Free Online Journal and Research Databases for Academics
| AGRICOLA: Agricultural Online Access | The National Agricultural Library “houses one of the world’s largest collections devoted to agriculture and related sciences.” You can search for books or articles, which you can then purchase through publishers’ websites. |
| AGRIS | The International System for Agricultural Science and Technology is a great tool for researchers in the field of agriculture. Although it primarily provides bibliographic information, it does provide links to data sources wherever possible, many of which are open access. |
| Analytical Sciences Digital Library | The Analytical Sciences Digital Library is an incredible resource. It “collects, catalogs, links and publishes peer- reviewed, web-based discovery materials pertinent to innovations in curricular development and supporting technical resources in the analytical sciences.” |
| Archives Hub | Archives Hub allows you to search subjects, finding relevant information stored in various archives around Scotland, England, and Wales. Be aware that many of these are physical materials only available at certain institutions, but the site does provide some links to digital content, including images linking to full-resolution display and links to full-text files and PDF files, when available. |
| Artcyclopedia | This should be a go-to resource for art majors. You can search for information by artist, artwork, or location. It will then lead you to relevant articles from museums, newspapers, and other scholarly sources. |
| arXiv e-print Archive | Run by Cornell University Library, arXiv.org provides open access to over a million e-prints in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics. |
| Astrophysics Data System | The Astrophysics Data System is run by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a NASA grant. It offers three bibliographic databases with a total of more than 12.5 million records. |
| BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine | BASE is operated by the Bielefeld University Library, and it offers over 100 million documents from over 4,000 sources. Sixty percent of its content is open access, and you can filter your search accordingly. |
| Bioline International | Bioline International is a resource tool that provides access to open access research from developing countries. This is a great resource to find authoritative sources on health, biodiversity, environmental changes, conservation, and international development. |
| BioMed Central | BioMed Central provides open access research in more than 290 peer-reviewed journals in the fields of biology, clinical medicine, and health. |
| CancerData | This repository of open access materials related to the study of cancer is run by the Medical Informatics and Knowledge Engineering team of Maastro Clinic in Maastricht, a city in the Netherlands. The research provided includes clinical protocols, publications, and datasets. |
| Catalog of U.S. Government Publications | The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a directory of publications from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Here you can browse more than 500,000 records, including direct links to those available online. |
| CERN Document Server | CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and their document server connects researchers with more than a million authoritative scientific sources. |
| CHBD: Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database | This is an incredibly specific resource, but it’s useful nonetheless. The Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database contains 6,800 records related to human health in the circumpolar region (i.e., the area around one of Earth’s poles). Some journals and articles require an access fee. |
| ChemBioFinder | ChemBioFinder requires registration, but signing up for this free service will give you access to research related to chemistry and biology. |
| CIA World Factbook | The CIA World Factbook is a great resource for finding facts about every country in the world, including information about countries’ history, geography, transportation, and more. |
| CiteSeerX | CiteSeerX is a computer and information science database. Here you can find links to scholarly articles and journals about related subjects. |
| CiteULike | CiteULike allows users to find reputable resources in the form of journals and articles. It also acts as an online bibliography manager for organizing references. |
| CogPrints | CogPrints is an electronic database of self-archived research for which full texts are available. The database includes work in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and biology. |
| Computer Science Technical Reports | This is a collection of computer science technical reports from the computer science department of Virginia Tech, as well as industrial and governmental research laboratories. |
| CORE | CORE aims to aggregate all open access research and facilitate unrestricted access to research. It allows users to check more than 66 million open access articles. |
| Current Index to Statistics | The Current Index to Statistics allows you to search through journals related to the fields of statistics and probability. No subscription fees are charged, but both free and paid articles are returned in searches. In each case, links to where they can be found online are provided along with the citation. CIS is set to be shut down Dec. 31, 2019, so be sure to use this resource while you can! |
| dblp computer science bibliography | The dblp computer science bibliography is an online reference for major computer science publications. Although it provides access to both full-text articles and those behind a paywall, you can search for only full- text articles. |
| De Gruyter Open | An imprint of independent academic publisher De Gruyter, De Gruyter Open publishes and indexes open access material, including 435 journals and more than 100 books, in all major academic disciplines. |
| Digital History | The Digital History website allows you to browse newspaper articles, journals, and general sources for content related to American history. |
