of bibliographic data and creation of reference lists. For many people, this task is the most annoying in writing a thesis. Referencing a hundred or more publications in a thesis is quite common. Imagine you have to create a bibliography for 200 publications like the one shown in the right part of the picture. Now imagine, you manually created that bibliography and your supervisor tells you to use a different citation style, which means you would have to do it all over again. Alternatively, imagine you have numbered your references manually (see left part of the pictures) and for some reason, you have to insert another reference at the beginning of your thesis, thus renumber all references in your thesis.

Example of a reference list in a PhD thesis and its use in the full text

Example of a reference list in a PhD thesis and its use in the full text

Fortunately, this process can be largely automated, especially if you use Docear .

Reference Management Software

We recommend using JabRef, which by default is integrated into the Docear suite, to manage reference data. Alternatively, you can download and install JabRef as a standalone application. JabRef allows you to maintain a database of bibliographic data in BibTex format. A brief step-by-step tutorial how to create a BibTeX database and new entries using the standalone version of JabRef is available here and the complete manual here. For instructions on using the JabRef version integrated in Docear see the respective part in Docear’s User Manual .

You need to create a BibTex entry for each paper you want to cite. Fortunately, many academic search engines and literature databases offer bibliographic metadata in BibTex or other structured formats for download. Copying or importing this data into JabRef/Docear greatly speeds up the process. Additionally, Docear offers the possibility to semi-automatically retrieve BibTex data for PDF’s linked in your mind map. Eventually, your BibTeX database file will look like this.

Managing Bibliographies for a PhD thesis with JabRef

Managing Bibliographies for a thesis with JabRef

To integrate your BibTeX data with your mind map (and finally MS Word, OpenOffice, …) one more step is necessary. You need to link the corresponding PDF to the BibTeX entry. This can easily be done by drag & drop the PDF from your literature directory to the BibTeX entry.

Integrating BibTeX (JabRef) with Docear

Docear supports BibTeX (no other mind mapping software can do that). That means whenever a node in your mind map links a PDF (or PDF bookmark) the BibTeX key will be displayed as an attribute. To do so, just go to Docear | Preferences and specify your BibTeX file. Then select  Docear | Update reference keys in the current mind map .

Displying BibTeX keys and title in a mind map

Displaying BibTeX keys and title in a mind map

You now see the title and BibTeX key of the linked PDF file as an attribute. This way you can easily see where the information in your mind map is from. If the information is annoying you, select View | Attributes | Hide All Attributes (the attributes are still stored in your mind map, you just won’t see them anymore). You might not realize this right now while reading this text but actually, this feature is fantastic. It will allow you to very easily create a reference list for your thesis. Read on…

Integrating BibTeX and Docear with Microsoft Word

To automatically create reference lists in MS-Word, based on BibTeX, you need a plug-in. We recommend BibTeX4Word . The installation is anything but user-friendly and also requires the separate installation of MikTeX but it is definitely worth the effort. If you have installed BibTeX4Word you can simply copy and paste the BibTeX key from Docear to MS Word as shown in the following picture.

Copy bibliographic data from SciPlore MindMapping to your PhD thesis in MS Word

Copy bibliographic data from Docear to your thesis in MS Word

Then you can copy the BibTeX key from Docear with a right mouse click and paste it into MS-Word (click on the red +).

Creating an in-text reference in your PhD thesis

Creating an in-text reference in your thesis

After copying the BibTeX key to your word processor you just need to click on the reference list icon and the reference list is created automatically (you can choose out of hundreds of reference styles such as APA, IEEE, ACM, Harvard, …)

Create a bibliography (reference list) for your PhD thesis automatically

Create a bibliography (reference list) for your thesis automatically

That’s it, your thesis is done 🙂 To remind you what makes this tutorial (and the software Docear ) special in contrast to other software tools and tutorials is the fact that everything – PDF files, the content of PDFs (bookmarks) and references are integrated with mind mapping and word processing software. Imagine, for instance, you would not have the BibTeX keys in the mind map (or wherever else you draft your thesis with). You would have to manually make some notes where the information is from and later look the bibliographic data up in your reference manager. And without having PDF bookmarks you could hardly read in more detail about something that interests you. You might have a note somewhere (maybe even with the page number the information is from) but to look it up would take some time. With PDF bookmarks it takes 2 seconds. If you have any questions, please contact us or post a comment here in the Blog.

[1] A. Fink. Conducting research literature reviews: from the Internet to paper . Sage Publications, Inc, 2009.

[2] J.L. Galvan. Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences . Pyrczak, 3 edition, 2005.

[3] Judith Garrard. Health sciences literature review made easy: the matrix method . JONES AND BARTLETT P, 2006.

[4] Chris Hart. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . SAGE Publications, 1998.

[5] L.A. Machi and B.T. McEvoy. The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success . Corwin Press, 2008.

[6] D. Ridley. The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students . Sage, 2008.

[7] John M. Swales. Telling a Research Story: Writing a Literature Review . University of Michigan Press/ESL, 2009.

[8] Rudi Studer, Richard V. Benjamins, and Dieter Fensel. Knowledge Engineering: Principles and Methods. Data and Knowledge Engineering , 25 (1-2): 161–197, 1998. Elsevier.

[9] Steffen Staab and Rudi Studer, editors. Handbook on Ontologies in Information Systems . Springer-Verlag, 2004.

[10] Jöran Beel and Bela Gipp. Google Scholar’s Ranking Algorithm: The Impact of Citation Counts (An Empirical Study). In André Flory and Martine Collard, editors, Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS’09) , pages 439–446, Fez (Morocco), April 2009. IEEE. doi: 10.1109/RCIS.2009.5089308 . ISBN 978-1-4244-2865-6. Available on http://www.sciplore.org.

[11] Jöran Beel and Bela Gipp. Google Scholar’s Ranking Algorithm: An Introductory Overview. In Birger Larsen and Jacqueline Leta, editors, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI’09) , volume 1, pages 230–241, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), July 2009. International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics. ISSN 2175-1935. Available on http://www.sciplore.org.

[12] Jöran Beel and Bela Gipp. Google Scholar’s Ranking Algorithm: The Impact of Articles’ Age (An Empirical Study). In Shahram Latifi, editor, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG’09) , pages 160–164, Las Vegas (USA), April 2009. IEEE. doi: 10.1109/ITNG.2009.317 . ISBN 978-1424437702. Available on http://www.sciplore.org.

[13] Toni Buzan. Making the Most of your Mind . Pan Books, 1977.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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Joeran Beel

Please visit https://isg.beel.org/people/joeran-beel/ for more details about me.

