What open access means

Open access (OA) resources are free to read online. They’re a reliable starting point for research, wherever you’re studying. Start with Fast ways to find open access articles below.

Fast ways to find open access articles

Start here if you need full text quickly. Try Unpaywall first, then Google Scholar or Semantic Scholar, then BASE/CORE/DOAJ for deeper searching.

  • Unpaywall (browser extension) – flags legal open access versions of articles while you browse publisher sites.

  • Google Scholar – useful for broad searching. Look for [PDF] links on the right, and click All versions under results to find legal open copies where available.

  • Semantic Scholar – fast academic search with strong filters; often links to open full text where available.

  • BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) – searches a large index of academic web resources, with a high proportion of open access full text.

  • CORE – search millions of open access papers from repositories and journals.

  • DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) – find reputable open access journals and articles.

Open access books and textbooks

Use these sites to find open textbooks and open access academic books (availability varies by title for preview services).

  • OAB (Directory of Open Access Books) – peer-reviewed academic books (monographs and edited collections).

  • OAPEN – peer-reviewed open access books (strong in humanities and social sciences).

  • Open Textbook Library – free, peer-reviewed and openly licensed textbooks.

  • OpenStax – free, openly licensed textbooks (good for core undergraduate topics).

  • JSTOR Open and Free Content – a collection of openly available and free-to-read materials on JSTOR.

  • OpenEdition (Books / Journals) – open resources in the humanities and social sciences (some content is freemium).

  • HathiTrust – large digital library of millions of digitised titles (availability varies by title and your location; many items are limited to preview-only).

  • Google Books – search for books and use preview and “search inside” to check relevance (full access varies by title).

Subject starting points by area

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