Evidence Scribe

Evidence Scribe is a commercial software package for debate research, featuring a database system, automated formatting, and a variety of built-in research aids.

Evidence Scribe was first released to the public in 2007, as part of a promotional arrangement with Blue Book. It is similar to Factsmith, another research software package with a database model.

Database Design
Evidence in Evidence Scribe is stored in a relational database, with each card as a separate entry. Sources are stored separately from the evidence that uses them; if the user makes a modification to a source, all the evidence from it will be updated automatically. Authors, however, are not stored separately from sources; if more than one source uses the same author, the author must be duplicated.

Formatting Features
Cards can be cut quickly using a window that floats next to the user's web browser. The appropriate information is drag-and-dropped into various fields on the window, and essentially all formatting is carried out automatically by the software. The final appearance of the brief is determined by so-called "styles", customizable brief templates created with a word processor. A number of styles come ready-made with Evidence Scribe, or users can create their own. Users can easily switch between styles with the Options dialog.

Briefs can be exported to a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word, OpenDocument, and HTML webpages. A given style will not necessarily work for all file formats, however.

Evidence Scribe Web
In 2009, a web-based successor to Evidence Scribe was launched, featuring many of the basic features of the desktop version of Evidence Scribe, as well as a number of additional web-based features. The project has seen little activity since 2009, however, and is not currently accepting new user accounts.