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fiefie · 10th December 2015 at 04:17

Thank you. I’m in the midst of preparing my literature chapter and I found this tutorial is really helpful. Help me to understand much about the reference manager.

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Daniel White · 11th March 2015 at 18:36

Currently Iam in the middle of my disserttaion working on chapter two. Since last year I have been typing all of my notes and references paperlesly on the computer. Finding this tutorial really helps and I will be using it.

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writing software for phd thesis

Grad Coach

25+ Dissertation & Thesis Writing Apps

Everything You Need To Optimise Your Research Journey

Contributors: Derek J ansen (MBA),   Kerryn Warren (PhD) &  David Phair (PhD) | May 2024

Completing your dissertation   or thesis requires a hearty investment of time, effort and hard work. There’s no shortcut on the road to research success, but as with anything, there are   ways to optimise the process   and work smarter.

Here, we’ll share with you a wide range of apps, software and services that will   make your life a little easier   throughout the research process. While these apps can save you a lot of time, remember that your dissertation or thesis needs to be your own work – no tool should be doing the writing on your behalf. Also, be sure to check your university’s policy regarding AI-based tools and support before using any apps, tools or software. 

Overview: Dissertation & Thesis Apps

  • Literature review
  • Data collection
  • Qualitative data analysis
  • Quantitative data analysis
  • Writing & Plagiarism
  • Project management
  • Reference management
  • Honourable mentions

Literature Review & Search Apps

The following apps and tools can help you discover, analyse, and synthesise scholarly materials, significantly streamlining the literature review process.

writing software for phd thesis

Scite AI – Find & evaluate sources

The Scite AI app uses ‘Smart Citations’ to show how academic papers are discussed—i.e.,  supported, contradicted, or mentioned. This can help you fast-track the literature review process and source highly relevant papers quickly. 

writing software for phd thesis

Petal – Chat with your literature

Petal is an AI-driven tool that revolutionises your interaction with documents by enabling direct, context-aware conversations. Upload an article and it will swiftly summarise its contents and allow you to ask questions about the specific study (or studies).

Consensus

Consensus – ChatGPT for academia

The Consensus app uses a powerful AI engine to connect you to over 200 million scientific papers. It allows precise searches and efficiently summarises key research findings . PS – Get 40% off Consensus Premium by using the coupon code GRADCOACH40.

Litmaps

Litmaps – Visualise related papers

This app is great for quickly identifying relevant research. For any given keyword or resource, it will provide you with a visual citation network, showing how studies are interconnected. This reveals both direct and tangential connections to other research, highlighting gaps and key discussions within your field.

Connected Papers

Connected Papers – An alternative

Similar to Litmaps, Connected Papers visually maps academic research, simplifying how you explore related studies. Just input a paper, and it charts connections, helping identify key literature and gaps. It’s ideal for staying updated on emerging research.

writing software for phd thesis

Elicit – An “AI research assistant”

Another AI-powered tool, Elicit automates the discovery, screening, and data extraction from academic papers efficiently. This makes it useful for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as it allows you to focus on deeper analysis across various fields​.

Data Collection & Preparation

These apps and tools can assist you in terms of collecting and organising both qualitative and quantitative data for your dissertation or thesis.

Survey Monkey

SurveyMonkey – Simple surveys

SurveyMonkey is a versatile tool for creating and distributing surveys. It simplifies collecting and analysing data, helping you craft surveys that generate reliable results. Well suited for the vast majority of postgraduate research projects.

Qualtrics

Qualtrics – An alternative

Qualtrics is a comprehensive survey tool with advanced creation, distribution, and analysis capabilities. It supports complex survey designs and robust data analysis, making it ideal for gathering detailed insights and conducting high-quality research.

Otter

Otter – Easy draft transcription

Otter is an AI-powered transcription tool that converts spoken words into text. It captures and transcribes lectures, interviews, and meetings in real time. Naturally, it’s not 100% accurate (you’ll need to verify), but it can certainly save you some time.

Qualitative Data Analysis

These software packages can help you organise and analyse qualitative data for your dissertation, thesis or research project.

writing software for phd thesis

NVivo – All-in-one qual platform

NVivo is a powerful qualitative data analysis software that facilitates data organisation, coding, and analysis. It supports a wide range of data types and methodologies, enabling detailed analysis and helping you extract rich insights from your data.

writing software for phd thesis

MaxQDA – QDA simplified

MAXQDA is a robust qualitative data analysis software that helps you systematically organise, evaluate, and interpret complex datasets. A little easier to get started with than NVivo, it’s ideal for first-time dissertation and thesis writers.

writing software for phd thesis

ATLAS.ti – For large datasets

ATLAS.ti offers robust tools for organising, coding, and examining diverse materials such as text, graphics, and multimedia. It’s well-suited for researchers aiming to weave detailed, data-driven narratives as it streamlines complex analysis tasks efficiently.

writing software for phd thesis

Delve – An intuitive interface

Delve is an intuitive qualitative data analysis tool designed to streamline the qualitative analysis process. Ideal for dissertations, Delve simplifies the process from initial data organisation to in-depth analysis, helping you efficiently manage and interpret complex datasets for clearer insights.

Quantitative (Statistical) Data Analysis

These software packages can help you organise and analyse quantitative (statistical) data for your dissertation, thesis or research project.

writing software for phd thesis

Julius – Your “AI data analyst”

Julius is an AI-powered data analysis tool that simplifies the process of analysing and visualising data for academic research. It allows you to “chat” with your data, create graphs, build forecasting models, and generate comprehensive analyses.

writing software for phd thesis

IBM SPSS – The “old faithful”

The OG of statistical analysis software, SPSS is ideal for students handling quantitative data in their dissertations and theses. It simplifies complex statistical testing, data management, and graphical representation, helping you derive robust insights.

writing software for phd thesis

R Studio – For the data wizards

While admittedly a little intimidating at first, R is a versatile software for statistical computing. It’s well-suited for quantitative dissertations and theses, offering a wide range of packages and robust community support to streamline your work.

writing software for phd thesis

STATA – For the data scientists

Stata is yet another comprehensive statistical software widely used for data management, statistical analysis, and graphical representation. It can efficiently handle large datasets and perform advanced statistical analyses.

