Academic Writing

From literature search to a submitted manuscript: discovery engines, a reference manager, a TeX distribution and editor, reproducible-document tooling, converters for the Word-only journal, and the identifiers and repositories that make the output citable.

14 tools · updated Nov 2, 2026 · compare the first four

Tools in this collection

1. 1
   O

   OpenAlex

   OurResearch · Literature discovery & review

   In-depth entry

   Open scholarly graph with a free API; a good first stop for systematic searches.

   Open sourceFreeFreemiumBroken
2. 2
   SS

   Semantic Scholar

   Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) · Literature discovery & review

   AI-assisted paper discovery, citation contexts and an API.

   ProprietaryFreeNov 2, 2026
3. 3
   GS

   Google Scholar

   Google (Chrome DevTools team) · Literature discovery & review

   Broad coverage and citation counts, with no API.

   ProprietaryFreeNov 2, 2026
4. 4
   Z

   Zotero

   Corporation for Digital Scholarship · Citation management

   In-depth entry

   Free reference manager with browser capture, PDF annotation and BibTeX/Better BibTeX export.

   AGPL-3.0-onlyFreeOpen sourceLocalNov 2, 2026
5. 5
   TL

   TeX Live

   TeX Users Group (TUG) · LaTeX & typesetting

   In-depth entry

   The full TeX distribution; the baseline for any LaTeX workflow.

   Open sourceFreeOpen sourceLocalSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026
6. 6
   O

   Overleaf

   Overleaf (Digital Science) · LaTeX & typesetting

   In-depth entry

   Collaborative online LaTeX editing with track changes and journal templates.

   AGPL-3.0-onlyFreemiumPaidSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026
7. 7
   B

   biblatex

   Philip Kime and contributors · LaTeX & typesetting

   Modern bibliography handling for LaTeX with Biber.

   LPPL-1.3cFreeOpen sourceLocalNov 2, 2026
8. 8
   Q

   Quarto

   Posit Software, PBC · Academic writing & publishing

   In-depth entry

   Reproducible documents mixing prose with Python, R or Julia code; renders to PDF, HTML and Word.

   MITFreeOpen sourceLocalNov 2, 2026
9. 9
   P

   Pandoc

   John MacFarlane · LaTeX & typesetting

   In-depth entry

   The universal converter; turns LaTeX into Word when a journal insists.

   GPL-2.0-or-laterFreeOpen sourceLocalNov 2, 2026
10. 10
    T

    Typst

    Typst GmbH · LaTeX & typesetting

    In-depth entry

    A fast, modern typesetting system worth watching as an alternative to LaTeX.

    Apache-2.0FreeOpen sourceLocalSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026
11. 11
    S

    SSRN

    Elsevier · Research dissemination

    Working-paper distribution in economics, finance and law.

    ProprietaryFreeEnterpriseNov 2, 2026
12. 12
    A

    arXiv

    arXiv (independent non-profit, formerly hosted by Cornell University) · Research dissemination

    Preprints for quantitative fields.

    Open sourceFreeNov 2, 2026
13. 13
    O

    ORCID

    ORCID, Inc. · Research dissemination

    A persistent researcher identifier required by most publishers.

    Open sourceFreeEnterpriseNov 2, 2026
14. 14
    Z

    Zenodo

    CERN (with OpenAIRE) · Research dissemination

    In-depth entry

    DOIs for datasets, code and supplementary material.

    Open sourceFreeNov 2, 2026