| Digital Library of the Commons Repository | The Digital Library of the Commons allows users to search through thousands of free and open access documents from around the world. |
| Directory of Open Access Journals | DOAJ is a “community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.” |
| Dryad | Dryad is a digital repository of curated, open access, scientific research. It is run by a not-for-profit membership organization. If you would like to publish your data on Dryad, there is an associated publishing charge. |
| EBSCOhost American Doctoral Dissertation Database | This index provides access to over 172,000 dissertations from 1902 to the present in a variety of subjects. Full texts are provided when available. |
| Education Resources Information Center | ERIC, of the Institution of Education Sciences, allows you to search by topics related to education. Links lead to other sites, where you may have to purchase information, but you can search for full-text articles only. |
| Elsevier Open Access Journals | This is an A–Z directory of open access journals published by Elsevier. Although there is no search function, you can view the titles and descriptions of each journal. |
| Encyclopedia of Psychology | The Encyclopedia of Psychology links to various resources sorted by subject. You can search by career, environment behavior relationships, organizations, paradigms and theories, people and history, publications, resources, and underlying reductionist machinery. |
| EThOS | Run by the British Library, EThOS allows you to browse more than 400,000 doctoral theses. Although some full texts are unavailable through EThOS and must be accessed through the institution at which it was published, a PDF is provided whenever a full text is available. |
| Europe PMC | The Europe PMC provides access to life science articles, books, patents, and clinical guidelines. Although some of the articles are behind a paywall, there are 3.9 million full texts available. |
| Fold3 | Fold3 allows people to search U.S. military records. Though you must pay to do a thorough search of your own ancestry, you can access a fraction of their records to find general info. |
| Google Books | Google Books is a great way to search subjects, quotes, authors, and literary sources. Often, the full text will not be available, but you can search excerpts of books for your required information. |
| Google Correlate | Google Correlate is a custom search engine that allows you to search real-world trends and data. |
| Google Scholar | Google Scholar has been a secret weapon of students for years. Here you can search topics, and it will return relevant, reputable articles, journals, and research. Full texts are sometimes available, while others are behind paywalls on publishers’ websites. |
| HighWire | An affiliate of Stanford University, HighWire works to “facilitate the digital dissemination of more than 3000 journals, books, reference works, and proceedings.” The advanced search feature allows you to specify exactly what you are looking for and check through all resources or only open access resources. |
| HubMed | HubMed is a database of medical journals and articles. The site is simple and straightforward, and it allows you to filter your results to free full texts only. |
| IARP | The International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP) is a system that organizes and allows users to browse research related to aging. It “incorporates databases of grants from multiple sources,” as well as MEDLINE publication abstracts. |
| IDEAS | Boasting its status as “the largest bibliographic database dedicated to economics and available freely on the Internet,” IDEAS indexes over 2.2 million items, more than 2 million of which can be freely downloaded. |
| Inomics | Although primarily a job-search tool, this site also allows you to search for recent articles by subject. Not only can you do your research here, but you can also sign up and customize a newsfeed that will deliver you articles of interest. |
| iSEEK Education | iSEEK is a search engine specifically crafted for students and teachers. You will find quality content related to various subjects. Searches can be filtered by grade level, location, organization, resource type, and more. |
| JSTOR: Journal Storage | JSTOR is a very well-known resource, offering access to journals, primary sources, and books in a variety of disciplines. You can register for a free account, but many of the articles are behind a paywall. |
| JURN | JURN is a search engine that provides you with links to various scholarly websites, articles, and journals that are all available for free. |
| LexisWeb | Lexis provides a lot of reliably sourced content about law. Some resources can be accessed for free, but for other resources, you must purchase a membership or pay for each piece of content individually. |
| Library of Anglo- American Culture & History | The Library of Anglo-American Culture & History is a great resource for history buffs. Find what you need through its compilation of journals, newspapers, and databases. |
| Library of Congress | The U.S. Library of Congress Online Catalog provides access to hundreds of documents in various subjects, including newspapers, audio files, and government documents. |
| Literary Encyclopedia | The Literary Encyclopedia provides tons of resources on literature, history, and culture. Although you can view the entries without a membership, you do need one to view the articles in their entirety. |
| MathGuide | MathGuide is a gateway to various scholarly resources in the field of mathematics, allowing you to sort through libraries, archives, journals, open access journals, and more. |
| Microsoft Academic Search | Microsoft Academic provides you with “continually refreshed and extensive academic content from over 120 million publications.” Some of these provide full-text access, while you will find others behind a paywall. |
| MyScienceWork | In addition to allowing you to share your research with others, MyScienceWork provides access to over 60 million articles, 25 million of which are open access. |
| National Agricultural Library | Run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Agricultural Library is an incredible tool for research, allowing you to search by subject and view articles on the publisher’s website. |
