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Open Access Resources

Open Access refers to resources that are available for viewing or use free of charge. Open Access is not identical with Public Domain, and the copyright of Open Access is mostly retained by the creators.

Open Access resources are excellent materials to supplement other online library materials. Many scholarly and peer-reviewed journals have opened their previous issues as open access, and some journals have converted to open access for all issues partially or entirely.

While most of the Open Access resources are still under copyright by their creators, academic or educational use is generally allowed without permission. For educators, open access materials can usually be linked from an online syllabus or reading list, even when copying is not permitted. However, it is recommended to make sure to check the copyright or permissions statement before use at all times.

  • CORE

    CORE (Connecting Repositories) aggregates all open access research papers from repositories and journals worldwide and make them available to the public.

  • Digital Commons Network 

    Peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work from hundreds of universities and colleges.

  • Directory of Open Access Journals

    A community-curated online directory that provides access to peer-reviewed open access journals.

  • EconBiz 

    A search portal for economics and business studies published in multiple languages from global sources. Refine the search “open access” only.

  • ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)

    Online digital library of education research and information, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the US Department of Education.

  • Global Digital Library on Theology and Ecumenism: Journals

    Online digital library of journals, books, and other materials relating to theology, interreligious dialogue, ethics, and ecumenism in World Christianity. 

  • Global Memory Net

    Gateway to the world culture, history and heritage as well as a multimedia and multilingual world digital library.

  • Google Scholar

    Google Scholar enables to search scholarly literature including peer-reviewed papers, theses, abstracts, books, and more.

  • Highwire Press

    The largest archive of free full-text science articles.

  • JSTOR

    Content on JSTOR published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere, freely available to the public. To access the free content, click on the Advanced Search and make sure to select “content I can access" box.

  • OAIster

    Contains over 30 million records of digital resources from open-archive collections worldwide.

  • Open Access Music Journals

    List of open access music journals prepared by University of Michigan library.

  • Open Library of the Humanities

    Peer-reviewed, internationally-supported journal platform for the humanities.

  • Oxford Journals

    Provides fully open access journals.

  • PubAg

    A portal to USDA-authored and other relevant agricultural research, which delivers more than 42,000 full-text journal articles on the agricultural sciences, in addition to over 1,760,000 citations.

  • Review of Biblical Literature

    Founded by the Society of Biblical Literature, it presents reviews of books in biblical studies and related fields.

  • Sage Open

    Peer-reviewed, "Gold" open access journal from SAGE that publishes original research and review articles in an interactive, open access format.

  • SpringerOpen

    A collection of open access journals that cover business & management, math, science, engineering, and education.

  • Taylor & Francis Open Journals

    A collection of open access journals from multiple disciplines.

  • Wiley Open Access

    Contains authoritative peer reviewed open access journals across many research disciplines.

  • American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library

    Primary source and archival materials covering topics such as art and architecture, performing arts, technology and applied sciences in American history.

  • ArchiveGrid

    Includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.

  • Bartleby.com

    A comprehensive public reference library containing a searchable database of literature, reference, and verse.

  • Bible Odyssey

    Free online Bible encyclopedia created by the Society of Biblical Literature featuring photographs, artworks, videos, essays, maps, timelines, interactive games, multiple texts of the Bible, and the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary.

  • Calisphere, University of California's digital primary sources

    Gateway to California’s remarkable digital collections. Provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Includes 925,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.

  • Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

    DPLA brings together digitized materials from America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

  • Early Christian Writings

    Links to the full text of writers from the first two centuries of the Christian Church.

  • Early Jewish Writings

    Collection of Jewish documents from antiquity with translations, introductions, and links.

  • ETANA (Electronic Texts and Ancient Near Eastern Archives)

    Digital collection of public domain texts selected as valuable for teaching and research related to ancient Near Eastern studies.

  • Europeana

    Digital collection of 50 millions of items from more than 3,500 European museums, libraries, archives and multi-media collections.

  • Gifford Lectures Online

    Presents a comprehensive collection of books derived from the Gifford Lectures.

  • HathiTrust

    Digital repository and research management tool for the United States' great research libraries.

  • Historical U.S. Newspapers Online

    The subject guide created by Bowling Green University provides links to publicly accessible digitized historical newspaper in the United States.

  • New York Public Library: Public Domain Collections
  • OAIster

    Contains records of digital resources from open-archive collections worldwide.

  • Post-Reformation Digital Library

    Database of digital books related to the development of theology and philosophy during the Reformation and Post-Reformation/Early Modern Era.

  • Perseus Digital Library

    Primary and secondary texts of Greco-Roman classics and the English Renaissance. It also includes images of vases, sculptures, buildings and art and archaeological works.

  • Public Domain Review

    Collections of books, images, texts, audio and films “with a focus on the surprising, the strange, and the beautiful.”

  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Online encyclopedia of philosophical concepts and philosophers written by leading scholars in the field.

  • World Digital Library: Religion

    A digital library of primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

  • Wabash Center's Classic Texts

    A wide variety of links from the Wabash Center Internet Guide to Religion. Ranges to classic primary texts available online ranging from classical philosophy to early church literature.

  • Yale Digital Collections
  • American Factfinder (U.S. Census Bureau) 

    Data from the US Decennial Census, the American Community Survey, the Economic Census, and more.

  • Association of Religion Data Archives

    An essential access point to quantitative data sets on religion. Users can view reports, maps, and charts, or download raw data files. The greatest strength of the ARDA is its collections of data on religion in the United States.

  • CIA World Factbook

    Data and other facts countries including current economic statistics and indicators by country including population, GDP, and birth and death rates.

  • FDSYS

    FDsys (Federal Digital System) provides free online access to official Federal Government publications.

  • Pew Research Center

    Public opinion polling, demographic research, and other social science research.

  • National Geologic Map Database

    Provides thousands of free US geologic maps.

  • UNDATA

    Databases, tables, and glossaries that cover a wide range of economic and socio-demographic topics including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.

  • The World Bank Data

    Free and open access to global development data.

  • Bible Gateway

    Search engine that allows you to search across many English and non-English language translations of the Bible.

  • Bible Study Tools

    Includes a selection of bible translations, commentaries, dictionaries, parallel & interlinear bibles.

  • Hymnary

    Index to an archive of music for free use with hymns, including sheet music, MIDI files, and background information.

  • E-Sword

    A free Bible study tool. It is a leaner version of a Bibleworks or Accordance and features many free texts and reference sources for close study of the Bible.

  • Papyrological Navigator

    A search engine that aggregates ancient papyrological documents and related materials.

  • Phet Sims (Univ. of Colorado Boulder)

    Free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations.

  • Undergraduate Research Commons

    A portal showcasing outstanding published works authored by thousands of undergraduate students. The portal was built to provide greater visibility to the exemplary student works that universities and colleges are publishing.

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