ICIJ Datashare is a free and open source document search and analysis platform developed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The platform was originally created to help journalists investigate massive collections of documents, emails, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, and other records associated with large scale investigations. Today, Datashare is available to journalists, researchers, nonprofit organizations, academics, watchdog groups, and investigators who need powerful tools to search, organize, and analyze large document collections.
Datashare helps users uncover connections hidden within complex datasets by extracting text, identifying names and entities, indexing documents, and making information searchable through a secure interface. The platform supports optical character recognition, allowing users to search scanned documents and images that would otherwise be difficult to analyze. This capability makes it particularly useful for investigations involving court records, government documents, leaked files, archival materials, public records requests, and large evidence collections.
The software has played an important role in some of the largest investigative journalism projects in the world, including major international collaborations involving millions of records and thousands of gigabytes of data. Datashare was designed to help journalists and researchers efficiently locate relevant information within vast document collections while maintaining control over sensitive data. The platform can be deployed on a personal computer or scaled for use by larger organizations handling extensive research projects.
For organizations conducting accountability research, public interest investigations, transparency projects, or historical document analysis, Datashare offers an accessible alternative to expensive enterprise document review systems. Because it is open source, users can review the code, customize deployments, and integrate the platform into their own research workflows. The project reflects ICIJ’s commitment to collaborative investigative journalism and transparency focused technology.
Services Offered:
• Full text document search
• Optical character recognition for scanned files
• Entity extraction and analysis
• Investigation workflow support
• Large dataset indexing
• Email and document analysis
• Open source deployment options
• Secure document research environment
• Collaborative investigative research tools
• Knowledge graph and relationship analysis capabilities
Who This Resource Helps:
ICIJ Datashare is valuable for investigative journalists, nonprofit researchers, watchdog organizations, academic researchers, historians, public records investigators, open government advocates, legal researchers, and citizen investigators working with large collections of documents. The platform is especially useful for projects that require searching, organizing, and analyzing thousands or millions of records efficiently.