| National Archives | The National Archives Catalog is a free resource that helps you find historical documents and journals. |
| National Bureau of Economic Research | The National Bureau of Economic Research has compiled tons of research into an easy-to-use, searchable website. The research is conducted by over 1,400 economics university professors. |
| National Criminal Justice Reference Service | The National Criminal Justice Reference Service provides articles and other resources focused on criminal justice and drug-related information. It is funded by the U.S. government and provides links to full-text articles whenever possible. |
| OAIster | |
| OASIS | |
| Open Library of Humanities (OLH) | The mission of the Open Library of Humanities is to “support and extend open access to scholarship in the humanities.” To research your topic, browse the featured journals and search for your required keywords. |
| OpenDOAR | |
| Oxford Journals | |
| Paperity | |
| PhilPapers | PhilPapers is an index of philosophy-related journals, books, open access archives, and personal pages of academics. It is “maintained by the community of philosophers” and allows you to browse over 1,000 philosophy journals. It does have a function that allows you to search open access resources only. |
| POPLINE | A free resource containing 380,000 records, POPLINE helps you seek resources related to family planning and reproductive health. Although it is free to search, access to articles does require that you pay a membership fee. |
| Psycline | Psycline allows you to look for psychology and social sciences journals and articles across many databases. Although some articles are behind paywalls, others are open access. |
| PubChem | PubChem is a unique tool for researchers, allowing you to search by bioassay, compound, or substance. |
| Pubget | Pubget allows you to browse by paper or journal, offering you the option of viewing the PDFs of free-access articles or buying the PDFs of articles behind a paywall. According to the site, 10,000 new papers are added each day. |
| Public Library of Science | PLOS is a non-profit organization committed to facilitating openness in academic research. According to the site, “all PLOS content is at the highest possible level of open access, meaning that scientific articles are immediately and freely available to anyone, anywhere.” |
| PubMed | PubMed offers access to “more than 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.” Some citations link to the full text on PubMed Central and publisher websites, while others are behind paywalls. You can filter your search to view full texts only. |
| PubPsych | PubPsych allows users to search psychology-related resources and directs them to articles and journals. Full texts are available for most articles, but there are some you may have to purchase. |
| ResearchGate | |
| Retina | Retina is “the world’s leading search engine for medical students, doctors and researchers to find the right document in [the] shortest possible time.” The site also allows you to seek full texts only. |
| SafetyLit | |
| Science.gov | Science.gov offers 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information. Some of the resources need to be purchased through other sites. |
| ScienceOpen | ScienceOpen is an incredible research and publishing network offering open access content from more than 24,000 journals. |
| Scientific Electronic Library Online | |
| Scientillion | Scientillion is a smart search engine designed specifically to improve the quality and speed of scientific research. |
| SciTech Connect | The research on SciTech Connect comes from the U.S. Department of Energy and includes research from the 1940s to today. Of this research, over 400,000 articles are available as full-text PDFs. |
| Semantic Scholar | This easy-to-use resource uses artificial intelligence to efficiently sort through millions of science-related papers based on your search terms. According to the site, although some articles are behind paywalls, “the data [they] have for those articles is limited.” |
| Smithsonian Institution Research Information System | |
| Social Science Research Network | The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a collection of papers from scholars in the social sciences community. The site offers over 700,000 abstracts and over 600,000 full-text papers. |
| Sparrho | |
| SpringerLink | |
| State Legislative Websites Directory | The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) gathers information from throughout the U.S. to help you cite documents such as bills and statutes. |
| The British Library Catalogues & Collections | |
| The SocioWeb | The SocioWeb is a search engine that guides users to sociological resources on the Internet, including websites, articles, and journals. |
| The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies | The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies contains more than three million references. Although the site only provides bibliographic information, it includes links to PDFs or full texts on other sites where possible. There is also an option to search on Google for the full article. |
| University of Oxford Text Archive | This archive is a catalog of electronic literary and linguistic resources. Although many are freely accessible, some texts have restricted access. |
| VADLO | VADLO is a life sciences search engine that allows you to search for methods, techniques, protocols, and more. Because it is powered by Google, some of the search results lead to resources behind paywalls. |
| VET-Bib | VET-Bib, of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, contains 80,000 references related to vocational education training. Not all articles are in English, but you can sort by language if needed. |
| WikiArc | WikiArc is a search tool that allows you to find open access documents related to archaeology. |
| Wiley Online Library | |
| WorldWideScience.org | |
| zbMATH | This is an excellent database for finding documents, authors, and journals related to mathematics. Some of them are freely available, while others require payment. |
| Zenodo | |