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How to find open research
Research and scholarship are frequently hard to access due to publishing paywalls. However, many research funding agencies, academic institutions, researchers and scientists, teachers, students, and members of the general public are supporting movements in open scholarship that allow new research and creative production to be free for all.
Three primary ways that scholarship can be freely available to you are:
- Open Access
- Public Domain
- Creative Commons
This page defines these topics and provides pathways to free research.
Open Access
Open access (OA) refers to online research outputs that are free of all restrictions on access (e.g., access tolls) and free of many restrictions on use (e.g. certain copyright and license restrictions). Open access can be applied to all forms of published research output, including peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed academic journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and monographs. (Wikipedia)
Learn more at OpenAccessWeek.org.
Find Open Access Research:
- Digital Commons NetworkFree, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Explore by subject
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
- Open Access DirectoryThe Open Access Directory (OAD) is a compendium of simple factual lists about open access (OA) to science and scholarship, maintained by the OA community at large
Public Domain
Material that is not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws are in the public domain. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it. (Stanford University)
Learn how to find interesting public domain works online with the Public Domain Review.
Find Materials in the Public Domain:
- Public Domain ResourcesWikipedia manages a concise list of resources for materials in the public domain by subject.
- Public Domain ReviewOnline journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works in the public domain.
- WikisourceAn online library of free content publications, collected and maintained by the Wikipedia/Wikimedia community.
- Hathi TrustA partnership of academic & research institutions offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons are copyright licenses that provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use creative work. (Creativecommons.org)
Find Creative Commons Licensed Work:
- Flickr CommonsYahoo's photo-sharing site is a favorite tool of scholars and students. Images in the Commons are contributed by cultural institutions worldwide.
- Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons offers images that are freely-usable under one of two Creative Commons licenses, or are, to the best of its contributors' knowledge, in the public domain.
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