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28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

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If you’re a researcher or scholar, you know that conducting effective online research is a critical part of your job. And if you’re like most people, you’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to do it. 

I’m sure you are familiar with some research databases. But, top researchers keep an open mind and are always looking for inspiration in unexpected places. 

This article aims to give you an edge over researchers that rely mainly on Google for their entire research process.

Our list of 28 academic search engines will start with the more familiar to less.

Table of Contents

#1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an academic search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

Great for academic research, you can use Google Scholar to find articles from academic journals, conference proceedings, theses, and dissertations. The results returned by Google Scholar are typically more relevant and reliable than those from regular search engines like Google.

Tip: You can restrict your results to peer-reviewed articles only by clicking on the “Scholarly”

• Scholarly results are typically more relevant and reliable than those from regular search engines like Google.
• You can restrict your results to peer-reviewed articles only by clicking on the “Scholarly” tab.
• Google Scholar database Coverage is extensive, with approx. 200 million articles indexed.
• Abstracts are available for most articles.
• Related articles are shown, as well as the number of times an article has been cited.
• Links to full text are available for many articles.
• Abstracts are only a snippet of the full article, so you might need to do additional searching to get the full information you need.
• Not all articles are available in full text.

Google Scholar is completely free.

#2. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) 

ERIC (short for educational resources information center) is a great academic search engine that focuses on education-related literature. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and produced by the Institute of Education Sciences. 

ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, conference papers, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education. So, search results are more relevant to Education on ERIC. 

• Extensive coverage: ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education.
• You can limit your results to peer-reviewed journals by clicking on the “Peer-Reviewed” tab.
• Great search engine for educators, as abstracts are available for most articles.

ERIC is a free online database of education-related literature. 

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#3. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” that can answer factual questions posed in natural language. It can be a useful search tool. 

Type in a question like “What is the square root of 64?” or “What is the boiling point of water?” and Wolfram Alpha will give you an answer.

Wolfram Alpha can also be used to find academic articles. Just type in your keywords and Wolfram Alpha will generate a list of academic articles that match your query.

Tip: You can restrict your results to peer-reviewed journals by clicking on the “Scholarly” tab.

• Can answer factual questions posed in natural language.
• Can be used to find academic articles.
• Results are ranked by relevance.
• Results can be overwhelming, so it’s important to narrow down your search criteria as much as possible.
• The experience feels a bit more structured but it could also be a bit restrictive

Wolfram Alpha offers a few pricing options, including a “Pro” subscription that gives you access to additional features, such as the ability to create custom reports. You can also purchase individual articles or download them for offline use.

Pro costs $5.49 and Pro Premium costs $9.99

#4. iSEEK Education 

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iSEEK is a search engine targeting students, teachers, administrators, and caregiver. It’s designed to be safe with editor-reviewed content.

iSEEK Education also includes a “Cited by” feature which shows you how often an article has been cited by other researchers.

• Editor-reviewed content.
• “Cited by” feature shows how often an article has been cited by other researchers.
• Limited to academic content.
• Doesn’t have the breadth of coverage that some of the other academic search engines have.

iSEEK Education is free to use.

#5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that’s where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine). 

Known as “one of the most comprehensive academic web search engines,” it contains over 100 million documents from 4,000 different sources. 

Users can narrow their search using the advanced search option, so regardless of whether you need a book, a review, a lecture, a video or a thesis, BASE has what you need.

BASE indexes academic articles from a variety of disciplines, including the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

• One of the world’s most voluminous search engines, 
• Indexes academic articles from a variety of disciplines, especially for academic web resources
• Includes an “Advanced Search” feature that lets you restrict your results to peer-reviewed journals.
• Doesn’t include abstracts for most articles.
• Doesn’t have related articles, references, cited by

BASE is free to use.

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CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research papers. A link to the full text PDF or complete text web page is supplied for each search result. It’s academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers.

• Focused on open access research papers.
• Links to full text PDF or complete text web page are supplied for each search result.
• Export formats include BibTeX, Endnote, RefWorks, Zotero.
• Coverage is limited to open access research papers.
• No abstracts are available for most articles.
• No related articles, references, or cited by features.

CORE is free to use.

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#7. Science.gov

Science.gov is a search engine developed and managed by the United States government. It includes results from a variety of scientific databases, including NASA, EPA, USGS, and NIST. 

US students are more likely to have early exposure to this tool for scholarly research. 

• Coverage from a variety of scientific databases (200 million articles and reports).
• Links to full text are available for some articles.

Science.gov is free to use.

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#8. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is a recent entrant to the field. Its goal is to provide more relevant and effective search results via artificial intelligence-powered methods that detect hidden relationships and connections between research topics.

• Powered by artificial intelligence, which enhances search results.
• Covers a large number of academic articles (approx. 40 million).
• Related articles, references, and cited by features are all included.
• Links to full text are available for most articles.

Semantic Scholar is free to use.

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#9. RefSeek

RefSeek searches more than five billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers.

This is one of the free search engines that feels like Yahoo with a massive directory. It could be good when you are just looking for research ideas from unexpected angles. It could lead you to some other database that you might not know such as the CIA The World Factbook, which is a great reference tool.

• Searches more than five billion documents.
• The Documents tab is very focused on research papers and easy to use.
• Results can be filtered by date, type of document, and language.
• Good source for free academic articles, open access journals, and technical reports.
• The navigation and user experience is very dated even to millenials…
• It requires more than 3 clicks to dig up interesting references (which is how it could lead to you something beyond the 1st page of Google)
• The top part of the results are ALL ads (well… it’s free to use)

RefSeek is free to use.

#10. ResearchGate 

A mixture of social networking site + forum + content databases where researchers can build their profile, share research papers, and interact with one another.

Although it is not an academic search engine that goes outside of its site, ResearchGate ‘s library of works offers an excellent choice for any curious scholar.

There are more than 100 million publications available on the site from over 11 million researchers. It is possible to search by publication, data, and author, as well as to ask the researchers questions. 

• A great place to find research papers and researchers.
• Can follow other researchers and get updates when they share new papers or make changes to their profile.
• The network effect can be helpful in finding people who have expertise in a particular topic.
• Interface is not as user friendly
• Can be overwhelming when trying to find relevant papers.
• Some papers are behind a paywall.

