Keeping track of research & publishing tools: a few useful catalogues

Infrastructure, Interoperability, Collaboration
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Following the forum poll we ran recently, we thought it might be nice to start highlighting some tools and platforms that could be useful for people in the community.

One thing that comes up again and again is that there is a lot happening in this space. New tools, platforms, experiments, publishing infrastructures… they pop up all the time, often in different communities or disciplines. It can be pretty hard to keep track of everything, even if you’re already working in this area.

The good news is that some people have already started putting together catalogues and collections of tools that can help researchers, publishers, librarians, and developers find their way around this ecosystem! Instead of reinventing the wheel, we thought it might be useful to start by pointing to a few of those existing lists here.

Here are a few that might be interesting to explore:

  • SIG Tools and Platforms – draft wiki (public) (2024)
    SIG Tools and platforms draft wiki public - Google Sheets
    This is a draft spreadsheet created by the OPERAS SIG Tools and Platforms that tries to gather different tools and platforms: it’s already a useful place to browse and see what’s out there!

  • Mind the Gap – A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms (2019)
    https://mindthegap.pubpub.org
    This report maps out the ecosystem of open-source publishing tools and platforms. It’s a bit more analytical, but still very helpful if you’re trying to get a broader overview of the landscape and understand how different tools relate to each other.

  • Experimental Publishing Compendium (COPIM)
    https://compendium.copim.pub
    The Experimental Publishing Compendium is a guide and reference for scholars, publishers, developers, librarians, and designers interested in exploring new forms of scholarly publishing. It’s a really interesting resource if you’re curious about alternative or experimental approaches to publishing.

  • TAPoR
    TAPoR
    TAPoR is a platform for discovering research tools for studying and analysing texts. It’s especially useful for people working with digital texts, text analysis, or digital humanities methods.

  • Infra Finder (Inverst in Open Infrastructure)
    Search & Compare Solutions | Infra Finder
    Infra Finder is designed to be the go-to resource for anyone navigating the complex landscape of infrastructure services and standards enabling open research and scholarship. The tool categorizes and describes more than 130 tools (march 2026) and allows users to find and compare them.

This is obviously not meant to be an exhaustive list, just a few starting points that might be helpful if you’re trying to explore what’s out there. Some of these resources are older than others, but many of the tools they list are still widely used and the catalogues remain helpful to get a sense of the ecosystem.

And of course, if you know other more recents catalogues, lists, directories, or resources like these, feel free to drop them in the comments :eyes:. It would be great to gradually build a shared list of references together!

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For years I have believed that mapping the ecosystem is an essential first step for open science, and I was aware of some of these initiatives, but not “Mind the Gap”, which is a marvel (even in the choice of name).

I am adding another resource that may also be of interest: the IOI InfraFinder:

I believe Discurse allows the creation of wikis.

What do you think about opening a new post-wiki to keep all this organised and up to date collaboratively?

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Hi Marc, thanks for adding to the thread! There are so many initiatives that often get overlooked or forgotten, so it’s great to have a central place for them.

I hadn’t thought of turning this into a wiki, but it’s a brilliant idea! I’ve just converted the first post, so feel free to jump in and start editing it into a collaborative resource :slight_smile:

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