Writing Improvement & Plagiarism Tools

These apps and tools can help enhance your writing and proactively identify potential plagiarism issues.

writing software for phd thesis

Grammarly – Improve your writing

Grammarly is a writing assistant that can help enhance academic writing by checking for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation in real time. It also features a plagiarism detection system , helping you to proactively avoid academic misconduct.

writing software for phd thesis

Jenni – An AI “writing assistant”

Jenni AI helps you draft, cite, and edit with ease, streamlining the writing process and tackling writer’s block. Well suited for ESL students and researchers, Jenni helps ensure that your work is both precise, clear and grammatically sound.

Quillbot

Quillbot – Paraphrasing simplified

Quillbot is yet another AI-powered writing tool that can help streamline the writing process. Specifically, it can assist with paraphrasing , correcting grammar, and improving clarity and flow. It also features a citation generator and plagiarism checker .

writing software for phd thesis

Quetext – Solid plagiarism checking

Quetext is a plagiarism detection tool that helps ensure the originality of your academic work. It cross-references your documents against extensive online databases to highlight potential plagiarism and generate detailed reports.

Project & Time Management

These apps can help you plan your research project and manage your time, so that you can work as efficiently as possible.

writing software for phd thesis

GanttPro – PM simplified

An intuitive project management tool, GanttPro simplifies planning and tracking for dissertations or theses. It offers detailed Gantt charts to visualise task timelines, dependencies, and progress, helping you ensure timely completion of each section.

writing software for phd thesis

Trello – Drag-and-drop PM

Trello is a versatile project management tool that helps you organise your dissertation or thesis process effectively. By creating boards for each chapter or section, you can track progress, set deadlines, and coordinate tasks efficiently.

writing software for phd thesis

Toggl – Make every minute count

A user-friendly time-tracking app that helps you manage your research project effectively. With Toggl, you can precisely track how much time you spend on specific tasks. This will help you avoid distractions and stay on track throughout your journey.

Reference Management

These apps and tools will help you keep your academic resources well organised and ensure that your citations and references are perfectly formatted, every time.

writing software for phd thesis

Mendeley – Your citations, sorted

Mendeley is your go-to reference management tool that simplifies academic writing by keeping your sources neatly organised. Perfect for dissertations and theses, it lets you easily store, search, and cite your resources directly in MS Word.

writing software for phd thesis

Zotero – Great for Google Docs

Zotero is a free-to-use reference manager that ensures your sources are well-organised and flawlessly cited. It helps you collect, organise, and cite your research sources seamlessly. A great alternative to Mendeley if you’re using Google Docs.

writing software for phd thesis

Endnote – A paid option

Yet another reference management option, Endnote is sometimes specifically required by universities. It efficiently organises and stores research materials, making citation and bibliography creation (largely) effortless.

Honourable Mentions

Now that we’ve covered the more “exciting” dissertation apps and tools, it’s worth quickly making one or two mundane but essential mentions before we wrap up.

You’ll need a reliable word processor.

In terms of word processors, Microsoft Word will likely be your go-to, but it’s not the only option. If you don’t have a license for Word, you can certainly consider using Google Docs, which is completely free. Zotero offers a direct integration with Google Docs, making it easy to manage your citations and references. If you want to go to the other extreme, you can consider LaTeX, a professional typesetting software often used in academic documents.

You’ll need cloud storage.

The number of times we’ve seen students lose hours, days or even weeks’ worth of hard work (and even miss the submission deadline) due to corrupted flash drives or hard drives, coffee-soaked laptops, or stolen computers is truly saddening. If you’re not using cloud storage to save your work, you’re running a major risk. Go sign up for any of the following cloud services (most offer a free version) and save your work there:

  • Google Drive
  • iCloud Drive

Not only will this ensure your work is always safely stored (remember to hit the Save button, though!), but it will make working on multiple devices easier, as your files will be automatically synchronised. No need to have multiple versions between your desktop, laptop, tablet, etc. Everything stays in one place. Safe, secure, happy files.

Need a helping hand?

writing software for phd thesis

Key Takeaways: Dissertation & Thesis Apps

And there you have it – a hearty selection of apps, software and services that will undoubtedly make your life easier come dissertation time.

To recap, we’ve covered tools across a range of categories:

Remember, while these apps can help optimise your dissertation or thesis writing journey, you still need to put in the work . Be sure to carefully review your university’s rules and regulations regarding what apps and tools you can use – especially anything AI-related.

Have a suggestion? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Simply leave a comment below and we’ll consider adding your suggested app to the list.

You Might Also Like:

Dissertation writing struggles

15 Comments

Gale

It seems some of the apps mentioned are not android capable. It would be nice if you mentioned items that everyone could use.

Derek Jansen

Thanks for the feedback, Gale!

Maggie

Yet to explore some of your recommended apps. I am glad to commend on one app that I have started using, Mendeley. When it comes to referencing it really helps a lot.

Great to hear that, Maggie 🙂

Haseena Akhtar

I have got Mendeley and it is fantastic. I have equally downloaded Freemind but I am yet to really understand how to navigate through it.

Based on your YouTube lessons,my literature review and the entire research has been simplified and I am enjoying the flow now,more than ever before.

Thank you so much for your recommendations and guide.It’s working a great deal for me.

Remain blessed!

mikael badgett

Thank you for all the amazing help and tutorials. I am in the dissertation research proposal stage having already defended the qualifying paper. I am going to implement some of your advice as I revise chapters 1 & 2 and expand chapter 3 for my research proposal. My question is about the writing– or specifically which software would you recommend. I know MS Word can get glitchy with larger documents. Do the “reference” apps you recommend work with other options such as LaTeX? I understand that for some programs the citations won’t be integrated or automated such as cite while you write etc.. I have a paid version of endnote, and free versions of mendeley and zotero. I have really only used endnote with any fidelity but I’m willing to adapt. What would you advise at this point?

Derek Jansen

Thanks for your comment and for the kind words – glad to hear that the info is useful.

Generally, Word works reasonably well for most research projects and is our first recommendation. As long as one keeps the document clean (i.e. doesn’t paste in loads of different styles, ultra high-res images, etc), it works fine. But I understand that it’s not perfect for absolutely huge projects.

Regarding referencing with Latex, this article covers how to use Mendeley with Latex – https://blog.mendeley.com/2011/10/25/howto-use-mendeley-to-create-citations-using-latex-and-bibtex/ . Perhaps it will be useful. I hesitate to tell you to adopt software X or Y, or to move from Endnote, as each software has its strengths and weaknesses, and performs better in certain contexts. I’m not familiar with your context, so it’s not possible for me to advise responsibly. Mendeley works well for the vast majority of our students, but if there’s a very specific bit of functionality that draws you to Endnote, then it may be best to stick with it. My generic advice would be to give Mendeley a try with some sample references and see if it has the functionality you need.