ResearchGate is free to use.

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#11. DataONE Search (formerly CiteULike) 

A social networking site for academics who want to share and discover academic articles and papers.

• A great place to find academic papers that have been shared by other academics.
• Some papers are behind a paywall

CiteULike is free to use.

#12. DataElixir 

DataElixir is deigned to help you find, understand and use data. It includes a curated list of the best open datasets, tools and resources for data science.

• Dedicated resource for finding open data sets, tools, and resources for data science.
• The website is easy to navigate.
• The content is updated regularly
• The resources are grouped by category.
• Not all of the resources are applicable to academic research.
• Some of the content is outdated.

DataElixir is free to use.

#13. LazyScholar – browser extension

LazyScholar is a free browser plugin that helps you discover free academic full texts, metrics, and instant citation and sharing links. Lazy Scholar is created Colby Vorland, a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University.

• It can integrate with your library to find full texts even when you’re off-campus.
• Saves your history and provides an interface to find it.
• A pre-formed citation is availlable in over 900 citation styles.
• Can recommend you topics and scans new PubMed listings to suggest new papers
• Results can be a bit hit or miss

LazyScholar is free to use.

#14. CiteseerX – digital library from PenState

CiteseerX is a digital library stores and indexes research articles in Computer Science and related fields. The site has a robust search engine that allows you to filter results by date, author.

• Searches a large number of academic papers.
• Results can be filtered by date, author, and topic.
• The website is easy to use.
• You can create an account and save your searches for future reference.

CiteseerX is free to use.

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#15. The Lens – patents search 

The Lens or the Patent Lens is an online patent and scholarly literature search facility, provided by Cambia, an Australia-based non-profit organization.

• Searches for a large number of academic papers.

The price range can be free for non-profit use to $5,000 for commercial enterprise.

#16. Fatcat – wiki for bibliographic catalog 

Fatcat is an open bibliographic catalog of written works. The scope of works is somewhat flexible, with a focus on published research outputs like journal articles, pre-prints, and conference proceedings. Records are collaboratively editable, versioned, available in bulk form, and include URL-agnostic file-level metadata.

• Open source and collaborative
• You can be part of the community that is very focused on its mission
• The archival file-level metadata (verified digests and long-term copies) is a great feature.
• Could prove to be another rabbit hole
• People either love or hate the text-only interface

#17. Lexis Web – Legal database

Are you researching legal topics? You can turn to Lexis Web for any law-related questions you may have. The results are drawn from legal sites and can be filtered based on criteria such as news, blogs, government, and commercial. Additionally, users can filter results by jurisdiction, practice area, source and file format.

• Results are drawn from legal sites.
• Filters are available based on criteria such as news, blogs, government, and commercial.
• Users can filter results by jurisdiction, practice area, source and file format.
• Not all law-related questions will be answered by this search engine.
• Coverage is limited to legal sites only.

Lexis Web is free for up to three searches per day. After that, a subscription is required.

#18. Infotopia – part of the VLRC family

Infotopia touts itself as an “alternative to Google safe search.” Scholarly book results are curated by librarians, teachers, and other educational workers. Users can select from a range of topics such as art, health, and science and technology, and then see a list of resources pertaining to the topic. 

Consequently, if you aren’t able to find what you are looking for within Infotopia’s pages, you will probably find it on one of its many suggested websites.

#19. Virtual Learning Resources Center

Virtual Learning Resources Center (VLRC) is an academic search engine that features thousands of academic sites chosen by educators and librarians worldwide. Using an index generated from a research portal, university, and library internet subject guides, students and instructors can find current, authoritative information for school.

• Thousands of academic information websites indexed by it. You will also be able to get more refined results with custom Google search, which will speed up your research. 
• Many people consider VLRC as one of the best free search engines to start looking for research material. 
• TeachThought rated the Virtual LRC #3 in it’s list of 100 Search Engines For Academic Research
• More relevant to education 
• More relevant to students

Powered by Google Custom Search Engine (CSE), Jurn is a free online search engine for accessing and downloading free full-text scholarly papers. It was created by David Haden in a public open beta version in February 2009, initially for locating open access electronic journal articles in the arts and humanities.

After the indexing process was completed, a website containing additional public directories of web links to indexed publications was introduced in mid-2009. The Jurn search service and directory has been regularly modified and cleaned since then.

• A great resource for finding academic papers that are behind paywalls.
• The content is updated regularly.uren

Jurn is free to use.

#21. WorldWideScience

The Office of Scientific and Technical Information—a branch of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy—hosts the portal WorldWideScience , which has dubbed itself “The Global Science Gateway.”

Over 70 countries’ databases are used on the website. When a user enters a query, it contacts databases from all across the world and shows results in both English and translated journals and academic resources.

• Results can be filtered by language and type of resource
• Interface is easy to use
• Contains both academic journal articles and translated academic resources 
• The website can be difficult to navigate.

WorldWideScience is free to use.

#22. Google Books

A user can browse thousands of books on Google Books, from popular titles to old titles, to find pages that include their search terms. You can look through pages, read online reviews, and find out where to buy a hard copy once you find the book you are interested in.

#23. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

DOAJ is a free search engine for scientific and scholarly materials. It is a searchable database with over 8,000 peer-reviewed research papers organized by subject. It’s one of the most comprehensive libraries of scientific and scholarly resources, with over 8,000 journals available on a variety of themes.

#24. Baidu Scholar

Baidu Xueshu (Academic) is the Chinese version for Google Scholar. IDU Scholar indexes academic papers from a variety of disciplines in both Chinese and English.

• Articles are available in full text PDF.
• Covers a variety of academic disciplines.
• No abstracts are available for most articles, but summaries are provided for some.
• A great portal that takes you to different specialized research platform
• You need to be able to read Chinese to use the site
• Since 2021 there is a rise of focus on China and the Chinese Communist Party

Baidu Scholar is free to use.

#25. PubMed Central

PubMed is a free search engine that provides references and abstracts for medical, life sciences, and biomedical topics.

If you’re studying anything related to healthcare or science, this site is perfect. PublicMed Central is operated by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It contains more than 3 million full-text journal articles. 

