This week’s cool tool recommendation is Unpaywall – an open database of 47,319,268 free scholarly articles.
Access to research articles in academia can be costly, as many scholarly publications hide behind paywalls, limiting their availability to a select few. Unpaywall, however, is dedicated to breaking down barriers and increasing access to scholarly knowledge. Unpaywall locates open access versions of research articles that would otherwise be locked away using data from multiple sources, including institutional repositories, preprint servers, and partnerships with publishers. By installing the Unpaywall browser extension or visiting the website, users can access an ever-expanding collection of scholarly articles.
Note: It is important to note that Unpaywall serves as a guide to open access resources, ensuring their accuracy and legitimacy. It strives to make as many scholarly articles available as possible, but some restrictions may still exist
This week’s cool tool recommendation isVisme – a browser-based design tool that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, banner ads, animations, and more.
Want to create a quick presentation? Visme makes it easy. Log in and click Presentations. Choose the template that you like and start creating your presentation right away.
Insert text using Visme’s shapes and icons, images as well as widgets to visualize your data into graphs and tables. You can even add video or record audio.
Similarly, you can use Visme to create infographics, reports, social graphics, and even e-books. You can search through hundreds of custom templates and fully customize each of them to fit your specific needs.
Visme offers three types of accounts, one of which is free. You don’t get everything with a free account, but you get more than enough to start creating content. A Basic account is also a great way to test drive the solution before you buy.
This week I’m recommending Infogram, a free infographic and data visualization tool.
Infogram allows users to create interactive charts, maps, infographics, and other types of data visualizations using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Those who are familiar with Excel can easily create charts with this feature. Infogram’s infographics are also mobile-friendly, making them easier to view and interact with on smaller screens.
Pricing
The Basic plan from Infogram is intended only for non-commercial use, and certain restrictions apply. Basic plan users have access to 37 chart templates and can create up to 10 three-page projects. The Basic plan does not allow users to remove Infogram’s branding.
Infogram’s Business plan is intended for commercial use and includes additional features, such as the ability to remove Infogram’s branding and add your own. Users of the Business plan also have access to a wider range of chart templates and can create unlimited projects.
Nonprofits and educational organizations are offered a discounted price, making Infogram a cost-effective solution for communicating data and messages through visuals.
Are you struggling to meet a word count requirement for an essay or article? Or perhaps you’re trying to optimize your content for specific keywords and phrases?
Whatever your writing needs may be, this week’s cool tool recommendation Wordcounter.net can help.
This web-based tool helps you count the number of words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages in a text. To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box above and start typing. You’ll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. You can also copy and paste text from another program over into the online editor above. The Auto-Save feature will make sure you won’t lose any changes while editing, even if you leave the site and come back later.
Wordcounter.net also provides additional features such as:
Keyword density analysis
If you’re creating content for SEO purposes, you can use the tool to analyze the keyword density of your writing. This can help you optimize your content for specific keywords and phrases.
Readability
Wordcounter.net also provides a readability score for your writing. This score is based on the average number of syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence. If your score is low, it may indicate that your writing is difficult to read. You can use this information to make your writing more accessible to your audience.
Accuracy
The tool includes a spell-check feature that can help you identify and correct spelling errors in your writing. This can be especially helpful if you’re writing in a language that is not your first language or if you’re prone to making spelling mistakes.
The cool tool recommendation this week wins the prize for the most interesting title!
Lose the Very is a web-based tool designed to help writers find alternative words and phrases to use in place of the word “very.” The tool operates on the premise that using “very” is often seen as lazy or imprecise, and that finding more descriptive words and phrases can help improve writing.
To use the tool, users simply type in the word they want to replace (in this case, “very”) and hit the “Find” button. The tool then generates a list of alternative words and phrases, along with their definitions and example sentences. Users can scroll through the list to find the word or phrase that best fits their needs.
In addition to its main functionality, the tool also features a built-in thesaurus and dictionary, which users can access by clicking on the corresponding tabs. The tool is free to use and does not require any sign-up or login.
It’s a super little tool to improve your writing and I highly recommend you check it out.
The cool tool recommendation this week is Onelook– an online dictionary search tool that allows you to search multiple dictionaries at once.
