Recommendations for simple charts:
Very helpful list for a broad range of tools: Digital Resources for investigative reporters, by Friedrich Lindenberg.
Some quotes:
- Storing and searching sets documents can be done with DocumentCloud, which is more appropriate than e.g. Dropbox.
- Getting text and tables out of PDFs is an ugly process, but Tabula, CometDocs ($) andABBYY FineReader ($) make it possible.
TOOLS FOR DATA IN TABLES
- Analysis is best done in a spreadsheet program like Google Spreadsheets or Excel ($), but online tools like Statwing and J++ Benford can help find anomalies.
- Simple charts can be generated with DataWrapper ($), RAW, Tableau Public and Google Fusion Tables.
- Maps should be used in moderation, but CartoDB ($) and Google Fusion Tables can generate powerful visuals. For advanced analysis, use QGIS. MapStarter can map out statistical data, and has an excellent reading list of further tools.
- Data about networks can be visualized using Gephi, yED, NodeXL (for Excel) orMaltego ($).
- Sequences of events can be understood using timeline tools, such as Timeline.js andStorymap.js.
- Cleaning data is necessary when your information it too inconsistent for analysis. UseOpenRefine and Data Wrangler.
- Advanced statistical analysis is done using the programming language R, or a graphical tools like RStudio.