librepiste.me

Every free research tool, charted.

Free tools for finding, reading, analyzing, writing and citing, laid out so you can see where each one fits.

librepiste.me: an impala springing off the l, with a second impala carved into the p

Start here

Three good first stops.

ZoteroKeep every source, note and citation in one place. Semantic ScholarFind papers and see what cites them. NotebookLMAsk questions of your own sources.

The tools

Pistes

Short routes through the tools, in the order you would use them.

A literature review in a weekend

  1. Semantic Scholar to find papers
  2. Litmaps to see how they connect
  3. Zotero to collect and tag them
  4. NotebookLM to question your sources

From PDF to citation

  1. Unpaywall to find a legal copy
  2. Hypothesis to annotate it
  3. Zotero to store the reference
  4. Overleaf to cite it in your draft

Interview coding on a budget

  1. Taguette to code transcripts
  2. Voyant Tools to check word patterns
  3. Datawrapper to chart the themes
  4. Quarto to write it up

Free means you can start without paying.

If a free plan has limits, we say so. All links were verified in November 2026; defunct tools (Open Access Button, CiteSeerX, Citation Gecko) have been replaced with active open alternatives. Free plans change, so confirm on the tool’s own site before you rely on it.