Tools and instructions

There are many digital tools that (are supposed to) make your life research easier. And given the rapid development of AI, the number of tools is only increasing. You can find an overview of internal and external software and hardware applications below that can help you in the research process.

We have also created instructions for some of the tools, which are available on our e-science blog and linked below. Contact us if you

have a helpful tool that is missing from our list
are having trouble with any instructions
have general questions about tools and services.

Selected tools and instructions to use for research in the Faculty of Education.

Security and data protection

Antivirus software (Regional Computing Center, RRZ)
Personal certificates (RRZ)
- for personal email or group email accounts
- Instructions for integrating into Outlook and Thunderbird
Video Anonymizer app for iPad and iPhone (external)
Anonymization of videos using Adobe Premiere (e-science blog)
Encryption of research data using common programs (e-science blog)
Data protection, legal issues, and consent (e-science blog)
Additional information on the topic of data protection in research

Collecting data online

LimeSurvey (RRZ)
Using LimeSurvey anonymously (e-science blog)
DFN scheduler (DFN)
Zoom (RRZ)
Teleconferencing (RRZ)
Arranging and recording teleconferences (e-science blog)
Conferences with Adobe Connect and Pexip (DFN)
Video and audio recordings according to data protection requirements (e-science blog)

Synthetic data generator

Mostly.ai: uses generative AI to create anonymous data from real data (external, free basic version)

Transcribing data

Automatic transcription using f4x
noScribe: local and offline transcription (external)
EXMARaLDA (external)
EXMARaLDA (e-science blog)
oTranscribe (external)
Overview of software for transcribing audio and video material (e-science blog)

General search activities

Semantic Scholar: AI-powered research tool to look for papers and articles (external)
Scite.ai: AI assistant for research with citation links (external, fee-based)
Sourcely.net: AI-driven tool to search for your own publications (external, free basic version)
Scispace/typeset.io: AI-based research tool with a summary generator (external, free basic version)

Reference management

Citavi (RRZ)
Getting Citavi and macOS to work together (e-science blog)
Endnote (RRZ)
Zotero (external)
Information and tips for Zotero (e-science blog)

Analyzing data

SPSS (RRZ)
Stata (RRZ)
Statistica (RRZ)
R (external)
PSPP (external)
MAXQDA (RRZ)
MAXQDA licenses for students and staff: Application and installation (e-science blog)

Saving data

UHHCloud (RRZ)
Encryption of research data using common programs (e-science blog)

Data version management

GitLab (RRZ)
Subversion (RRZ)

Archiving data

Research Data Repository (University of Hamburg / Research Data Repository)
Research data management: Workshop (e-science blog)
Research data management: Possibilities, benefits, and requirements (e-science blog)

Online publishing and web applications

FIONA (University of Hamburg)
WordPress (University of Hamburg)
WordPress instructions (e-science blog)
Development of web applications using Python or PHP (RRZ)

Publishing (text, images, video)

Adobe: Acrobat Pro DC, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro (RZZ)
Alternatives to Adobe (RRZ)
LaTeX (external)
Microsoft Office (RRZ)

Generative AI

UHHGPT: use ChatGPT anonymously and in compliance with data protection regulations (RRZ)
GPT4all: local and offline text generation (external)
- GDPR-compliant ChatGPT clone
- Wide range of language models can be used
- Documentation and applications of the models available
- Advantage: allows you to secure the model over the entire research period
DiffusionBee: local and offline image generator for Mac (external)
- Stable diffusion clone for macOS
- Large range of image editing options