It’s similar to PubMed Health, which focuses on health-related research and includes abstracts and citations to over 26 million articles.

#26. MEDLINE®

MEDLINE® is a paid subscription database for life sciences and biomedicine that includes more than 28 million citations to journal articles. For finding reliable, carefully chosen health information, Medline Plus provides a powerful search tool and even a dictionary.

• A great database for life sciences and biomedicine.
• Contains more than 28 million references to journal articles.
• References can be filtered by date, type of document, and language.
• The database is expensive to access.
• Some people find it difficult to navigate and find what they are looking for.

MEDLINE is not free to use ( pricing information ).

Defunct Academic Search Engines 

#27. microsoft academic  .

Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic Search seemed to be a failure from the beginning. It ended in 2012, then re-launched in 2016 as Microsoft Academic. It provides the researcher with the opportunity to search academic publications,

Microsoft Academic used to be the second-largest academic search engine after Google Scholar. Microsoft Academic provides a wealth of data for free, but Microsoft has announced that it will shut Microsoft Academic down in by 2022. 

#28. Scizzle

Designed to help researchers stay on top of the literature by setting up email alerts, based on key terms, for newspapers.

Unfortunately, academic search engines come and go. These are two that are no longer available.

Final Thoughts

There are many academic search engines that can help researchers and scholars find the information they need. This list provides a variety of options, starting with more familiar engines and moving on to less well-known ones. 

Keeping an open mind and exploring different sources is essential for conducting effective online research. With so much information at our fingertips, it’s important to make sure we’re using the best tools available to us.

Tell us in the comment below which academic search engine have you not heard of? Which database do you think we should add? What database do your professional societies use? What are the most useful academic websites for research in your opinion?

There is more.

Check out our other articles on the Best Academic Tools Series for Research below.

• Learn how to get more done with these Academic Writing Tools  
• Learn how to proofread your work with these Proofreading Tools
• Learn how to broaden your research landscape with these Academic Search Engines
• Learn how to manage multiple research projects with these Project Management Tools
• Learn how to run effective survey research with these Survey Tools for Research
• Learn how get more insights from important conversations and interviews with Transcription Tools
• Learn how to manage the ever-growing list of references with these Reference Management Software
• Learn how to double your productivity with literature reviews with these AI-Based Summary Generators
• Learn how to build and develop your audience with these Academic Social Network Sites
• Learn how to make sure your content is original and trustworthy with these Plagiarism Checkers
• Learn how to talk about your work effectively with these Science Communication Tools

10 thoughts on “28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier”

Thank you so much Joannah..I have found this information useful to me as librarian in an academic library

You are welcome! We are happy to hear that!

Thank You Team, for providing a comprehensive list of academic search engines that can help make research easier for students and scholars. The variety of search engines included offers a range of options for finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources. The article also provides a brief summary of each search engine’s features, which helps in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Overall, this article is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to access a wealth of academic information.

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We are delighted to hear that you found our list of academic search engines helpful in making research easier for students and scholars. We understand the importance of having a variety of options when it comes to finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources, and we strive to provide a comprehensive list of resources to meet those needs.

We are glad that you found the brief summary of each search engine’s features helpful in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Our goal is to make it easy for our readers to access valuable academic information and we’re glad that we were able to achieve that for you.

We appreciate your support and thank you for your kind words. We will continue to provide valuable resources for students and researchers in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.

No more questions Thank You

I cannot thank you enough!!! thanks alot 🙂

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Hi Joannah! Here’s another one you may want to add! Expontum ( https://www.expontum.com/ ) – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Thanks!

Expontum – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Expontum is free, open access, and available to all globally with no paid versions of the site. Automated processes scan research article information 24/7 so this website is constantly updating. By looking at over 35 million research publications (240 million by the end of 2023), the site has 146 million tagged research subjects and 122 million tagged research attributes. Learn more about methodology and sources on the Expontum About Page ( https://www.expontum.com/about.php )

Hey Ryan, I clicked and checked your site and thought it was very relevant to our reader. Thank you for sharing. And, we will be reviewing your site soon.

Sounds good! Thanks, Joannah!

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Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

The Ultimate Student Guide To Finding Credible Sources

Updated: January 24, 2023

Published: January 1, 2020

When it comes to writing a research paper, it’s crucial that you use credible sources to make sure that the information you are stating is actually true. Knowing the difference between credible sources and unreliable sources doesn’t always come so easily with endless information flooding the internet. Thankfully, there are some simple tips that you can use to ensure that you are always using credible sources for research.

What is a Research Paper?

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that uses original research on a specific topic. There are many different types of research papers, ranging from a high school term paper to a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation.

Photo by  Wallace Chuck  from  Pexels

How to start a search for sources, 1. start simple.

If you’re wondering how to find sources for a research paper, the easiest and best way to start is simple! Just try browsing through some common search engines to see what you find.

2. Cross Wikipedia off

Wikipedia, although it’s a massive pool of information, should always be avoided when writing a research paper since it allows the public to edit information. Sites such as these often run the risk of lacking accuracy, and is not one of the most credible sources for research.

3. Yes to scholarly databases

Scholarly databases are your best friend when it comes to finding credible sources for research. Online scholarly databases that can be trusted and are known to provide useful information for students include LexisNexis and EBSCO.

4. Newspapers and magazines

Although sometimes biased, newspapers and magazines can also be a great place to find information about current events.

5. The library

While the library seems to be the most obvious place to find information, somehow it’s often forgotten when it comes to research in the modern age. Don’t forget how useful it can truly be!

Types of Credible Sources for Research

1. what are some credible websites.

Many online sources do not necessarily contain information that is correct or has been checked. That’s why it’s of utmost importance to make sure that you’re using the right websites for your research, with government and educational websites generally being the most reliable.

Credible sources for research include: science.gov, The World Factbook, US Census Bureau, UK Statistics, and Encyclopedia Britannica.

2. What are some credible journal articles?

When it comes to journal articles, determining how credible they are comes much easier than other sources. This is generally due to the fact that many of these websites will include valuable information such as how many times the article has been cited, and if its been peer reviewed.

Some great examples of reliable websites for journal articles include Google Scholar, Oxford Academic, Microsoft Academic, Cornell University Library, and SAGE Publishing.

