Question 1

What is research software?

Accepted Answer

Research software supports the process of gathering, organizing, analyzing, and presenting information. Examples include Zotero for citations, Qualtrics for surveys, and NVivo for qualitative coding.

Question 2

What's the difference between qualitative and quantitative research tools?

Accepted Answer

Qualitative tools (NVivo, Dovetail, Otter) help with transcripts, coding, and thematic analysis. Quantitative tools (SPSS, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey) focus on structured surveys, statistics, and numerical analysis.

Question 3

Are research tools free?

Accepted Answer

Many are. Reference managers like Zotero and Mendeley are free, and open-source options exist for statistics (R, JASP) and qualitative analysis. Paid tools usually add collaboration, larger datasets, or participant recruitment.