Alumni and Community Users

Provides resources and tools that alumni, future K-Staters, and members of our community can use. The focus is on academic, research, and work-based resources.

Library Research Guide

Unpaywall - Finding Access to Articles

Unpaywall
A resource of Open Access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories. Makes it easier to find, track and use articles.

Books

Need to find a book? Use these tools to identify or browse books online. Full text is not always available, or not always available immediately, so be sure to read the help information.

Directory of Open Access Books
Free resource
Provides access to thousands of open access, academic, peer-reviewed books.

Google Books
Search within the fulltext of books. Dependent upon publisher permissions and copyright, you may be able to view snippets of text, preview sections of a book, or read the full book.

HathiTrust Digital Library
Publication Dates Covered: pre-1500-2009
A preservation repository with millions of volumes digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, and HathiTrust’s partner institutions. Approximately one-third of the volumes are in the public domain and can be viewed in their entirety. Most items cannot be downloaded.K-State faculty, staff, and students who login to HathiTrust with their K-State eID can download full-text PDFs of public domain works.

WorldCat
Includes 1.5 billion records of books and other materials held in thousands of academic, public, special and national libraries around the world.

Use WorldCat to identify materials and check if your local library has a copy or can obtain one for you through interlibrary loan.

Free and Open Resources

This page offers a selection of databases and websites that offer books, journals, data sets, and other information. These resources are free for you to use. Some names may be familiar because they are free versions of databases that K-State Libraries subscribes to; they may or may not include the full text of articles.

We use the term "free" because it clearly indicates you will not need to pay when you are using a resource. Please be aware that the cost of collecting, researching, digitizing, and making these resources available has been paid by individuals or organization. This could include funding from:

taxes
grants
donated time/resources

You will also see the terms "open" or "open access." These also indicate that the resources are free for you to use. These terms are commonly used at universities and colleges and also indicate that the cost of publishing has been paid for by the researcher or their institution. Open access research follows peer review and other established standards. Learn more about open access at K-State.

Finding Free Resources

This page offers a selection of free and open resources. You can find more by visiting the sites below.

Data.gov
"Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets."
Free Databases - California State University Libraries
This expansive list of free databases is organized by subjects. Hats off to librarians at CSU for their work creating this amazing resource.
Free Databases from K-State Libraries
Try these free databases to search for articles and other content.
Library of Congress E-Resources Online Catalog
A curated list of recommended databases, indexing and abstracting services, and full-text reference resources. Click on "All Free Resources" to limit to the free options.
USDA Information Centers
This is an example of a set of free databases from the Department of Agriculture. Other federal agencies also have organized information sources.

All Subjects/Multiple-Subjects

Directory of Open Access Books
Free resource
Provides access to thousands of open access, academic, peer-reviewed books.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Free resource
This independent database contains over 15 000 peer-reviewed open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. DOAJ allows for keyword searching of articles as well as searching of journals.
JSTOR Open and Free Content
Free resource
Current K-Staters: use this link
JSTOR offers a collection of free, open access journals and books. These titles include those published by university and academic presses.
Project Muse Open Access
Free resource
Current K-Staters: use this link
Project Muse offers a collection of open access books and journals. These titles are published by university presses and scholarly societies. Books and journals available through Project Muse's open access platform are available to libraries and users around the world for free.

Agriculture

AGRICOLA
Contains citations for journal articles and monographs from the National Agricultural Library. The database contains 5,200,000+ records and includes printed works from as far back as the 15th century. Limited full text.

PubAg
PubAg, created by the National Agricultural Library, is a portal to USDA-authored and other relevant agricultural research. At launch in 2015, it delivered over 40,000 full-text journal articles by USDA staff and citations to an additional 340,000 articles and continues to add citations and articles each month. The initial release also previews its directions for intended functionality and will serve as the foundation for further enhancements.
AgEcon Search
AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics contains full text copies of scholarly research in the broadly defined field of agricultural and applied economics including agribusiness, food security and supply, energy and natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, international trade, and economic development. Content includes conference presentations, working papers, journal articles, government documents, and theses and dissertations.
AGRIS: International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology
AGRIS provides an international view of agriculture, especially information on agriculture in developing countries. The database includes information on animal husbandry, forestry, range management and human nutrition, and extension literature from over 100 countries. It also includes unpublished scientific and technical reports, theses, conference papers, and government publications. AGRIS is also accessible through Google Scholar.

Treesearch
Treesearch is an online system for sharing free, full text publications by Research and Development scientists in the US Forest Service. All publications appearing in Treesearch are based on peer reviewed research to make sure they provide the best scientific information possible.

Architecture and Design

Building Technology Heritage Library
Free Resource
The Building Technology Heritage Library (BTHL) is primarily a collection of American and Canadian, pre-1964 architectural trade catalogs, house plan books, and technical building guides. Trade catalogs are an important primary source to document past design and construction practices. These materials can aid in the preservation and conservation of older structures as well as other research goals.

Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Since 2000, documentation from the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) has been added to the holdings.
USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer
Interactive U.S. map that permits searching by location and then viewing historical maps based on that location. Can be used to track growth, development, and contraction of communities.
USModernist Architecture Magazine Library
Collection of digitized 20th-century US architecture magazines with a particular focus on modern architecture.