If you are ever not sure how to find credible sources, then there’s the CRAAP test, which takes into account the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose of the article. Take all of these factors into consideration before using a source and determining whether or not it’s credible enough. Even if it takes more time, you’ll be saving yourself tons of time in the long run by not using unreliable sources.

Photo by  Canva Studio  from  Pexels

3. what are some credible news sources.

When it comes to news articles, more caution must be taken since it’s hard to know which sources are truly reliable and unbiased. The CRAAP test is also useful in this type of article for research.

A few examples of credible news sources include The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post.

The Credibility of a Source

As you search for your research information, you will surely come across the question of how to find credible sources for a research paper. Here are some criteria to focus on to ensure that you only use the most credible of sources.

1. What’s the depth of it?

Always look at the depth of an article, not just the written content. See how long the article is, and if it contains the necessary information such as an abstract, a reference list, and documented data.

2. Who is reading it?

When judging the credibility of an article, it’s important to always ask yourself who the target audience of the article is. Sometimes, sources have a specific goal in mind and it can create certain biases.

3. What’s the goal?

Just as you should do with the audience, also ask yourself what the article is trying to achieve. What is their ultimate goal and how are they persuading you of that?

4. Who wrote it?

Always ask yourself who wrote the article and how reputable they are in the specific field. Look at what other published works they have as well.

5. Can it be trusted?

Overall, it’s key to ask yourself how reputable the source is. What kind of website is it published on? Look at the big picture.

6. Is it relevant to now?

Look at the date of the article, or about the specific things they are mentioning in the article. If it’s from a few years ago, it’s probably not too relevant to your current research.

7. Can it be proven?

While an article may sound incredibly convincing, many people have a way with words and persuasion. Stop and ask yourself whether or not what they are claiming can actually be proven.

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How to evaluate source credibility.

By using unreliable sources in your research, it can discredit your status, which is why it’s incredibly important to make sure that any information you are using is up-to-date and accurate.

Here’s how to find credible sources.

1. What is a credible source?

Generally, materials that have been published within the past 10 years are considered to be credible sources for research. Another important factor to consider is the author — if they are well known and respected in their specific fields, that’s also generally a sign that the article is credible. Educational and government-run websites (.gov, .edu) tend to also be a safe source to use, as well as academic databases. Google Scholar is also a no-fail source for reliable information.

2. What is a potentially unreliable source?

Anything that is out of date, meaning it’s been published more than 10 years ago should be avoided. Materials published on social media platforms such as Facebook or personal blogs don’t tend to be the most credible. Always make sure that an article contains proper citations and that the website you are using ends in .com or .org.

Free Resources For Learning

There are many free resources for research available known as open educational resources . They are licensed for free use, with the intention of teaching. They can be determined as credible sources for research if they have a Creative Common license, and if the author has proven to be an expert in their field. Always make sure that the content you are using contains no biases.

Sites For Scholarly Research

When performing scholarly research, it’s extra important to make sure that your sources are credible. Government-run research is considered credible, but beware of any political sites. University and educational websites also tend to be reliable, but still take everything you read with a grain of salt. Company websites also tend to be reliable, although their ultimate goal is usually to promote a product. Organizations which are .org websites can be professional and reliable, however, sometimes they also have their own interests.

Which Sites Can Be Relied On

The internet has no shortage of information out there. That’s why you’ll need these handy tips to determine which to use, and how to distinguish through the vast choices without feeling overwhelmed.

List of Credible Research Sources to Consider

1. government entities.

These websites tend to be reliable since they are highly regulated. Examples include the CIA World Factbook and the United States Justice Statistics.

2. Research Think Tanks

Examples of reliable research think tanks include Rand Corporation, Pew Research Center and The Milken Institute.

3. Academic Libraries and Databases

ProQuest, Scopus, and Jstor are great examples of academic libraries and databases that can be trusted.

4. Professional Standards Organizations

The American Bar Association and The American Psychological Association (APA) are highly credible sources when it comes to professional standards.

How to Write a Research Paper: Step-by-Step

Now that you’re an expert on finding credible sources for research, you’re ready to go! But how do you even start to write a research paper? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

For starters, it’s important to get clear instructions from your professor on what they want. The next step is to start brainstorming ideas for a topic of research. Once you’ve decided and feel confident about it, you’re ready to create your outline and plan out the goal of your research paper.

Befriend your librarian and start to search for quality and credible sources through a variety of means. Make sure you understand your topic from top to bottom before you start writing.  As you write, be sure to always keep things factual, and that you finalize your thesis statement throughout your paper — not just at the end. That’s what’s going to guide your writing. Be sure to always keep format in mind, never forget to cite your sources, and to never skip those edits and final checks.

Now you are ready to write a high-quality, fact-driven research paper that’s sure to impress your professors.

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The top list of academic research databases

2. Web of Science

5. ieee xplore, 6. sciencedirect, 7. directory of open access journals (doaj), get the most out of your academic research database, frequently asked questions about academic research databases, related articles.

Whether you are writing a thesis , dissertation, or research paper it is a key task to survey prior literature and research findings. More likely than not, you will be looking for trusted resources, most likely peer-reviewed research articles.

Academic research databases make it easy to locate the literature you are looking for. We have compiled the top list of trusted academic resources to help you get started with your research:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Besides searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

• Coverage: 90.6 million core records
• References: N/A
• Discipline: Multidisciplinary
• Access options: Limited free preview, full access by institutional subscription only
• Provider: Elsevier

Web of Science also known as Web of Knowledge is the second big bibliographic database. Usually, academic institutions provide either access to Web of Science or Scopus on their campus network for free.

• Coverage: approx. 100 million items
• References: 1.4 billion
• Access options: institutional subscription only
• Provider: Clarivate (formerly Thomson Reuters)

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC) .

• Coverage: approx. 35 million items
• Discipline: Medicine and Biological Sciences
• Access options: free
• Provider: NIH

For education sciences, ERIC is the number one destination. ERIC stands for Education Resources Information Center, and is a database that specifically hosts education-related literature.

• Coverage: approx. 1.6 million items
• Discipline: Education
• Provider: U.S. Department of Education

IEEE Xplore is the leading academic database in the field of engineering and computer science. It's not only journal articles, but also conference papers, standards and books that can be search for.

