Accelerate your research.
Participant data stays protected.
A local AI assistant for academic and professional researchers. Literature review, writing support, and citation formatting - all without sending research data to external servers.
The reality
Many IRB protocols and institutional data governance policies explicitly prohibit uploading participant data to commercial cloud services. Using ChatGPT or similar tools to process interview transcripts or survey responses may violate those protocols - even if the researcher does not intend it.
The research process also generates enormous amounts of material to synthesise: literature, field notes, coded data, draft sections. The bottleneck is often not the research itself but the writing - turning findings into clear, compelling prose under deadline pressure.
How Skales helps researchers
From literature review to grant writing - fully local, IRB-friendly by design.
Literature review at speed
Paste 20 abstracts and ask Skales to identify themes, contradictions, research gaps, and the most cited methodologies. Cut days of manual synthesis to hours without losing rigour.
Research writing support
Draft methods sections, discussion paragraphs, and abstract rewrites. Describe what you found and what it means; Skales helps structure it into the clear academic prose reviewers expect.
Data analysis narration
Paste your statistical output or qualitative themes and ask Skales to help you write the findings narrative. It does not generate the numbers - it helps you explain what they mean.
IRB-sensitive data stays local
Participant data, interview transcripts, and coded responses are processed entirely on your machine. No external server, no third-party storage, no data transfer outside your institution.
Citation and reference management
Ask Skales to format references in APA, MLA, Chicago, or any style you specify. Paste a list of unformatted citations and get back a clean reference list. Edit and import to your reference manager.
Grant proposal drafting
Describe your research aims and Skales helps draft the significance section, specific aims, and innovation narrative. Strong first drafts you can refine with your PI before the submission deadline.
Example: Literature review sprint
You ask: "Here are abstracts from 15 papers on microbiome interventions in Type 2 diabetes. Identify the three main intervention types, key outcome measures used, and any consensus findings."
Skales: Structured synthesis with intervention categories, shared methodologies, and a summary of where the evidence converges and diverges.
You ask: "I have 6 interview transcripts from my qualitative study on remote work burnout. Here are the coded themes. Help me write the findings section."
Skales: A draft findings narrative that presents each theme in turn, connects them to quotes, and transitions logically between sections.
You ask: "Format these 12 citations in APA 7th edition. Some are journals, two are book chapters, one is a conference paper."
Skales: Correctly formatted reference list, ready to paste into your manuscript or import into your reference manager.
“I can use it with participant transcripts without worrying about my IRB protocol. That's huge.”
Free for personal use. Windows and macOS. No account required.
Also see: AI for Students · Privacy & GDPR · Download