Free Public SciTech Resources: Journal Articles

To help you collect, organize, cite, and share the information you find, we recommend using Zotero, a free reference management tool. For more information on Zotero, see:

In some cases, you may want to obtain copies of articles that are not freely available. In these cases you typically have several options.

1. Conduct an advanced search on the Internet. By entering the full title of the paper in quotes ("_") into an Internet search engine, you may be able to find a copy of the article if the authors have posted it. Also, try searching OAIster in case the paper has been deposited with a university archive.
2. Request a copy through your local public or school library. This is usually referred to as "interlibrary loan" or "document delivery" and is often a free service. Talk to your librarian for details.
3. Purchase and download the article. Most commercial publishers allow you to purchase and download articles individually. Cost varies by publisher, but expect to pay about $30 per article.

A significant trend in scholarly publishing over the past decade has been Open Access publication. These are freely available, often peer reviewed, high-quality scholarly journals. They are supported in part by government and by universities. It should be noted that not all open access publications make their current content available for free--many do not allow free access to articles published in the past 6 months to two years.

The following is a listing of the pricipal open access journals in science and technology.