I hope this helps! Best of luck with your research 🙂

Joyce

Thank you for your amazing articles and tips. I have MAC laptop, so would Zotero be as good as Mendeley? Thank you

Abdelhamid Jebbouri

Derek would you share with me your email please, I need to talk to you urgently.

Dr Peter Nemaenzhe,PhD

I need a free Turnitin tool for checking plagiarism as for the tools above

Veronica Y. Wallace

I have been going crazy trying to keep my work polished and thesis or dissertation friendly. My mind said there had to be a better way to do literature reviews. Thank God for these applications. Look out world I am on my way.

Sebisibe Sibere Wolde

Wow Thanks for this write-up i find it hard to track down extremely good guidance out there when it comes to this material appreciate for the publish site

Aamir nazir Ganie

Sir I have chosen topic substance abuse and psychological makeup a study on secondary school students but my supervisor told me to see some variable on this on which u work plz Need ur help

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writing software for phd thesis

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Here are a few softwares that will make writing a PhD thesis easier 

Writing a PhD can be a huge task but thanks to these softwares, you can save some time

The stages of PhD are as follows: coursework, literature review, thesis proposal, experimental program, analytical studies, numerical studies, comparison, synopsis submission, thesis writing, presentation delivery at synopsis and viva-voce meeting.

Of these, one of the challenging and time-consuming tasks is thesis writing. In this article, some software which assist the writing of PhD thesis are discussed. The list of software assists in making the thesis writing process easier.

Text-to-speech  Text-to-speech software converts the text in documents into speech. If students feel that it is difficult to read journal papers continuously, then text-to-speech software tool is the best alternative. While reading your own thesis with text-to-speech software, 'usage mistake' in English can be identified, which cannot be corrected by spelling or grammar checking tools. For example, if compassion is written mistakenly instead of compression, the spelling or grammar checking software will not highlight the mistake. When the text is read aloud, the mistake can be easily spotted. Zabaware and Natural reader are the available text-to-speech open source software.  Speech-to-text Generally, the number of pages in a PhD thesis ranges between 150 and 300. Of course, typing long essays in the computer is a time consuming and tedious process. This speech-to-text software tool is an alternative to the conventional method of typing in the computer. Speech notes extension in Chrome browser is a useful tool which converts speech to text. The detection of speech using this extension is more accurate since the tool has the option "English, India", whereas other options available are " English US and English UK". The same can be achieved through google docs too.  Grammarly/Ginger Grammarly is a spelling and grammar check software tool which is used to deliver error-free documents. Grammarly automatically detects grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice and style errors in any written documents. Either copy paste of the text to the primary editor of Grammarly or installing the add-on to MS Word can be done so that the document shall be proof-checked. In the premium version, Grammarly provides vocabulary enhancement suggestions, detection of Plagiarism and citation suggestions. Mendeley  Mendeley is a desktop web program used for reference management. It is useful for reading, organising and citing references from various sources. Everyone from students, researchers to lecturers may use this opensource software for storing, sharing and citing articles. Also, it is useful in collaborating with others online and discover the latest research.   Formatting techniques  Custom Templates can be created and edited using the option ‘styles’ in MS word, which can be saved as ‘.dotx’ file. Template formatting allows the user to define font, spacing, size and indent of heading, subheading, text, the title of the table, figure and equation.  Video editing/gif preparation   Many journals encourage authors to submit supplementary video material as supporting documents for the manuscript. Using Photoshop CS6 software, video or GIF can be created and edited. GIF can be used for small animations and low-resolution video clips.  Digitiser  Digitization is representing an object or image by generating series of numbers that describe a discrete set of its points. The plot digitiser is a free open source software used in digitizing graphs and plots. The objects like contour map and cracks of structural members can be digitized using “IMAGEATTCH” command in AutoCAD. Further, digitized image can be scaled up using “SCALE” command.  Plagiarism checker   Turnitin is a commercial, Internet-based plagiarism-detection service. Universities and research institutions typically buy licenses to use the software-as-a-service website which checks submitted documents against its database and the content of other websites with the aim of identifying plagiarism. Results can identify similarities with existing sources, and can also be used in formative assessment to help students avoid plagiarism and improve their writing.  Writing skills improvement Learn English writing for free with video lessons by experienced native-speaker teachers in EngVid, a YouTube channel. Classes cover English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, writing, listening, speaking, and more.  ( Dr Leon Raj J, PhD (IIT Madras) is working as Scientist in CSIR North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam)

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  • PhD Thesis Writing Software

Your Thesis Deserves More Than Just Automated Assistance

In the rapidly evolving landscape of academic research, technology has emerged as an indispensable ally, simplifying various aspects of the thesis writing process. PhD thesis writing software offers a range of automated features, from formatting your document with precise adherence to university guidelines to identifying and rectifying grammar errors that can often elude even the most meticulous eye. These tools also aid in organizing vast volumes of information into a coherent structure and ensure accurate citations that underscore the authenticity of your work. Moreover, with the ability to streamline complex data analysis, they have undoubtedly become a time-saving boon for researchers.

However, as pioneering as these software solutions may be, at Thesis India, we firmly believe that your thesis deserves more than just automated assistance. Crafting an exemplary research document goes beyond mere technicalities and mandates a human touch, an in-depth understanding of the subject matter, and years of research experience that software alone cannot replicate. While these programs can undoubtedly expedite certain aspects of thesis writing, they may not possess the ability to grasp the nuanced intricacies of your research objectives, which are paramount to producing truly exceptional academic work.

Personalized Support

Our team of expert research consultants steps in to bridge the gap between the potential of technology and the unparalleled value of human expertise. When you entrust your academic journey to us, you gain access to a dedicated consultant who will work closely with you at every stage of the thesis writing process. Our consultants bring a wealth of knowledge across diverse subject areas, enabling them to offer personalized support tailored to your unique research needs.

Beyond formatting and grammar, our consultants delve into the core of your research, helping you refine your research questions, choose the most appropriate methodology, and design an impactful study. They provide critical insights that foster intellectual growth and elevate the quality of your research, resulting in a thesis that resonates with academic excellence. Moreover, our commitment to nurturing your academic success extends to offering guidance in writing a compelling synopsis and crafting a research paper worthy of publication in prestigious impact factor journals. At Thesis India, we combine the best of both worlds to help you achieve unparalleled success in your academic pursuits.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

The Synergy of Mind and Machine. Get Your Thesis Enhanced by Experts.

