Research

The Public Knowledge Project represents one of the most significant contributions to democratizing scholarly publishing in the digital age. This research and development initiative from Simon Fraser University has created an entire ecosystem of open source publishing platforms that power over 50,000 journals worldwide, making it a cornerstone of the global open access movement. At the heart of PKP’s offerings are three powerful platforms: Open Journal Systems (OJS), the world’s most widely used journal management software; Open Monograph Press (OMP) for book publishing; and Open Preprint Systems (OPS) for preprint servers. What sets PKP apart is not just the robustness of their free software, but their comprehensive approach that includes hosting services, training, and ongoing research into scholarly communication practices. ...

The Atlas of Economic Complexity represents one of the most sophisticated attempts to map and understand the intricate web of global economic relationships. Developed by Harvard’s Growth Lab, this remarkable platform transforms decades of trade data into compelling visual narratives that reveal how countries develop their productive capabilities over time. At its core, the Atlas employs the concept of economic complexity — the idea that a country’s economic sophistication can be measured by the diversity and uniqueness of its exports. Through stunning interactive visualizations, users can explore trade dynamics, country profiles, and growth projections that span more than half a century. The platform’s product space visualizations are particularly striking, showing how different products cluster together based on the capabilities required to produce them. ...

Connected Papers transforms the often overwhelming landscape of academic research into intuitive visual networks that reveal the hidden connections between scholarly works. By entering a paper identifier—whether DOI, arXiv URL, or title—researchers can generate interactive graphs that map citation relationships and thematic similarities across their field of interest. The platform excels at making complex academic relationships tangible through its graph-based visualization. Each node represents a paper, while connections illustrate citation patterns, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling. This approach proves invaluable for newcomers trying to understand an unfamiliar field, seasoned researchers ensuring they haven’t missed crucial works, or graduate students building comprehensive bibliographies for their theses. ...

Gapminder represents one of the most compelling efforts to combat ignorance about global trends through data-driven education. This Swedish non-profit foundation, co-founded by the late Hans Rosling, has made it their mission to fight what they call “devastating misconceptions” about everything from extreme poverty and migration to climate change and global health. What sets Gapminder apart is their methodical approach to identifying and correcting these misconceptions. They systematically survey thousands of people across different countries, asking fact-based questions about global trends, then compare the responses to actual UN and other reliable data sources. The results are consistently sobering — people are wrong about nearly everything, often dramatically so. Their Worldview Upgrader tool transforms this research into an engaging quiz that reveals just how skewed our perceptions of reality can be. ...

Our World in Data stands as one of the web’s most ambitious and valuable resources for understanding global trends and human progress. Created by researchers at the University of Oxford, this non-profit platform transforms complex statistics into accessible, interactive visualizations that help us grasp the scale of world’s biggest challenges and how they’re changing over time. The site houses over 13,900 charts covering everything from poverty and disease to education and climate change, alongside 126 comprehensive topic pages that provide deep dives into specific issues. What sets Our World in Data apart is its commitment to making data both beautiful and meaningful — each chart tells a story about human development, often revealing surprising trends like how Argentina was once richer than Spain or how literacy rates have shifted between regions. ...

World Population History represents a fascinating digital archive dedicated to tracking humanity’s demographic evolution across millennia. This specialized resource compiles historical population data from around the globe, offering researchers, students, and curious minds access to comprehensive statistics that illuminate how human populations have grown, migrated, and changed over time. The site serves as an invaluable tool for understanding the broader patterns of human civilization, from ancient settlements to modern urbanization. By presenting population data in accessible formats, it bridges the gap between academic research and public interest in demographic history. The database covers various geographical regions and time periods, making it possible to trace population trends across continents and centuries. ...

ORBIS represents a groundbreaking achievement in digital historical scholarship, transforming our understanding of connectivity in the ancient world. Developed by Stanford University, this sophisticated geospatial network model reconstructs the true shape of the Roman Empire not as it appears on conventional maps, but as it was experienced by people living within its vast boundaries. The project’s fundamental insight is revolutionary: in the premodern world, cost rather than distance determined connectivity. By simulating movement along the extensive Roman road network, major navigable rivers, and hundreds of Mediterranean, Black Sea, and coastal Atlantic routes, ORBIS reveals how geography, technology, and seasonal variations shaped the flow of people, goods, and information across three continents. The model accounts for different modes of transport from oxcarts to horse relays, incorporating realistic travel speeds and costs. ...

Distill established itself as a unique voice in machine learning publishing, focusing on clarity and understanding rather than just novel results. The journal made complex AI concepts accessible through innovative interactive visualizations, comprehensive explanations, and rigorous peer review. The site showcases articles that go beyond traditional academic papers, featuring deep dives into topics like graph neural networks, convolutional architectures, and Bayesian optimization. Each piece combines theoretical rigor with practical insights, often including interactive elements that let readers explore concepts hands-on. Contributors include researchers from leading institutions and companies, ensuring both academic depth and real-world relevance. ...

🔗 arXiv.org is one of the most important open scientific repositories in the world. Founded in 1991 by physicist Paul Ginsparg, it has become a key platform for scientific preprints – early versions of research papers shared before formal peer review in journals. arXiv covers a wide range of fields: physics, mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, economics, statistics, and even social sciences. Hundreds of new papers are added every day, making it one of the most dynamic sources of scientific knowledge online. ...

Gwern.net is a personal, long-running research site by Gwern Branwen, an independent writer and self-taught researcher. The website gathers a vast collection of long-form essays, scientific explorations, experiments, and data analyses — spanning cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, Bayesian inference, nootropics, digital preservation, literature generation, and more. Since 2010, Gwern has been publishing rigorously documented articles, often including full datasets, code (typically in Python or R), and interactive elements. The tone is scholarly but accessible, blending speculative ideas with solid methodology. Many entries are live documents, continuously updated as new research emerges. ...