With Onelook, you can search for definitions, synonyms, and translations of words from a variety of online dictionaries and other reference sources. Onelook also offers a variety of advanced search options, including the ability to search by wildcard, find related words, and search for words that rhyme.
This week’s cool tool recommendation is Hemingway Editor, an online writing tool that helps writers improve the clarity and readability of their writing.
The app is named after the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway, who was known for his simple and direct writing style. It works by highlighting common issues in writing such as long and complex sentences, passive voice, adverbs, and excessive use of adjectives.
How to use Hemingway App
To use the tool, either copy and paste your text or write directly into the app. The app then analyzes the text and highlights any issues that need to be addressed. The highlights are color-coded to indicate the type of issue, such as yellow for long and complex sentences and blue for passive voice.
In addition to highlighting issues, Hemingway App also offers suggestions for improvement. For example, if a sentence is too long and complex, the app may suggest breaking it up into smaller sentences. If the writer has used a passive voice, the app may suggest using an active voice instead.
With its user-friendly interface and suggestions for improvement, Hemingway App is a useful tool to enhance your writing quality, efficiency, and professionalism.
The original Mad Man of advertising, David Ogilvy, famously stated, “On average, people read the headline five times more than the body copy.” When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” This reminder highlights the crucial importance of the headline.
Headlines still matter in the digital age. A well-written headline can capture a reader’s attention and make them want to read more. In contrast, a poorly constructed headline can drive readers away. This is particularly true online, where attention spans are short and individuals are constantly inundated with information.
Effective headlines take various factors into account that can affect their success. Tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer can help. The tool analyzes headlines based on several factors, including word choice, length, and emotional impact, providing users with a score that reflects how likely their headline is to be successful. Your headline is then broken down by word balance, sentiment, and commonality, helping you identify areas for improvement and adjust your language.
Here’s the breakdown of a title I entered into the tool:
The tool provides a detailed breakdown of the word balance, sentiment, and commonality of your headline, helping you identify areas for improvement and adjust your language to better resonate with your audience.
The Headline Analyzer tool can also help with SEO optimization. The tool analyzes your headline for relevant keywords and provides suggestions for incorporating them more effectively into your headline. This can help increase the visibility of your content in search results and drive more organic traffic to your website.
This is just a snapshot of the many insights you can gain from using CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer tool. You can use the insights and recommendations provided to create headlines that not only grab readers’ attention but also drive traffic, social shares, and SEO value. This can ultimately lead to more visibility for your content and greater success in achieving your marketing and business goals.
The cool tool recommendation this week is Google Scholar – a free academic search engine that indexes scholarly literature across a wide range of disciplines and sources.
It works by crawling the web for scholarly literature, like journal articles, conference proceedings, theses, dissertations, books, and technical reports. After that, it indexes and makes the content searchable. In contrast to other search engines, Google Scholar’s results are primarily academic sources, making it a great tool for scholarly research.
One of the most significant benefits of Google Scholar is its broad coverage. It indexes content from a variety of sources, including academic publishers, university repositories, and scholarly societies. This means that researchers can access a vast amount of scholarly literature from a single search engine, rather than having to search multiple databases separately.
Another advantage of Google Scholar is its user-friendly interface. Users can easily search for articles and refine their search using various filters, such as author, publication, and date. Additionally, Google Scholar provides links to related articles, allowing users to explore further on a particular topic.
Furthermore, Google Scholar’s citation tracking feature is a valuable tool for researchers. It allows users to see how many times a particular article has been cited by other scholarly works, providing an indication of its impact and influence within the field. Citation tracking is also useful for discovering related research and identifying potential collaborators.
In addition to its search capabilities, Google Scholar also offers other useful features. For example, users can create alerts for new articles related to specific keywords or authors. This feature can save researchers time and effort by automatically notifying them when new relevant research is published.
The ability to link to full-text articles is another great feature of Google Scholar. There are some articles that require a subscription or purchase, but Google Scholar usually has free full-text versions, so it’s easier for people without institutional access to do research.
While it has some limitations (most of the content is scholarly and reputable, but some articles may not go through the same rigorous peer-review process as in traditional academic journals), these are outweighed by the significant benefits.