Useful research software
In our Bring Your Own Data Lab workshop in February 2025, we discussed that (high-quality) OCR may not be necessary for all research purposes and that sometimes image annotation (of the source scans) and digital aids to speed-up annotation writing can already bring many projects a big step forward. Below is a (far from complete) list of recommended research software that you could check out:
Tools for image manipulation
- GIMP (free and open source image editor)
- ImageJ (open source software for processing and analysing scientific images)
Scanning for mobile devices
- OpenScan (open-source, privacy-friendly Document Scanner app)
Document / image annotation and qualitative analysis
- cvat.ai (data engine for machine learning to annotate images)
- Atlas.ti (tool for qualitative data analysis, including options to create visualisations based on tags and free text)
- NVivo (qualiative research software)
Platforms for citizen science (e.g. OCR post-correction or volunteer transcriptions)
- Omeka (open-source web publishing platforms for sharing digital collections and creating media-rich online exhibits)
- Zooniverse (“platform for people-powered research”)