Analysis and Visualization Tools

SMU Libraries provides support to the researcher across the whole research workflow.

This guide is a one-stop source for faculty and researchers to get an overview of the analysis and visualization tools that are open source or provided by SMU Libraries. The tools on this list have been tested and curated by SMU Librarians , do let us know if you need support on them.

This guide also feature tools that cover the 7 phases in a research cycle (Bosman & Kramer, 2016), namely:

1. Preparation
2. Discovery
3. Analysis
4. Writing
5. Publication
6. Outreach
7. Assessment

Feel free to reach out to us. should you have any questions or need any help with these tools. 

Source: Bosman, J., & Kramer, B.. (2016). Swiss army knives of scholarly communication - ResearchGate, Academia, Mendeley and others (Version 1). figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4290428.v1 (['https://101innovations.wordpress.com/']) 

Below are the list of recordings of selected past workshops. Please login with you SMU account to access them.

2022 September workshops

• Python 101 Part 2: TInkering with Pandas' DataFrame. This session covers the basics on how to use Pandas DataFrame to clean, transform, and edit your data, as well as how to utilize other statistical library such as scipy to work with DataFrame.

2022 January-February workshops

• Simple Text Visualisation with Voyant Tool. Learn how to do simple text analysis and visualization using Voyant, a light weight and free open source tool.
• Useful Browser extensions for academic research. Aaron Tay, Lead Data Services share some of his favourite Chrome browser extensions for research such as scite, LibKey Nomad, and more.
• Managing large number of references efficiently. Learn the different ways to efficiently export large number of references from sources like Google Scholar or from reference sections of PDF and Word documents. No full text available? Learn how to use tools that leverage citation indexes to extract references and citations from a set of papers of interest.
• Python 101 Part 1: The Basics. This session covers the fundamentals for novice coders, including arithmetic operation, variables, data types, list, For loops, and conditional statements (if-else)
• Python 101 Part 2: Tinkering with Data Interchange Format. This session covers the concept of Python libraries, basic concepts on Panda’s DataFrame, JSON, and XML.
• Python 101 Part 3: Tinkering with Scopus API. This session covers basic concept of API and a beginner walkthrough on how to retrieve Scopus search result using the API.
• Introduction to Version Control Using GitHub Desktop. Covers the basic concepts of version control, demonstrated using GitHub Desktop (beginner friendly!)
• Going beyond Google Scholar, Scite, Overton and new discovery indexes. Learn about how Google Scholar compares to scite, a new SMU Libraries' subscription search engine that allows searching via citation statements as well as filtering citations by citation type ("mentioning", "supporting", "constrasting")

2021 August workshops

• Mapping your Literature review. Learn 3 techniques that go beyond keyword searching for literature review.. Get updated on the latest discovery search tools that leverage on citations to do literature mapping!