Subject Guides: Research data across the lifecycle: Tools

Tools for working with research data

These hardware and software resources and other services may be useful in your work with research data; they are listed here in alphabetical order with no support or recommendation by the author implied, unless specifically stated otherwise. How's that for a disclaimer? ;-)

DDI Tools
A listing of software tools for the Data Documentation Initiative metadata specification.
High-Performance Computing (HPC)
"Zorro, the AU High-Performance Computing (HPC) System supports the efforts of [AU] faculty and student researchers working with computationally intensive projects."
Nesstar Publisher
"Nesstar Publisher ... consists of data and metadata conversion and editing tools, enabling the user to prepare these materials for publication to a Nesstar Server. However, it can also be used as a stand-alone tool for the preparation of data and metadata." The software is no longer being updated, and as of Aug. 31, 2022, the URL http://www.nesstar.com/software/publisher.html was unreachable to the link goes to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Version 4 (from 2013) can still be downloaded from there.
OpenRefine
"OpenRefine (formerly Google Refine) is a powerful tool for working with messy data: cleaning it; transforming it from one format into another; and extending it with web services and external data."
Open Science Framework
Free, cloud-based research project management platform, including file sharing.
Stat/Transfer
Software to transfer statistical data between different programs. Includes support for the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata schema for data files (version 3.1, as of Feb. 2016).
Tabula
"If you’ve ever tried to do anything with data provided to you in PDFs, you know how painful it is — there's no easy way to copy-and-paste rows of data out of PDF files. Tabula allows you to extract that data into a CSV or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet using a simple, easy-to-use interface. Tabula works on Mac, Windows and Linux." As of Aug. 31, 2022: "Latest Version: Tabula 1.2.1 - June 4, 2018"
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Disclaimer: the author of this guide has not used this software (yet).
VirtualBox
"VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. [It is] ... the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. ...Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4, 2.6, 3.x and 4.x), Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2, and OpenBSD." (as of Aug. 31, 2022) Recent versions of Windows may offer comparable virtualization options.
Virtual Applications and Desktops @ AU
"The Virtual Applications and Desktops system allows access to software that is not installed on your local computer."