Library Research Guides: Biology: Open Resources

Open Access Databases

bioRxiv: biology preprint server
Biodiversity Heritage Library
BioMed Central: Open access journals available through BioMed.
DOAJ: The Directory of Open Access Journals provides full text coverage of scientific, scholarly journals.
Dryad Data Repository
E-Print Network: Scientists have created this network of information gleaned from websites and databases to create a database of e-prints.
GAlLEO Knowledge Repository: Digital collections from the University of Georgia.
PLoS (Public Library of Science): A database of open access, peer reviewed journals in the sciences.
PubMed Central: A free digital archive of biomedical and life science journal articles.
ROARMAP: Links to open access repositories worldwide
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition): The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition provides access to papers, articles, blogs, newsletters, and news for research scientists.

Open Textbooks

E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth
Life on Earth is an iBooks Textbook consisting of 41 chapters in 7 separate units and can be downloaded for free from the iBooks Store.
Lumen Learning - Biology
Lumen Learning provides a Biology text with various chapters such as The Chemical Foundation of Life and Osmotic Regulation and the Excretory System.
Lumen Learning - Microbiology
Lumen Learning provides a Microbiology text with various chapters such as Cell Structure of Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes and Pathogenicity.
MERLOT
MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
The National Academies Press (NAP)
This is a great resource that provides textbooks on biology and life sciences.
OER Commons
OER Commons provides a curated collection of textbooks and resources for biological studies including zoology, botany and ecology.
OpenStax CNX - Biology
Over thirty open textbooks covering Biology.
Open Textbook Library
Browse a wide selection of textbooks on biological science topics.

Open Courseware

Many universities have followed MIT's lead and model for open courseware (OCW). OCW Course materials are freely accessible but no certificates or degrees are granted by the institution. The intent is to share knowledge and resources with all who interested in learning.

More information about Open Courseware is available at the Open Courseware Consortium site.

MIT Open Courseware (OCW)
MIT provides content and resources for over 2000 of its courses.
Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain
Materials provided from Duke's Intellectual Property Rights Program.
Rice - Connexions
An educational repository of materials and a course management system. Connexions is open to anyone to develop content and share materials.
FETP OpenCourseWare
Course syllabi, lecture notes, bibliographies, and other teaching materials from Fulbright Economics Teaching Program are made available on this site.
JHSPH Open Courseware
Johns Hopkins University offers open access to the course content in its Bloomberg School of Public Health
University of Notre Dame OpenCourseware
Open access to materials used in a variety of courses taught at Notre Dame is provided on their opencourseware site.
Tufts Open Courseware
Listed by school (e.g., dental medicine, arts and sciences) are course materials accessible to anyone online.

Open Access Societies

BioOne
"A global collaboration bringing together scientific societies, publishers, and libraries to provide access to critical, peer-reviewed research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences."
DAVID
DAVID, A Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery is a bioinformation database that provides gene specific data and promotes data sharing among scientists.
Faculty of 1000
A searchable database of current publications by research faculty. Although the full texts of these publications are available through a subscription, the database may be searched free of charge.
Hum-Molgen
An international communication forum for human molecular genetics featuring journal literature and other publications.
OpenDOAR
A resource identifying open resource sites.
Research Gate
"ResearchGate allows you to network with the largest global community dedicated to science and research: we help you to expand your contacts, share knowledge and find potential research partners."
Scirus
Contains journal content, researchers' home pages, and preprints for the scientific community. Filters resources by source or format type.
SPARC
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition provides access to papers, articles, blogs, newsletters, and news for research scientists.
INASP (International Network )
INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERii) aims to support research capacity in developing and emerging countries. INASP's PERii:Open Access provides access to resources freely available.
Creative Commons

Labs, Simulations, and Interactive Resources

The LifeDiscoveryEd Digital Library
Ecology, plant biology and evolution from the ESA, Ecological Society of America.
XVIVO Scientific Animation
XVIVOs award-winning animation studio creates compelling visual productions for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies, advertising agencies, educational organizations, museums and broadcast companies. From script to screen, we provide custom education and communication services for every client.

Biology

Open Access Databases

Open Textbooks

Open Courseware

Open Access Societies

Labs, Simulations, and Interactive Resources

Featured Databases

IU Libraries

Biology

Open Access Databases

Open Textbooks

Open Courseware

Open Access Societies

Labs, Simulations, and Interactive Resources

Social media

Additional resources

Featured Databases

IU Libraries