While academic writing software can be helpful tools for thesis writing, relying too heavily on these tools can actually weigh down the researcher. Software may promise a quick and easy solution, but it can't replace the critical thinking and creativity that is essential for producing a truly exceptional thesis. Furthermore, while some academic writing software may claim to be able to write entire theses, this can lead to a lack of originality and a disconnect between the researcher and their work. At Thesis India, we believe that a human touch is essential for successful academic writing. Our team of research consultants uses their expertise and experience to guide scholars through the research process and help them produce original and impactful theses.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Expert Research Consultants

At Thesis India, we understand that a well-crafted thesis demands more than just eloquent writing; it requires in-depth research, critical analysis, and a thorough understanding of your subject matter. Our team of experienced research consultants is dedicated to providing personalized support and guidance, ensuring that your thesis not only showcases exceptional writing but is also well-researched and well-supported.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Advanced Tools and Software

Embracing the advantages of technology, we offer access to the latest academic writing software and cutting-edge PhD thesis writing software. These advanced tools serve as valuable aids in streamlining your research and writing process without compromising on quality or individuality. From formatting and grammar refinement to efficient data analysis, our software solutions equip you with the means to tackle the technical intricacies, freeing you to focus on the intellectual exploration that defines your research.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Personalized Approach

Unlike automated software programs, we believe in the power of a human touch. Our personalized approach to each project involves working closely with you to understand your unique needs and requirements. This collaborative process allows us to grasp the essence of your research objectives and tailor our support to align perfectly with your vision. Whether you seek assistance in research design, literature sourcing, or structuring your arguments, our consultants are dedicated to providing solutions tailored to your research journey.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

High-Quality Results

Our primary goal is to help you achieve excellence in your research, and we pride ourselves on delivering high-quality results that not only meet but exceed your expectations. From the inception of your project to its finalization, we are committed to maintaining the utmost standards of academic integrity and precision.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Flexible Services

Recognizing that every researcher's journey is unique, we offer a variety of services to meet your individual needs. Whether you require comprehensive support from the initial stages of research or seek assistance with specific aspects of your thesis, we provide flexible service options, ensuring you receive precisely the level of support that best compliments your requirements.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Expertise in Your Field

Research is not confined to a single domain, and neither are our consultants. With expertise spanning a wide range of fields, we have the capacity to assist you with any type of research project. No matter the subject area or research focus, our team is well-equipped to guide you towards producing a thesis that reflects the pinnacle of knowledge and research in your field.

Embrace the synergy of human expertise and advanced tools with Thesis India by your side, you can unlock the true potential of your research and pave the way for a brilliant academic future.

Meeting Your PhD Goals With Confidence

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Plagiarism-Free Guarantee

At Thesis India, we uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. Plagiarism is a grave concern in research, and to safeguard your academic reputation, we employ advanced software to meticulously scan all work for potential plagiarism. With our unwavering commitment to originality, you can be confident that your thesis will be 100% authentic and unique, a true reflection of your scholarly contributions.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Expert Writing and Editing

Our esteemed team of experienced writers and editors is dedicated to crafting top-notch theses that transcend expectations. Armed with the latest research techniques and writing strategies, our experts meticulously hone every aspect of your thesis to perfection. From coherent structure to compelling arguments, we leave no stone unturned in ensuring that your thesis stands as an exemplar of academic excellence.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

On-Time Delivery

We understand the significance of timely submissions in your academic journey. Meeting deadlines is crucial, and we take this responsibility seriously. With unwavering diligence and streamlined processes, we guarantee on-time delivery, empowering you to proceed with confidence, knowing that your academic goals are well within reach.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Confidentiality and Security

Trust and confidentiality lie at the heart of our service. We recognize the sensitivity of your research and personal information, and thus, we employ robust security protocols to safeguard your data at every juncture. Your trust is of paramount importance to us, and we ensure that all client information remains strictly confidential. With Thesis India, you can have peace of mind, knowing that your intellectual property and personal details are safeguarded with utmost care.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Client-Centric Support

Our commitment to your success goes beyond words. We take immense pride in our client-centric approach, which places your needs and aspirations at the forefront of our service. Throughout your thesis journey, our attentive support team is available to address your queries, provide guidance, and ensure a seamless collaboration. Your satisfaction is our priority, and we strive to exceed your expectations at every turn.

Go Beyond These Limitations Of PhD Thesis Writing Software

Our experts ensure your research is error-free, steering clear of software glitches. Complex data becomes clearer as experts offer valuable insights and critical analysis. We easily adapt to your changing research requirements, unlike rigid software. Free yourself from tech dependence, avoiding its malfunctions. Let our writing bring context and nuance to your work, avoiding robotic language. Our human consultants replace software with creativity and expertise, taking your thesis to new heights. Experience a truly unique approach, reshaping excellence in your thesis.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Lack Of Personalization

Automated software lacks the human touch needed for tailoring guidance to individual research projects, hindering the development of unique and comprehensive theses.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Potential For Errors And Glitches

Software may encounter technical issues leading to inaccuracies or overlooked errors, potentially compromising the quality and reliability of the thesis.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Limited Ability To Interpret Complex Data And Information

The software's analytical capabilities are constrained, making it challenging to effectively analyze intricate data sets and draw nuanced conclusions.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Inability To Provide Critical Analysis Or Insight

Automated programs lack the cognitive abilities to offer meaningful insights, limiting the depth and depth of critical analysis in the thesis.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Difficulty In Adapting To Changing Research Requirements

As research evolves, software may struggle to adapt to new methodologies or research directions, hindering the thesis's progress.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Dependence On Technology, Which Can Fail Or Malfunction

Relying solely on software exposes the thesis to potential risks from technical failures, which could disrupt the writing process.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Limited Ability To Account For Context Or Nuance In Writing

Software may not comprehend the contextual intricacies necessary for crafting coherent and sophisticated academic writing.

PhD Thesis Writing Software

Inability To Replace The Creativity And Expertise Of A Human Writer Or Consultant

Automated tools cannot replicate the creativity, deep understanding, and specialized expertise that human writers and consultants offer in crafting a thesis.

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3 Best Online Paraphrasing Tools for a Ph.D.’s Research Paper

While you are looking to complete any higher education degree after graduation, you need to do research and write a research paper. Without a properly written paper, you won’t be able to complete your Ph.D. degree. You have to pick any topic related to your subject and do proper research on it. 

While writing a research paper, it might be possible that you have got plagiarism in your paper. It is because you might have to copy someone’s ideas while researching the internet.

Also, it might be possible that you have indulged in other ideas too much. In such a case, you can write their views without even noticing it. 

