Although many journals are only available to those with a subscription, an increasing number are now making some or all of their content freely accessible, or 'Open Access'. This means that our subscription databases are not the only place you need to look when searching for resources. Find out more about how to search for open access content using this handy guide.
If you're interested in finding out more about the principles of Open Access, or want to publish your own content in Open Access sources, then check out this guide from the Office of Scholarly Communication.
The Lean Library Button
Compatible with most browsers, Lean Library is a browser extension that will automatically detect when you have access to something. This access might be provided through the University of Cambridge's subscriptions, or it might be an Open Access version. Either way, this will reduce the need for hours spent trying to log in to different websites or hitting paywalls and will give you quick access to what you need.
Apollo is the University of Cambridge's institutional repository, which hosts the research outputs of its members. Most of these outputs will be available via Open Access, or to request from the author. This includes research articles, datasets and more. You can search for specific titles, or browse via subject categories such as Biological Sciences or Genetics.
For general information on the use of preprint servers, read the useful guide from the Office of Scholarly Communication.
bioRxiv is an online archive of unpublished preprints for the life sciences. By publishing here, authors can make their findings immediately available to the scientific community.
arXiv
arXiv is an open-access archive for several million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics
Open access peer-reviewed articles in biomedical research
HathiTrust (Global Public Domain only)
A repository of digitized works from 50 research libraries.
Hindawi Publishing Open Access
Hindawi publishes nearly 500 peer-reviewed open access journals covering all areas of Science, Technology and Medicine.