The tutorial is hands-on and participants are required to bring their own laptops. The software used in the tutorial is FOSS and multiplatform, so it will work on MacOS, Windows, and Linux (Operating Systems) Laptops. Below are instructions that will allow participants to come to the tutorial with the software already installed However, we will also spend the first half hour of the tutorial aiding participants with the installation if needed. As we are installing these FOSS tools, Zotero (created at George Mason University), Infoboosters, LaTeX, X-mind, and the Julia programming language, we will give a background of what these tools are and why they are a valuable asset to use for research tools. Zotero is a FOSS reference management software, LaTeX is a FOSS document preparation system most commonly used for scientific research, but can be used for any research. Infoboosters is a tool used to simplify searches and make quick sense of information through documents accessed during literature reviews. Julia is a FOSS programming language for data analytics. OpenProject is open source project management software that can be used for research management. These tools can be used for research in any subject area.
Our ten-step process is a result of 5 years of teaching information literacy and research-based workshops in which we simplified the research process and made it more effective by incorporated FOSS tools.