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.

Publishers Providing Free Access because of COVID-19

American Library Association Booklist
Extensive and wonderful book reviews and book lists. Free for all for the foreseeable future.
Audiobooks from Audible
Free audiobooks for kids and teens for as long as schools are closed
Contemporary Openly Licensed eBooks
Nearly 500 OA books cataloged by the Library of Congress. Always free to read and free to reuse!
COVID-19 Research Articles from Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Open access articles are always free.
Faculty Select from EBSCO (email me for the details)
Index of over 12,000 open for reuse textbooks and 225,000 free to read and download eBooks free until June 30, 2020
GeoScience World
eBooks from 10 different publishers available until June 30, 2020.
Great Courses on Kanopy
Free from March 16-April 16, 2020
Handbook of Public Health Ethics
The entire Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics is available for anyone to access. Its content primarily focuses on the laws and restrictions imposed during medical emergencies.
Lever Press
Seven titles available (open access publisher).
Netflix Documentaries on YouTube
No-cost Permission to Reuse Content for Education from Various Publishers
Managed by the Copyright Clearance Center, available through August 1, 2020
Patents open during COVID-19
Various companies and scientific agencies pledge to "make our [patents] available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the impact of the disease."
University of Georgia Press
15 most taught titles from Univ of Georgia Press for the foreseeable future.
University of Michigan Press
Over 1,000 html books free to read until April 30, 2020
USU Press
Offering its title for free "An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perceptions of Disease" by Jon Lee

Select Movies
From various publishers/studios via Kanopy

The section below shows expanded resources for those with a U of U login

Bloomsbury Drama Online
Additional free films available until May 31, 2020
EBSCO eBooks
Unlimited and DRM-free access to licensed eBooks from 300+ publishers until June 30, 2020. Use the EBSCO eBooks database link from the library.
Expanded Access on ProQuest Ebook Central
From March 17-Jun 15, 2020 U of U community gets unlimited access to eBooks from over 50 publishers. Connect through the library's ProQuest Ebook Central link under 'Databases'
JSTOR
Up to 30,000 eBooks for academic institutions from various publishers until June 30, 2020. Use the JSTOR link in the library's databases tab
Mintel Market Research
Market research expertise free to the U of U until May 31, 2020
ISO Standards
...to support global efforts in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. They are freely available in read-only format.

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

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?