Arts

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)
Publication Dates Covered: 1975-2007 Free Resource
Provides citations and abstracts from 1975-2007 for articles, art-related books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and exhibition catalogs, focusing on European and American art from late antiquity to the present. This multilingual database encompasses writings on the visual arts including traditional fine arts (ceramics, drawing, painting, prints, sculpture, etc.), architecture and industrial design, and decorative and applied arts (crafts, folk art, graphic arts, etc.).

Business

EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval): U.S. Security and Exchange Commission
Publication Dates Covered: 1996-present Free Resource
Contains full text of reports companies are required to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Find company financial data, information about mergers and business activities, bankruptcy petition disclosures, and executive compensation data.

Education

ERIC
This index provides abstracts for articles from education-related U.S. and international journals, and report literature. Sources include journals, educational reports, project descriptions, curriculum guides, and dissertations. This version of ERIC does not provide K-State Libraries' Get It button.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Publication Dates Covered: 1991 - present Free Resource
Find data collected by The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

Engineering

arXiv
Provides open access to over 900,000 e-prints in physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. Content is submitted by authors/scientists.

Defense Technical Information Center
Includes a mix of fulltext and citation only access to unclassified research publications and technical reports funded by or conducted in collaboration with the Department of Defense.
NTRL - National Technical Reports Library
Search for historical and current technical reports from a wide variety of government agencies. Includes a mix of full text and citations only.
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Primary search tool for Department of Energy science, technology, and engineering research and development results and the organizational hub for information about the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information. OSTI.GOV makes discoverable over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies.

TRID: Transportation Research Information Database
Publication Dates Covered: 1922 - present Free Resource how to search
TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide and is comprised of the records from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database.

Health and Human Sciences

PubMed
Publication Dates Covered: 1950 - present Free Resource
PubMed is a free service of the National Library of Medicine that includes over 21 million citations from Medline and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles.
MedlinePlus
Free Resource
Maintained by the National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus includes information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources. It contains references to the latest health professional articles, a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, and drug information.

Healthfinder.gov
Has resources on a wide range of health topics selected from approximately 1,400 government and non-profit organizations

Child Care & Early Education Research Connections
Publication Dates Covered: 1995 - present Free Resource
This free database contains resources from disciplines related to child care and early education, including research reports, fact sheets and briefs, datasets, instruments and measures, citations for scholarly journal articles and books, grey literature, government documents, and more.
PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database)
Free Resource
PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database created by the Centre for Evidence-Based Physiotherapy at the George Institute for Global Health. PEDro contains more than 30,000 randomized trials, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines in the area of physiotherapy.

Humanities

Humanities Commons
This open access site is devoted to people working in the humanities and includes many resources for educators.
Arts and Humanities Commons
Part of the Digital Commons Network, provides free access to full-text scholarly articles and other research from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, this dynamic research tool includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.

Handbook of Latin American Studies
Free Resource
Contains scholarly assessments of publications related to Latin America, from the 1930s to the present, including books, articles, maps, e-resources, and more.

Science

National Academies Press
Thousands of publications of scientific research from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Science.gov
Science.gov offers free access to research and technical information from scientific organizations across 15 U.S. federal agencies.

arXiv
Provides open access to over 900,000 e-prints in physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. Content is submitted by authors/scientists.
BRENDA (BRaunschweig ENzyme DAtabase): The Comprehensive Enzyme Information System
BRENDA is the main collection of enzyme functional data available. Data on enzyme function are extracted directly from the primary literature. The data collection is being developed into a metabolic network information system with links to enzyme expression and regulation information.
ChemSpider
ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database maintained by the Royal Society of Chemistry, providing access to over 67 million structures, properties, and associated chemical data. Chemicals may be searched according to name or identified by structure (manual drawing or uploaded structure), while links to references, physical properties, spectra data, and chemical suppliers are included for more advanced research capabilities.

Social Sciences

Pew Research Center
The Center conducts national surveys about public attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy issues. The site contains both raw data, which can be downloaded, as well as commentary and summaries of findings. The newer data sets are in SPSS, and the older data is in ASCII text using a fixed format; Pew strongly recommends that only experienced analysts download these files.
PTSDpubs
Formerly known as PILOTS, this site from the Department of Veteran's Administration offers resources on all aspects of PTSD, both in and out of the military.
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons
Part of the Digital Commons Networks, provides free access to full-text scholarly articles and other research from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, this dynamic research tool includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.

Unpaywall - Finding Access to Articles

Unpaywall
A resource of Open Access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories. Makes it easier to find, track and use articles.

Books

Need to find a book? Use these tools to identify or browse books online. Full text is not always available, or not always available immediately, so be sure to read the help information.

Directory of Open Access Books
Free resource
Provides access to thousands of open access, academic, peer-reviewed books.

Google Books
Search within the fulltext of books. Dependent upon publisher permissions and copyright, you may be able to view snippets of text, preview sections of a book, or read the full book.

HathiTrust Digital Library
Publication Dates Covered: pre-1500-2009
A preservation repository with millions of volumes digitized by Google, the Internet Archive, and HathiTrust’s partner institutions. Approximately one-third of the volumes are in the public domain and can be viewed in their entirety. Most items cannot be downloaded.K-State faculty, staff, and students who login to HathiTrust with their K-State eID can download full-text PDFs of public domain works.

WorldCat
Includes 1.5 billion records of books and other materials held in thousands of academic, public, special and national libraries around the world.

Use WorldCat to identify materials and check if your local library has a copy or can obtain one for you through interlibrary loan.