• Coverage: approx. 6 million items
• Discipline: Engineering
• Provider: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

ScienceDirect is the gateway to the millions of academic articles published by Elsevier, 1.4 million of which are open access. Journals and books can be searched via a single interface.

• Coverage: approx. 19.5 million items

The DOAJ is an open-access academic database that can be accessed and searched for free.

• Coverage: over 8 million records
• Provider: DOAJ

JSTOR is another great resource to find research papers. Any article published before 1924 in the United States is available for free and JSTOR also offers scholarships for independent researchers.

• Coverage: more than 12 million items
• Provider: ITHAKA

Start using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with PubMed and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Scopus is one of the two big commercial, bibliographic databases that cover scholarly literature from almost any discipline. Beside searching for research articles, Scopus also provides academic journal rankings, author profiles, and an h-index calculator .

PubMed is the number one resource for anyone looking for literature in medicine or biological sciences. PubMed stores abstracts and bibliographic details of more than 30 million papers and provides full text links to the publisher sites or links to the free PDF on PubMed Central (PMC)

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The Best Research and Reference Websites

Where to look when you need information

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Research websites come in handy in all kinds of situations, whether you're looking for the average rainfall in the Amazon rainforest, researching Roman history, or just having fun learning to find information.

This list of the best research websites will help greatly, and most of them are updated daily with new information.

I like to pair these sites with free research organizational tools to keep track of everything I gather online.

Best Research Websites

• Library of Congress : LOC.gov lets you not only ask a librarian for help , but also search catalogs of libraries from all over the world. This is truly a huge resource that should be on your Top 10 best research sites list. Anything from Academia Sinica in Taiwan to Yale University in the U.S. is here and ready to be searched.
• ReferenceDesk.org : Dubbed "The Internet's Best Reference Source," this extremely useful web directory provides everything from business and finance information to federal government resources, scholarship details, links to newspapers and calendars, search engines, and more.
• Ask the Space Expert: NASA's source for space and science research help. Use the video links to listen to questions answered by experts. These are from 2013 through 2015.
• USA.gov : This is where you should start when looking for specific U.S. government information. Learn about the country in general or education, housing, disability services, jobs, taxes, laws, and more.
• Reference.com : Extremely simple to use with a basic layout, this reference website lets you browse by category or search by keywords to research everything from food and health to history, beauty, education, technology, vehicles, art, and more.
• Refdesk.com : Billing itself as the internet's fact-checker, this site includes in-depth research links to breaking news, editorials, Today in History, Word of the Day, and other references.
• Encyclopedia.com : The #1 online encyclopedia that lets you search over 200 reference books and encyclopedias at once. The Picks of the week is a neat section to examine each week.
• Encyclopedia Britannica : One of the world's oldest encyclopedias online; has featured posts and category listings. The company launched in the 18th century and has been publishing exclusively online since 2011.
• Purdue University Quick Reference : This site has tons of information that includes resources specific to Purdue University and surrounding areas in Indiana. It also includes an Ask a Librarian service.
• Prescriber's Digital Reference : A wonderful research tool when gathering detailed medical information. The drug name browser includes summaries (dosage, description, and more) for hundreds of drugs.
• iTools.com : Serves as a gateway for reference and research links. It uses other websites for its searches, like YouTube and Google.
• ResearchGate : Scientific knowledge from over 160 million publication pages; browse topics in categories like engineering, biology, climate change, medicine, math, and more.
• Baseball-Reference.com : Here's everything you ever wanted to know about baseball.
• FOLDOC : Free Online Dictionary of Computing is a detailed computing dictionary for researching the meaning behind computer-related tools, standards, jargon, languages, and more. The "random" button is a fun way to learn new concepts.

Depending on the type of research you're doing or how you need to reference the information, you may need quick access to books. There are lots of places to find free book downloads , textbooks , and educational movies .

Other Ways to Do Research

Search engines like Google are a great way to perform online research. You can locate books, articles, interviews, and lots more. Learn how to search better to get the most out of your research.

Another top source of expert information is your local librarian— search for libraries near you at WorldCat . Librarians are trained to find answers to obscure questions, they're friendly, and best of all, you can talk with them face to face. They often ask you questions you might not have considered, leading to even better results. You can get help from librarians online, too, through some of the sources above.

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Resources for Academic Research: 12 Best Websites & Tools

It is best to use scholarly or professional resources that are reliable, accurate, and valid for academic coursework and resources for academic research project assignments.

These are typically books and articles that have been reviewed before publication, but they can also be media and websites from reputable organizations and institutions.

When you do a research project, write a paper, or start a blog, you would then read articles to see what other people have done and then build on their work.

What are Resources for Academic Research?

Resources for academic research are the tools, materials, and information sources that scholars, students, and researchers use to conduct thorough and accurate research on a given topic.

Academic journals, books, online databases, primary and secondary sources, and research tools such as citation generators, reference managers, and statistical analysis software are examples of these resources .

Access to reliable and diverse resources is essential for producing high-quality academic work that is credible, informative, and current.

12 Best Websites, Tools & Resources for Academic Research

What sources will lead you to trustworthy resources for academic research? When you need to find sources, use these academic resources instead of scrolling through pages of search results.

• Google Scholar

Google Scholar offers a wide range of scholarly literature, including articles, theses, books, and conference papers, making it a great resource for academic study.

Google Scholar allows researchers to search for information on a topic, find relevant material for their literature review, track citations of their work, remain up-to-date on new research in their field, and evaluate their work using metrics like the h-index and i10-index.

It’s a comprehensive, user-friendly academic research resource with powerful search capabilities, email alerts, and Google integration. This important website helps researchers find, access, and manage research data.

Features: 

• Keyword, author, or title search box for scholarly literature.
• Tracking your work’s citations.
• Advanced search filters by publication date, author, or journal.
• Full-text articles and papers for convenient reference.
• Email alerts for keywords or topics to remain current on research in your profession.
• Work impact metrics like the h-index and i10-index.
• Google Books and Google Drive integration for saving and organizing research resources.

JSTOR is an online library with academic journals, books, and primary sources from many fields. It was started in 1995 as a non-profit organization by JSTOR Inc. and a number of academic institutions.