A paper with plagiarism will not be accepted by any instructor or professor. So, you need to eliminate plagiarism from your work to make it unique. This is where a paraphrasing tool comes to complete your task. With this tool, you can replace plagiarized words with other unique words. 

Also, it will keep the idea of the paper the same before and after paraphrasing. In such a case, you can eliminate duplication from your work to make it unique. 

Many people ask why they need a paraphrasing tool when they can do this task manually. Here is a short answer for such queries that come to your mind. 

Why Paraphrasing tool is essential for a Ph.D. research paper?

While writing a research paper, you might have to write subject-specific terminologies in your work. It is common to copy the entire line or phrase when you are using such words. 

If you are using statistical data, you can give credit to the original author. But if it is a general line with some subject-specific words, then you have to face the worst results regarding plagiarism. 

You can put your lines in a paraphrasing tool and click on the button in such a case. It will change the words with synonyms and other related words to make them unique. 

Also, this tool will not change the meaning of the entire line or paragraph. Along with efficient rewriting, it will make the process of paraphrasing fast. 

In manual conversion, you might have to invest a lot of time to read every line and then rewrite it. With this tool, you only have to wait for few minutes to get new lines. 

Now, you only have to copy those lines and paste them into your paper after proofreading it. 

Best Paraphrasing tools for research papers

There are many paraphrasing tools available over the internet. In the case of blog rewriting, you can pick any of these because such writings don’t include technical words. 

But you have to pick a reliable and efficient tool for your research paper. Here are the 3 best tools that we recommend you to use for rewriting any educational paper for 100% accurate results. 

Paraphrasing tool by Prepostseo.com

This platform is offering the best of all paraphrasing tools to extract duplication from any research paper. The main reason for its efficiency is multiple modes of working. 

By switching to any of the available modes, you will be able to rewrite lines, paragraphs, or topics within few minutes. You only have to paste the duplicated content in the given box to start the process. 

This is a reliable tool for an educational paper because of the multiple features available. To keep subject-specific words or terms, you can use the box given under the text insertion box. 

Here, you need to type all those words that you want to exclude while paraphrasing and separate them by using commas. In this way, you can protect your paper’s integrity and keep your work safe. 

This tool will only replace other words with synonyms and related phrases. With this, you have to do nothing but copy and paste the new content in your research paper. 

Paraphrasing tool by Check-plagiarism.com

Here is another efficient and reliable tool for educational papers paraphrase online. This tool will allow you to rewrite any part of your content to make it unique. 

You only have to get a tool to check for plagiarism and copy those lines properly. Then, you can submit all those lines collectively or one by one in the given box. 

Once you have written or pasted all lines precisely, you only need to hit the “Paraphrase” button. This tool also has two different working modes. 

You can rewrite any number of words in a single turn using simple mode. We recommend you try the AI mode of this tool while rewriting your research paper. 

This tool will process your given data and show the results step by step. In the first step, you only have to upload, paste, or write the content that you want to change. 

After clicking the button, the tool will do processing and will take you to step number three box. Here you will get all those words that the tool has changed in colorful format. 

By clicking on every word, you can check new and original words at a time. It has made the process of proofreading easy and efficient. You can edit the words if you found anything irregular in this section. 

After this, you only have to click next, showing you a final copy of the content in plain text format. So, you can copy the content and paste it anywhere you want. 

Paraphrasing tool by Rephrase.info

Another efficient paraphrasing tool is offered by rephrase.info . This tool has a similar interface and working method with the tool by check-plagiarism. 

You have to follow the tool’s working similarly as you have done in the previous section. The main difference between these tools is that you can upload a document having multiple formats in this tool. 

It has become easier for everyone to use this tool and eliminate plagiarism from the content with this. In addition to this, you will find it faster than any other paraphrasing tool. 

It will take few seconds only to make your paper unique and creative. Furthermore, you don’t need to register your account with this platform to use this tool. 

In short, this platform will enable you to complete every task related to writing and rewriting a research paper. 

Wrapping Up

Whether you have found intentional or unintentional plagiarism in your work, you need to eliminate it properly. In such a case, a paraphrasing tool will act as a magical stick for you. 

It will take few seconds to make your work free from any kind of duplication. So, you can take your paper and submit it to your professor for checking its validity to complete your Ph.D. degree. 

Dr Tushar Chauhan

Dr. Tushar Chauhan is a Scientist, Blogger and Scientific-writer. He has completed PhD in Genetics. Dr. Chauhan is a PhD coach and tutor.

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Thesis Apps: Best Applications & Software for Graduate Students

The process of writing a thesis requires a lot of time and patience. Custom-writing.org experts are willing to make this task easier for you. We’ve compiled a list of thesis writing apps and software. These tools will help you make plans and self-organize. There are also free apps to improve your productivity, help you carry out the research, boost your vocabulary, and check your work for mistakes.

With the thesis apps on this list, you won’t ever have to wonder how to write a dissertation because you’ll know the answer – it’s easy!

  • 📑 Word Processors
  • ⏰ Time Managers
  • 🚀 Productivity Apps
  • 🎓 Dictionaries
  • 🔬 Research Tools
  • 🔤 Grammar Checkers

1. 📑 Word Processors and Note-Taking Apps

This should be a no-brainer, but writing is one of the essential parts of creating a thesis. So it’s evident that you need to have the best thesis apps to deal with this task effectively.

Here are some apps that you might want to check out.

  • Google docs . This is probably the first app that comes to mind when you think of alternative free word processors. It has all the functionality and capabilities you’ll need to write and format your thesis. It also allows users to work together on the same document in real-time. It’s available for Android, iOS, or as a web app.
  • WPS Office . This multi-platform solution includes not only a word processor. It’s also a full-fledged office suite that allows you to create and work with spreadsheets, presentations, and PDF documents. What else could you need to create a perfect thesis?
  • Office Online . This one is for those who want to get the most out of Microsoft Office for free. This one is as good as it can get — an online version of Office. Enough said.
  • Jarte . This is a free word processor based on the WordPad engine. It has all the necessary functions and provides a comfortable way to work with text—and it’s free. This app also can export your documents to PDF and HTML files.
  • Evernote , Google Keep , and OneNote . The reason why we put these three together? They’re all note-taking apps. Do we know that there are many other similar apps too? Yes, we do. But there’s a reason why these three are so popular. They all offer the same thing – a way to keep all your notes in one place. The difference between them is how it’s all organized, along with some extra features. All of these thesis writing apps are free, too.

