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Research tools

The online tools a researcher of Arabic needs, in one place: where to search, where to find Arabic sources, how to keep references and check one's writing. Each tool shows what it costs.

And from Voice of Arabic itself — free, no account

Arabic keyboard

Type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard: an on-screen keyboard, plus typing from your own keyboard in the standard layout or phonetically, with vowel marks and hamza — free, no account.

Presentation template

Type the title and parts of your talk, pick a look, and download a PowerPoint file with title, outline, section, conclusion and questions slides — in English or Arabic, free.

Research and thesis templates

Free Word templates for a research proposal, a thesis structure, an abstract and a journal article — in English and Arabic, with heading styles ready for a table of contents and guidance under each heading.

Design your cards

Design your own Arabic card: a line of poetry with even edges, a quote, a lesson, an event notice, an invitation or a greeting, with Arabic ornaments, matched colours and ten sizes, free for members.

Scholarly search engines and open databases

Google Scholar Free

The widest search engine for papers and scholarly books, with citation counts.

Semantic Scholar Free

Summarises papers and maps what they cite and what cites them.

CORE Free

Millions of open-access papers in full text from university repositories.

BASE Free

A search engine for the world's open academic repositories.

DOAJ Free

The directory of peer-reviewed open-access journals — a check on a journal's standing.

OpenAlex Free

An open index of scholarly works, their authors and institutions.

WorldCat Free

The catalogue of the world's libraries: where the book you need is held.

ERIC Free

The education research database — useful for research on teaching Arabic.

Unpaywall Free

A browser extension that finds a legal open copy of a paywalled paper.

Arabic libraries and databases

Al-Maktaba Al-Shamela Free

Thousands of classical Arabic and Islamic books in searchable text.

Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic Free

The history of Arabic words with dated attestations.

Algerian Scientific Journal Platform (ASJP) Free

Hundreds of peer-reviewed journals in full text, many in language and literature.

King Fahad National Library Free

The Saudi national catalogue, including legal deposit and publications.

Internet Archive Free

A digital library holding many older Arabic books and manuscript scans.

Dar Almandumah University subscription

The largest database of Arabic theses and papers — usually through a university subscription.

Al Manhal University subscription

Arabic e-books and journals — through a university subscription.

Reference managers

Zotero Free

Saves references from your browser and formats them in any citation style; works with Word.

Mendeley Free

A library for your PDFs and notes, with citations inserted in Word.

EndNote Paid

The most common in universities, many of which provide it to students.

JabRef Free

Open source, for those who write in LaTeX with BibTeX.

ZoteroBib Free

A quick bibliography with no installation and no account.

Writing, checking and publishing

LanguageTool Free with limits

A spelling and grammar checker that supports Arabic and English.

Grammarly Free with limits

English writing and style checker — for abstracts and papers in English.

PaperRater Free

Automated review of an English text: errors and style.

ORCID Free

The persistent researcher ID journals ask for at submission.

Connected Papers Free with limits

A visual map of the papers connected to one you start from.

JASP Free

Free, easy statistical analysis — an alternative to SPSS.

This list is a selection; the site is not affiliated with any of these tools. Anything that distributes books without their owners' permission has been left out.
For more: King Saud University, Deanship of Scientific Research — list of tools