More than 12 million academic articles and books from more than 2,000 publishers are in JSTOR’s online library. Content on JSTOR comes from many different fields, such as the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Individuals and institutions can subscribe to JSTOR’s digital library, and researchers, students, and scholars worldwide use it as a reliable and complete resource for academic research.

• JSTOR offers scholarly journals, books, and primary materials.
• JSTOR material spans humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
• JSTOR’s stored content, including historical records, gives academics a broad perspective.
• Users can search the platform’s huge database for keywords, authors, titles, and more.
• PDFs of JSTOR articles can be downloaded.
• Sharing, citation, and exporting options help scholars collaborate on the platform.
• JSTOR’s pricing makes it’s content affordable for all sizes and budgets.

ProQuest is a global information content and technology company that gives access to research databases, electronic books, and digital archives. Eugene B. Power started it in 1938 as University Microfilms to store and distribute dissertations and theses on microfilm.

Today, ProQuest gives you access to a wide range of content, such as academic journals, newspapers, dissertations, and primary sources. The databases on ProQuest cover a wide range of subjects, including the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences.

Researchers, students, and scholars worldwide use ProQuest because it is a reliable, all-inclusive resource for academic research.

Features : 

• Offers access to research databases, e-books, and digital archives in a wide range of fields.
• There are a lot of academic journals, newspapers, dissertations, and primary sources in this collection.
• Included are the social sciences, the humanities, and the natural sciences.
• Users can search by author, title, keyword, subject, and other criteria.
• Many of its databases let you read articles and other materials in full text.
• Includes tools for saving research, organizing it, and sharing it with others.
• Offers different pricing options so that people and organizations of all sizes and budgets can use it.
• Offers easy access to ProQuest’s services through mobile apps and the web so that they can be used from anywhere.
• Users can get a lot of help with customer service and training.
• ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a social networking site for academics and researchers to cooperate. In 2008, a group of scientists founded it to allow researchers to share their work, communicate, and network.

One of the largest research communities online, ResearchGate has over 17 million users. The platform lets scholars create profiles, share publications, ask and answer questions, and network with like-minded researchers.

A citation tracker and reputation score help scholars manage their research activity on ResearchGate.

• A social network for scientists and researchers.
• Enables scholars to create profiles, share work, and network.
• Researcher cooperation and discussion platform.
• A citation tracker, online reputation score , and analytics assist scholars in managing their research.
• Job board and career resource for researchers.
• Allows field researchers to ask and answer questions.
• Offers a news feed on cutting-edge research.
• Provides scholars with peer assessment and feedback.
• Allows researchers to advertise their work and gain academic recognition.
• Provides free and premium memberships.

Zotero, a free, open-source reference manager, helps scholars organize and credit their sources. The George Mason University Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media was founded in 2006.

Zotero lets users organize and search papers, books, web pages, and other study materials. It connects with various online browsers to gather and save research sources when surfing.

Researchers may easily format their citations and bibliographies in their discipline’s style with Zotero’s several citation formats. As a handy and effective tool for managing research resources, researchers, students, and scholars worldwide use it.

• A free, open-source reference manager.
• Organizes, stores, and cites research sources.
• Organizes and stores research items in a searchable database.
• It connects with various online browsers to gather and save research sources when surfing.
• Offers a variety of citation styles for producing citations and bibliographies.
• Enables people to share their research.
• Provides note-taking, labeling, and research source highlighting features.
• Automatically refreshes and syncs devices for easy research access.
• Provides many plugins and add-ons to increase functionality.
• Includes excellent documentation and a helpful user community.

Mendeley, a free reference management and academic, social network, lets researchers organize and share their articles and resources. It was started in 2008 by academicians and software developers and acquired by Elsevier in 2013.

Mendeley lets users create a searchable database of research papers, books, and other resources, including citation management, collaboration, and discovery capabilities. It offers groups, profiles, and suggestions to assist the researcher’s network.

Mendeley is a convenient and effective research management tool used by academics, students, and intellectuals worldwide.

• Free academic networking and reference management.
• Helps scholars organize and share papers and resources.
• Provides a searchable database of research papers, books, etc.
• Citation, collaboration, and discovery tools.
• Helps researchers network with groups, profiles, and recommendations.
• Annotates, highlights, and organizes research.
• Formats citations and bibliographies in several fields.
• Plugins and add-ons for major word processing and research applications.
• Automatic updates and device syncing make research materials accessible anywhere.
• Has a strong user community and substantial documentation.

Grammarly is a real-time writing tool that checks spelling, punctuation, and style. It was created in 2009 by linguists and software engineers and is now one of the most popular writing tools.

Grammarly is available as a browser extension, a desktop program for Windows and macOS, and a web app. It comes in free and premium versions, with the premium version adding genre-specific writing style advice, plagiarism detection, and readability scoring.

Grammarly improves writing for millions of writers, students, and professionals worldwide.

• Real-time grammar and spelling checker for writers.
• Helps writers improve style and tone.
• Software engineers and linguists created it.
• Use a web app, browser extension, or desktop software.
• Free and paid versions are available.
• The premium edition includes genre-specific writing style suggestions, plagiarism detection, and a readability score.
• Helps writers improve their writing quality and clarity.
• Available in English and others.
• Compatible with Google Documents, Microsoft Word, and others.
• Provides thorough grammar and writing instructions in an easy-to-use interface.
• Helps non-native English speakers improve their writing.
• Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Research created the free public search engine Microsoft Academic. It offers scientific, technological, engineering, mathematical, social science, and humanities research papers, journals, conference proceedings, and other scholarly publications.

Microsoft Academic leverages advanced natural language processing and machine learning to recognize author, publication, and research domain relationships, making it easier for scholars to find relevant material and track field changes. Citation analysis, research network visualization, and author profile management are also available.

• A free public search engine built by Microsoft Research.
• Accesses academic journals, conference proceedings, research papers, and other scholarly publications.
• Understands authors, publications, and research fields using advanced natural language processing and machine learning.
• Helps researchers find relevant literature and follow industry trends.
• Citation analysis, visualization of research networks, and author profile creation and management are available.
• Has powerful filters and semantic search in a user-friendly interface.
• Citation counts, trends, and co-authorship networks are provided.
• Enables users to set personalized research alerts.
• APIs enable developers to access data and functionality.
• Zotero and Mendeley integration supported.