2. ⏰ Time-Managing Thesis Apps

With all the steps you need to complete to write a good thesis, it’s not hard to get lost. You can quickly get stuck in one place without knowing what to do and end up making no progress at all.

Or you can use one of the dissertation apps in this category to build a plan and organize your workflow!

  • Pocket . Pocket brings order to the chaos of posts and articles you want to read or use to write your thesis. You can easily save them all in one place and look through them later. Then you can decide whether or not you’ll need a particular piece of information.
  • Todoist . This one is a free time manager (though it also has paid plans with extra features). With this app, you can set deadlines for each stage of your thesis creation process, and it will remind you of them beforehand. This app will help you stay on track of what plans are waiting for you next.
  • Wunderlist . This to-do list app indeed does wonders. It lets you build short- and long-term plans and keep them all in order. You can set notifications to stay on track and always be sure that you’re performing according to your schedule, whether it’s a particular stage of your thesis writing or some other assignment.

3. 🚀 Thesis Apps to Improve Productivity

We all have days when things don’t work, and everything is a distraction. So how can you deal with this all-too-common problem?

There’s a good selection of productivity apps that can help you out. With one of these, you’ll finish writing your thesis in no time.

  • Any.do . This one is a task manager that’ll help you stay on track of whatever your current tasks are. It will help you build a habit of reviewing your tasks and make sure that you know which assignments you need to pay the most attention to at the moment. With this app, you won’t miss deadlines or find yourself wondering what to do next.
  • IFTTT . This tool allows you to create short automation sequences without any coding skills. It will remember every little thing that you tend to forget. On the one hand, you’ll get those things done; on the other—you won’t get distracted by those tasks and will be able to concentrate on what’s important right now. The app supports plenty of services and is easy to use.
  • RescueTime . This app will track the time you spend completing tasks. It will also report all the websites you visit, the apps you use, and breaks you take during the day. By doing so, it helps you create greater self-awareness. As a result, you’ll immediately see whether something is going wrong and keeping you from following your plan.
  • StayFocusd . This Chrome extension helps you stay focused on your current task (which, of course, explains its name). It will block all those distracting sites that tend to get in your way while you’re working. You can set a specific time for blocking or choosing a time limit for a certain time during the day.
  • Write or Die . This one is a web-based tool. It is also available for iOS, with an Android version coming soon. The tool helps you eliminate writer’s block. Within the app, you can set a specific period and the word count you need to reach within this time. It also features stimuli and rewarding images.

4. 🎓 Vocabulary Boosters and Dictionaries

At this stage, dictionaries and vocabulary boosters come into play.

  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary . This is one of the most well-known dictionaries out there. Apart from listing definitions and offering a thesaurus, it also features word games. These word games aim to increase your vocabulary, which will come in handy when writing a thesis. Apart from having a web-based version, there are also apps available for Android and iOS.
  • Cambridge Dictionary . This is another famous dictionary listing almost every aspect and sphere imaginable. In long-term perspective, it’s even more useful than the best thesis statement generator , as it can potentially provide you with knowledge you’ll keep forever. All of the resources are available from the site, widget, or official mobile apps. A wide selection of available dictionaries and thesauruses will surely meet all of your writing needs.
  • The Free Dictionary . There are many things to discover under this simple name. This web service provides dictionaries on a variety of topics. It also features a thesaurus, idioms, acronyms, a grammar book, and encyclopedia articles. What else can you ask for?

5. 🔬 Tools for Conducting Research

Another essential part of writing a thesis is research. Without properly researched sources and data , everything that’s written in your thesis will be highly questionable.

To avoid poorly supported arguments , and to be able to conduct outstanding research, consider using one of the following tools.

  • Mendeley . Once you try this tool, you won’t believe that you ever researched without it. It will help you complete any type of research, come up with a topic for your paper, organize your literature review , make annotations, and manage your research materials. This multi-platform tool also allows syncing across all your devices.
  • Mindmup , Bubbl.us . Both of these apps are great tools for mind mapping. They’ll help you get all of your thoughts and ideas in order. This organization will significantly help your research, as everything will be neatly organized and accessible. Both of these tools have free plans and web versions. They only differ with their extra features.
  • WolframAlpha . This is a go-to source of expert knowledge on a wide variety of disciplines. This answer engine is also available on mobile platforms. Instead of just giving a list of documents or web pages that may or may not answer your question, it comes up with results from a curated knowledge base in response to your query.

6. 🔤 Grammar Checkers

Everyone makes mistakes. But it’s not a bad idea to make sure that there’s none in your thesis. The apps described below can help you with that.

  • Hemingway Editor . This tool aims to improve your writing style and make it as straightforward as possible. It makes colored highlights to indicate long or very complicated sentences. As a result, you get a clean piece of content that’s understandable and easy to digest.
  • Ginger . This multi-platform solution helps you find and correct all types of grammar mistakes. It also makes it easier to edit text, which improves your overall productivity, as you’ll spend less time correcting errors.
  • Grammarly . This tool has gained so much popularity that it probably doesn’t even require an introduction. It finds and corrects mistakes that no word processor can spot. The tool has a browser extension, offline software, and a premium version with extra features.

Hopefully, you’ll get some thesis help by using these free tools. With these apps at your disposal, you’ll be able to craft a fantastic thesis easily.

Did we miss something? Are there any free thesis apps that you like to use that aren’t on this list? Tell us about them in the comments!

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  1. ALL RESEARCH TOOLS for your THESIS WRITING!

  2. PhD Thesis Writing Vlog: Day 5

  3. PhD Thesis Writing Vlog: Day 4

  4. GET PhD Thesis and Dissertation Writing Services #phd #thesiswritingservices #phdthesis

  5. PhD Thesis Writing Vlog: Day 2

  6. 10 essential apps for every PhD Student

COMMENTS

  1. 7 Must-Have Thesis Writing Tools in 2021

    In summary, the very first software or app or tool every PhD student is required is Mendeley to write a thesis. It's a citation and reference manager tool. Evernote "Notes" as writing, images, pdf, article, news paragraph is an everyday part of a PhD student. Whatever you read, whenever you find things related to your PhD topic, you have ...

  2. 45 Software Tools for Writing Thesis

    1. Reference Management Software. Comprehensive reference management software, such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote, is a must-have tool for any thesis writer. These tools help you organize and manage your references efficiently, generate citations in different formats, and create a bibliography effortlessly. They save time, eliminate the risk ...

