Open Access Tools & Resources

When following a conference on Twitter last week, one attendee tweeted about Unpaywall. It was the first time they had heard of it, which surprised me at first. I was equally surprised that the Open Access Button had not been mentioned at the same time.  I realize now that I have had the benefit of attending OpenCon and following many people active in Open for a while now. Below I will list some of the open tools and resources, which hopefully, someone will find useful.

Open Access Button – This tool searches for open access versions of an article. In the absence of one, it can request the author post one. It has a web-based search as well as Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Unpaywall – A database of open access scholarly articles. The browser extension will search this database for open access versions of articles you see online.

Rebus Press – A Pressbooks network of open textbooks made by Rebus Community members.

Rebus Project – A platform for collaborating on and creating open textbooks.

HathiTrust – An collaborative repository with over six million items in the public domain.

Digital Public Library of America – A catalog with thumbnails of open access digital archives collections from institutions like the National Archive and the Smithsonian.

Big List of OER Resources – This LibGuide’s name is pretty self-explanatory.

OER World Map – Interactive map of OER projects.

Open Knowledge Maps – Open search tool that visualizes searches of PubMed and BASE.

Open Access Tracking Project – One of Harvard’s many Open projects, OATP tags open access news to make tracking easier by following one of the many feeds.

This is just a sample of the various open projects underway, but a great start to dip your toe in the water. Have a favorite that you do not see here? Please comment below.

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