Library Guides: Free Scientific Research Resources on the Web: General Sites

Truly Free Indicator!

= Websites where everything in the site is free, full-text.

Browser Extension

Find free research articles as you browse the Internet!! Unpaywall provides quick access to 10 million open-access articles.

Unpaywall
This is a free browser plugin that automatically tells you (when you're on a publisher webpage or any page with a DOI) if there is a free version of the item available.

Currently only works with Firefox and Chrome browsers.

Once installed, look for the green symbol of an unlocked padlock to check for free versions.

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports in all subject areas. Links to free full text when available.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text of many books and journals. In many cases, only the older publications are available full-text. From the search page, it is possible to search just within the full-text collections.

INASP Publications
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications. Includes research reports and books. Most provide links to free full-text, but some have links to book purchasing information.
Public Library of Science
A non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.

Rand Reports This link opens in a new window
Health, education, national security, international affairs, law, business, and the environment. RAND is a nonpartisan organization, publishing a wide variety of freely-accessible research reports.

Science.gov
Gateway to selected science information provided by U.S. government agencies.
ScienceResearch.com
This is a free search engine that covers scientific journals and public science databases. Depending on the source, full text documents may be available. In the event full text is not available, the results pull up an abstract of the article and a link to the source.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Collections
Contains books and journals on research conducted by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable titles held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. Particularly strong in Ecology and Natural Resources and the History of Science.
WorldWideScience
a global science gateway connecting to national and international scientific databases and portals. Search results can take a bit of time to display - be patient. Contains all of the content from Science.gov and Science Accelerator. The U.S. publication links will lead to free full-text. Publications from other countries vary on whether or not full-text is available.