  3. 20 Best Academic Writing Software in 2024

    1. Microsoft Word: Write Like a Pro. Microsoft Word is a popular word-processing program used for writing an essay, a dissertation, or other written academic requirements. It's a 1983 Microsoft Office application and is a widely-used office program. Its integration with Office 365 and Microsoft OneDrive makes it versatile and allows for collaboration among students and professors.

  4. AI For Dissertation: Best AI Tools For Masters & PhD Thesis Writing

    Power Drill is an AI-powered writing tool designed to assist you in the dissertation writing process. To use Power Drill, you start by uploading your data sets, which can be: text, web pages, or. files. The AI then analyses these data sources, providing insightful summaries and answers to specific questions.

  5. How to write a PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide

    You create a tiny text using a five-paragraph structure: The first sentence addresses the broad context. This locates the study in a policy, practice or research field. The second sentence establishes a problem related to the broad context you have set out. It often starts with "But", "Yet" or "However".

  6. Tools and software every PhD holder must have

    Word processing software. Writing will be your primary focus during your PhD studies. As a result, you require good software that allows you to write without undue stress. There are numerous word processing tools available to assist you in writing smoothly and you can easily navigate through your document with these tools.

  7. How to Write a PhD Thesis: A Step-by-Step Guide for Success

    Step 1: Understand the Requirements. The initial step in crafting your PhD thesis is to thoroughly understand its specific requirements, which can vary widely between disciplines and institutions. A thesis must contribute new knowledge to its field, necessitating a deep familiarity with the expected structure, depth of analysis, and submission ...

  8. Embracing the Digital: A Review of Scrivener for PhD Students

    Final Thoughts. Ultimately, for me and for now, Scrivener works. I enjoyed the 30-day free trial and I plan on purchasing the software afterwards as a small pandemic PhD luxury. I actually think that a good part of my enjoyment from it stems from the fact that it feels like a "change of scenery" in this lockdown PhD life.

  9. How to start writing your PhD thesis in Scrivener

    6. Hit save. Now you have a fresh Scrivener document to write your thesis in. Step 2 — Create your thesis structure. Select the Draft folder. Location of Scrivener "Draft" folder. 2. Click ...

  10. Essential Software and Academic Tools for a successful PhD

    2. Ulysses. Ulysses (Source: https://ulysses.app) If you like Markdown writing method, you will love Ulysses. It might seem like a simple writing app for your Mac or iPad, but this one packs a ...

  11. Best Software Tools for Writing Thesis

    Let's delve into the top word-processing software tools and discover how they can elevate your thesis writing: 1. Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is a classic and widely recognized word processing software that's trusted by countless writers, including thesis authors. It provides a wide range of features for document creation, editing, and ...

  12. Useful Software for PhD Researchers

    Microsoft Office. The Microsoft Office package is extremely useful throughout your PhD, so it is definitely worth spending some time familiarising yourself with each of the programmes. It's very likely you will be writing your thesis and other important documents up in Word, whilst Excel is great for planning (I use it to create Gantt charts to ...

  13. How to write a thesis (Bachelor, Master, or PhD) and which software

    This tutorial focuses on writing a PhD thesis. However, the presented methods are likewise applicable to planning and writing a bachelor thesis or master thesis. This tutorial is special, because it integrates the management of PDF files, the relevant content in PDFs (bookmarks), and references with mind mapping and word processing software.

  14. AI for thesis writing

    Justdone. JustDone is an AI for thesis writing and content creation. It offers a straightforward three-step process for generating content, from choosing a template to customizing details and enjoying the final output. AI for thesis writing - Justdone. JustDone AI can generate thesis drafts based on the input provided by you.

  15. Best software to for writing an academic thesis : r/LaTeX

    I'm just finishing writing my PhD thesis, and the integration of Zotero + Better biblatex + Vim is amazing. I use zathura as a pdf viewer, and it updates automatically every time I recompile. I suggest also writing a make file to make the compilation more straightforward, where you could have option to recompile the references or not ...

  16. 25+ Dissertation & Thesis Writing Apps

    Trello - Drag-and-drop PM. Trello is a versatile project management tool that helps you organise your dissertation or thesis process effectively. By creating boards for each chapter or section, you can track progress, set deadlines, and coordinate tasks efficiently. Access Now.

  17. Writing a Thesis

    Writing a Thesis or Capstone Report. Writing a thesis or capstone report is a significant project involving several academic skillsets—planning and time management, in-depth research, collaboration with advisors, writing, revising, and editing. But writing a thesis is also rewarding: it allows you to contribute to your field, showing how your ...

  18. Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

    Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.

  19. Beyond Word: Word Processors for Dissertation Writers

    When you write a dissertation, you spend a lot of time staring at text on a computer screen. Writing, and doing dissertation formatting and editing takes a long time. One way to make the process easier is by using writing software or a word processor that is easy to use, that feels good to you, and that helps you be more productive.

  20. Thesis Writing Essentials: The Graduate Students Companion

    COURSE CONTENT. This course provides a step-by-step guidance of how to effectively write the entire Thesis from the introductory chapter to the concluding chapter. After discussing the main content of a standard Thesis, the course takes the student through the process of conducting an extensive literature review to support the research process.

  21. Few software's that will make writing a PhD thesis easier

    When the text is read aloud, the mistake can be easily spotted. Zabaware and Natural reader are the available text-to-speech open source software. Generally, the number of pages in a PhD thesis ranges between 150 and 300. Of course, typing long essays in the computer is a time consuming and tedious process. This speech-to-text software tool is ...

  22. The Best Software for Writing Your Dissertation

    Here are a few non-Word options I have come across in my search for the best dissertation-writing software that seem to be favorites: LaTeX. Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix. Cost: free. LaTeX is an open-source document preparation system that was designed for scholarly and technical writing, and is great for handling large documents.

  23. PhD Thesis Writing Software

    Embracing the advantages of technology, we offer access to the latest academic writing software and cutting-edge PhD thesis writing software. These advanced tools serve as valuable aids in streamlining your research and writing process without compromising on quality or individuality. From formatting and grammar refinement to efficient data ...

  24. 3 Best Online Paraphrasing Tools for a Ph.D.'s Research Paper

    Paraphrasing tool by Rephrase.info. Another efficient paraphrasing tool is offered by rephrase.info. This tool has a similar interface and working method with the tool by check-plagiarism. You have to follow the tool's working similarly as you have done in the previous section.

  25. 22 Thesis-Writing Apps & Software for Graduate Students

    1. 📑 Word Processors and Note-Taking Apps. This should be a no-brainer, but writing is one of the essential parts of creating a thesis. So it's evident that you need to have the best thesis apps to deal with this task effectively. Here are some apps that you might want to check out. Google docs.