Evernote lets users capture, organize, and share notes and information across devices. It helps users recall everything from personal notes and to-do lists to business documents and research notes.

Evernote lets users make and save notes in text, photos, audio, and site clippings. Tagging, search, and device synchronization make it easy for users to find and retrieve their notes anytime, anywhere.

The premium edition of Evernote includes PDF annotation, presentation mode, and team collaboration.

• Note-taking app for multiple platforms.
• Enables users to take, organize, and share notes across devices.
• Helps users recall anything from personal notes and to-do lists to research and business paperwork.
• Enables users to make and save notes in numerous formats, including text, photos, audio, and site clippings.
• Allows users to find and retrieve their notes anytime, anywhere, with labeling, search, and device syncing.
• Has configurable notebooks and notes and a simple interface.
• Offers note formatting, annotation, and editing features.
• Supports Google Drive, Slack, and other productivity apps.
• Provides a free version with limited functionality and a paid version with PDF annotation, presentation mode, and team collaboration.
• Search notes, journals, and tags with a sophisticated search function.
• To keep organized, lets users set reminders and make to-do lists.

The US National Library of Medicine (NLM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) maintains PubMed, a free biomedical literature and research article database (NIH). It comprises over 32 million citations and abstracts of papers from more than 8,000 biomedical journals and books, dissertations, and other health and medicine-related resources.

PubMed covers a wide range of medical issues, including clinical research, genetics, nursing, and pharmacology. Medical researchers, students, and professionals can use it to find the newest medical research.

• Free biomedical research article database.
• Managed by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the NIH (NIH)
• 32 million citations and abstracts from over 8,000 biomedical journals.
• Clinical research, genetics, nursing, pharmacology, and more.
• Obtains full-text articles from PubMed Central (PMC)
• Includes Boolean operators, search fields, and filters.
• Accesses MeSH, a fully controlled vocabulary for indexing articles.
• Saves and exports search results and send email alerts for new publications matching search criteria.
• Has a simple interface and search tools.
• Links to important publications, citations, and other resources.
• PubMed has a smartphone app.
• QuestionPro Insight Hub

QuestionPro Insight Hub connects businesses and organizations to millions of consumers and expert panelists globally for market research. The platform allows users to build surveys, run polls, conduct focus groups, and collect data from social media, email, mobile devices, and websites. Advanced analytics and reporting options enable users to evaluate data and understand customer behavior, preferences, and opinions.

Businesses may use QuestionPro Insight Hub to acquire real-time feedback from their target audience, optimize their products and services, and make informed business decisions based on consumer insights. The platform is appropriate for startups to enterprise-level enterprises in fields including healthcare, education, finance, and more.

• Access to millions of professional and consumer panelists all over the world
• Customizable surveys with different types of questions, themes, and templates
• Advanced logic and branching options for surveys
• Integration with many data collection sources, like social media, email, mobile devices, and websites
• Text analytics and sentiment analysis are built in for free-form responses.
• Real-time reporting and analytics with dashboards and charts that the user can change
• Collaboration tools that let team members share surveys, results, and insights
• Survey participants can get invitations and reminders by email that they can customize.
• Tools for running moderated and unmoderated discussions in online focus groups
• Polling tools to get quick feedback from customers and stakeholders and to get them involved
• Targeting options that make it easier to reach specific groups and demographics
• Compliance with GDPR and CCPA for privacy and security of data
• API and the ability to connect to other business platforms and applications.
• QuestionPro Live polls

QuestionPro Live Polls lets presenters communicate with their audience by running live polls during presentations, meetings, webinars, and other events that require real-time input. Presenters can modify QuestionPro Live Polls and obtain rapid audience reactions.

QuestionPro Live Polls include:

• Different question kinds.
• Configurable designs.
• Real-time live polling results.
• Multiple distribution choices.
• Audience engagement tools.
• Analytics and reporting.
• Integration with other platforms.

The solution lets presenters generate multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended polls.

SMS, email, QR codes, and social media to distribute QuestionPro Live Polls. Presenters and guests can instantly see real-time polling results on the screen. Presenters can quickly poll their audience regardless of location or device.

QuestionPro Live Polls encourages audience participation with countdown timers, animations, and gamification. Presenters can learn about audience opinions, preferences, and habits using poll analytics and reporting.

QuestionPro Live Polls is great for audience engagement, real-time feedback, and interactive presentations and events.

Features:  

• Multiple question types, including multiple-choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions
• Poll designs that can be changed to fit the theme of the presentation or event
• The results of the poll were shown on the screen right away.
• Several ways to spread the word, like SMS, email, QR codes, and social media
• Tools for getting people to pay attention, such as countdown timers, animations, and gamification elements
• Analytics and reporting tools can help you determine what your audience thinks, likes, and does.
• Integration with other platforms, like PowerPoint, Zoom, and other video conferencing tools
• You can target your audience based on different demographic and psychographic factors to get more accurate feedback and insights.

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In conclusion, the 12 best websites, tools, and resources for academic research offer students, scholars, and researchers a wealth of information and tools to help them in their quest for knowledge. Databases, search engines, citation generators, and collaboration tools are just a few of the features these resources offer.

Using these resources, researchers can improve their research and produce high-quality academic work. Researchers should keep up with the latest tools and technologies, as these can greatly improve their research and help their field advance.

QuestionPro’s Insight Hub and Livepolls are powerful data collection tools. These tools have various features, such as doing surveys, visualizing data, and polling in real-time, which can greatly improve the research process.

With the ability to collect data from a wide range of sources, researchers can gain valuable insights and come to conclusions that are based on facts. Combining these two tools can help researchers do high-quality research and make important contributions to their field. So get more help for your academic research with the help of QuestionPro.

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Credible Sources 101: How to Evaluate Them + 60 Reliable Websites for Students

Wondering how to find reliable sources for academic writing? Here, you’ll get a list of databases and reliable websites for research and some tips on finding reliable sources for research.

