Free Online Scholarly Resources: General Resources

The Web offers quite a bit of free content for researchers, scholars, and academics. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good. This guide provides a brief listing of good online scholarly resources that are free.

Free Index: Google Scholar

  • Broadly search for scholarly literature
  • Includes articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions
  • Explore related works, citations, authors and publication
  • Tips for Advanced Searching
Google Scholar Search

Free Scholarly Works: Books and Articles

CORE, the Open Access Repository for the Humanities

  • full-text, interdisciplinary, social repository designed to increase the impact of work in the humanities

HathiTrust Digital Library

  • millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world

OAPEN Library

  • freely accessible academic books

Open Textbook Library

  • affordable, quality textbook solutions

Institutional Repositories

  • freely available academic research from nearly 2,500 institutions

Free Social Networks: ResearchGate.net and Academia.edu

ResearchGate.net

  • create a profile
  • produce a list of publications
  • upload copies of papers and associated data
  • share project or experiment failures
  • track and follow research publications of others in your field
  • review statistics related to your research
  • seek a job or recruit for a job

Academia.edu

  • sign up
  • create a list of publications
  • add copies of papers
  • monitor analytics and statistics
  • follow other researchers

Evaluating Information on the Web

The Web offers a wealth of information, but not all of it is equally accurate or reliable. Evaluate and cite your sources carefully. 

The CRAAP TEST provides useful concepts and questions to consider: 

  • Currency: When was the information published/posted/last updated?
  • Relevance: What is the importance of the information given your topic or information need?
  • Authority: Who is the author/publisher/sponsor of the information?
  • Accuracy: Is the information reliable, truthful, and correct?
  • Purpose: Why does this information exist?

 

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