What does open access mean?
"Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions." - Peter Suber, A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access
Open access literature includes journals, books, and other sources of information. Most are scholarly, quality-controlled, and many open access journals use peer review, just as the more expensive and traditional journals do.
Why Does it Matter?
Have you tried to find a scholarly article on Google, only to reach a screen asking you to pay $35 or more, just to read an article? That's what's called a paywall - if you want the information, you have to pay for it.
As a part of Helena College, you are able to access a great deal of scholarly research through the library's research databases, which are paid for by the library and your student fees. Not everyone has this privilege, and libraries can't afford to pay for access to everything.
Open access publishing has filled the gap, by making academic research available for free - no credit cards or subscriptions required.
Open Access 101
Open Access Databases
You can find some open access articles alongside traditionally published articles in our databases and search tools, but you can also search for them online - especially handy if you forget your login information or are no longer a student. Try these resources for authoritative open access articles and books:
- BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)One of the world's most comprehensive open-access search engines, especially for academic resources such as books, journals, etc.
- BioOne Online JournalsAccess journals covering global warming, stem cell research, ecological and biodiversity conservation. Not all BioOne content is free, but many of their journals are open access.
- Digital Commons NetworkAccess free full-text scholarly peer-reviewed articles other materials from university and college researchers worldwide.
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
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Open access (freely accessible), quality, peer-reviewed academic journals covering all subjects. - First Monday: Peer-Reviewed Journal on the InternetOpenly accessible, peer–reviewed journal that focuses on topics related to the Internet such as mobile technologies, network analysis, social media, new media, digital copyright, and other interesting, unique subjects.
- Free Medical JournalsFree access to many important journals a few months after publication. Search by topic, publication time-frame, or journal title.
- Google News Newspaper ArchiveContains digitized newspapers with coverage as far back as the early nineteenth century. Mostly U.S. newspapers, but international titles are also included, especially from Canada and Mexico.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowSearch Google Scholar for free, open access schoarly materials, as well as some of the journal articles to which Helena College Library has access.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryCollection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
- National Academies PressOver 8,500 books and reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, all available to download free online.
- PeerJOpen access journal (featuring peer-reviewed articles) focused on the biological and medical sciences.
- PLoS ONEPeer-reviewed open access journal publishes articles covering all rigorous science across the full range of life and health sciences. From the Public Library of Science
- PNASOne of the world's most-cited multidisciplinary scientific serials. Their website offers free access to much of their scientific literature.
- Project GutenbergProvides access to thousands free e-books, available in EPUB and kindle formats and can be downloaded or read online. These e-books are free in the United States because their copyright has expired.
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
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Citations for biomedical and life sciences journal articles. Includes links to full-text content, when freely available or available through the library. - PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
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Part of PubMed, biomedical and life sciences journal articles freely available online.
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