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Open Access Resources: General, Mixed, Data

Free web collections, books, journals, teaching materials, and other resources. This guide concentrates on English language collections, though some collections mentioned do have resources in several languages.

*NEW* OA/OER Searches

George Mason University has launched the Mason OER Metafinder, designed by GMU Librarian Wally Grotophorst, Associate University Librarian for Digital Programs and Systems. It searches a broad range of Open Educational Resource Collections, such as as the Digital Public Library, the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, MERLOT, and College Open Textbooks. Read more about the Metafinder at Deep Web Tech Blog, or try it out below.

Search the Mason OER Metafinder
 

Need a particular article, but can't find the full text? Try the Open Access Button search to see if an OA version exists. (If not, try Interlibrary Loan!)
OA versions may include "pre-prints" which do not have final editing and formatting of the published versions. Use at your own discretion.

Search for open access versions of articles via Open Access Button. DOIs, publisher URLs, and PubMed IDs (PMIDs) work best.

Search for Downloadable Materials WorldWide

Do a search for your topic using the Everything search box. Use "quotation marks" around phrases.

Then on the left of the search results under Format, check Downloadable Article and Downloadable Archival Material. You'll get open access and institutional repository content from all over the world.

Guides and Search Engines

Mixed Format Collections (a little of everything)

Data

We have a guide specifically for publicly accessible, downloadable data sets:

A sampling is listed below: