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Best Bets for OA Research

Other OA Sources

OAIster (OCLC)

OAIster is a union catalog of millions of records representing open access resources that was built by harvesting from open access collections worldwide using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Today, OAIster includes more than 25 million records representing digital resources from more than 1,100 contributors.

Open Access Directory

The Open Access Directory is a wiki where the open access community can create and maintain simple factual lists about open access to science and scholarship.

INTECH

InTech is a pioneer and world's largest multidisciplinary open access publisher of books covering the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine. Since 2004, InTech has collaborated with more than 70 000 authors and published 1827 books and 12 journals with the aim of providing free online access to high-quality research and helping leading academics to make their work visible and accessible to diverse new audiences around the world.

OA Multimedia

Before you use any of the music found on these websites read the terms of use and abide by those rules.

  • ccMixter
    A community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons.
  • Creative Commons Content Directories
    Lists websites providing images, music, video, and text that use Creative Commons licensing.
  • Free Hip Hop Beats
    Downloadable hip hop beats covered under a Creative Commons License that requires audio attribution.
  • Internet Archive
    Access to downloadable video, audio, text & multimedia in the public domain.
  • Jamendo
    All music on Jamendo is free to download and can be shared or modified depending on how each specific piece of music has been licensed.
  • Petrucci Music Library
    A wiki-based repository of musical scores available in the public domain.

You may find images on the web and think it is easy to just cut and paste; however,  you cannot use graphics, videos, and images from the web without determining usage permissions and copyright levels.

These websites provide copyright-friendly images you can use freely as long as you abide by any terms of use provided by the owner of the content. 

  • Creative Commons Content Directories
    This site lists websites where you will find images, music, video, and text using Creative Commons licensing.
  • Elated
    Build your website using free tools and graphics.
  • Flickr
    A great source of images and videos. Set your search options to select the Creative Commons.
  • Google Advanced Image Search
    IN the left-side navigation bar, select the "Usage Rights" option and search for copyright-free materials.
  • morgueFile
    "Free images for your inspiration, reference and use in your creative work, be it commercial or not!"
  • Pics 4 Learning
    Check this out! Copyright-free images for educational use by students and teachers.

Before downloading any Open Source product, make sure to research its reputation for performance and reliability. For help, take a look at Top Tips for Evaluating Open Source Software.

Audacity (Mac, Windows, Linux)
Free audio editing and recording software.
Avast! (Windows)
Free antivirus/anti-spyware software to protect your PC.
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program (Mac, Windows, Linux)
Image editing program that functions similar to Adobe Photoshop.
Mozilla Firefox (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Free open source web browser that is modifiable to personal needs.
Open Office Productivity Suite ( Mac, Windows, Linux)
A productivity suite that provides the functionality of Microsoft Office, for free.
SourceForge
Find and develop open source software.
Zotero ( Mac, Windows, Linux)
Bibliographic management tool that works as an add-on for the Firefox web browser.

Before you use any of the videos found on these websites read the terms of use and abide by those rules.