The List of 60 Credible Sources For Students

We decided to help you out and prepare a list of 60 credible sources in different fields. Keep on reading, and you will find trustworthy resources for research papers or any other type of written work. We also included reliable news and scientific websites. All the best sources are on this list for you.

10 Examples of Reliable Sources for Research Papers

One of the key characteristics of the research paper is using credible sources to support your ideas. Below, you will find plenty of useful websites for your writing:

• Taylor&Francis Online The website is popular among researchers. The website contains reviewed articles from different journals.
• SAGE Publishing This publisher is independent. But it opens you access to academic journals and much more! It is also reputable, as it updates its database every year.
• JSTOR This website is a library of different sources. It has books, articles, and journals. The access is limited, but the resource offers a curated selection of works.
• Google Scholar It’s a search engine that presents academic works on any topic. Google Scholar is a free tool. Besides, it provides you with any publishing format.
• Academia This platform is similar to Google Scholar. You can find and download any paper from it. Unfortunately, sometimes the writers upload only a part of their writing piece.
• Scopus It is a database of peer-reviewed sources. Note that they only provide abstracts and citations for free. To get the complete work, you need to review the terms.
• Google Books It is the world’s most extensive index of full-text books. It provides you with an accessible overview of the book and several options for where you can buy it. You get a list of other editions and similar books as well.
• WorldWide Science It’s a global science gateway. Its goal is to accelerate scientific discovery and progress through an international partnership. It also aims to enable federated searching of national and international scientific databases and portals.
• Wolfram Alpha WolframAlpha helps to compute expert-level answers using breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology. You can get information and compare any objects, characters, films, rules, formulae, etc.
• ResearchGate It is a research publication database with 135+ million publication pages, 20+ million research, and 1+ million questions with answers. If you need to find a publication, just enter a title, author’s name, or research area.

10 Reliable Historical Websites

Writing a paper on history? Check out the websites below! We are sure you will find a lot of interesting facts, documents, and other materials on any period and topic.

• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History This is a website of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Science. Here you can find multiple resources based on periods and topics. It also has an online journal called History Now . The journal features essays by top American history researchers for teachers, students, and other interested readers.
• RRCHNM RRCHN is part of the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. RRCHN creates online pages and open-source digital tools to advance history education and improve historical understanding. It also aims to inspire public participation in the practice of history.
• Digital History It is an excellent source providing users with various documents and other materials on all significant historical eras and events. There is also a list of citations and digital references, which can be especially useful for teachers and students doing their research. 
• TimeMaps TimeMaps is an excellent website about world history. The website is divided into three major parts. The Atlas provides you with an overview of the world’s history.  The Encyclopedia lets you dig deeper into the detailed knowledge of countries and nationalities. The Education area helps students and teachers to use the website as efficiently as possible.
• Spartacus Educational This source provides you with information on a wide range of topics. Some of the site sections are dedicated to specific countries’ history. Others concentrate on such significant topics as Women’s History or The Roman world.
• Stanford History Education Group Stanford History Education Group invites you to a course called “Reading Like a Historian.” The curriculum inspires students to study history. The course consists of lessons concentrating on specific central historical questions. It also includes several documents made for groups of students with a range of reading skills.
• Big History Project The Big History project aims to examine the past, explain the present, and imagine our future. This approach includes several disciplines. It keeps high school students in focus, though it was made for anyone looking for answers to the big questions about the Universe.
• BBC – History The BBC History website is attractive from many perspectives. But one of the most exciting parts of it – is the “On this day” section. It shows the visitors what had happened on a particular day in the past.
• Digital Public Library of America Digital Public Library of America contains 43,899,411 images, sounds, texts, and videos from across the USA. Its goal is to help American libraries take control of the acquisition and delivery of content. It also aims to make different materials more available to a bigger audience. 
• HISTORY The website offers a wide range of films and series on different historical events. It also provides stories about some of the most significant milestones of our lifetime. You can sign up for the Inside History Newsletter and stay tuned for all the latest updates!

10 Most Reliable Medical Websites

You may come across thousands of medical websites. However, not all of them provide reliable and up-to-date information. How to avoid non-credible sources? Here’s the tip: look at websites that are sponsored by Federal Government or belong to trusted universities. To ease your search, you may start with the sources below:

• National Institutes of Health This website is the main destination for medical research in the United States. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the most significant source of medical research on a global scale, too.
• MedlinePlus This is the online space of the United States National Library of Medicine. The National Library of Medicine is no less than the world’s most extensive medical library, with over 7 million books, journals, studies, technical reports, microfilms, and some of the oldest medical works.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention This is a website of The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is the national public health agency. Here you will find important information about diseases and treatment protocols.
• Medical Library Association The Medical Library Association (MLA) is a global, non-profit educational organization. Its members are 400 institutions and 3,000 professionals in the health information field. It boosts the highest level of professional practice.
• Go Ask Alice The Go Ask Alice website was made by the Columbia University team. Its authors are health promotion specialists and health care providers. Their goal is to answer the most relatable current questions about health and the health system.
• Anxiety & Depression Association of America ADAA is an organization that works to prevent and cure anxiety disorders and depression. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for people suffering from anxiety, depression, OCD, and PTSD. Here you will be able to learn more about the conditions mentioned above. You will get informed about the programs designed for people suffering from those disorders.
• The Lancet The Lancet is an influential weekly medical journal. It is among the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals. Here you will find reliable information about the latest medical findings and research.
• World Medical Association The World Medical Association (WMA) is an international and independent confederation of free professional medical associations representing physicians worldwide. The association is ready to provide you with ethical guidance to physicians through its Declarations, Resolutions, and Statements. You can also learn about health-related human rights, patient safety, public health policy, and projects such as tobacco control and immunization.
• British Medical Journal The BMJ is a peer-reviewed medical trade journal. It is published by the trade union of the British Medical Association. The BMJ is one of the oldest general medical journals. The journal helps to enhance public medical knowledge and publish the latest medical news and research results.
• The New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine is a weekly medical journal. The Massachusetts Medical Society publishes it. It is one of the most famous medical journals. You get weekly updated research results.

10 Most Reliable Science Websites

Despite tons of junk, the internet is still a great place to discover knowledge. If you don’t want to waste your time searching for legit resources, take a look at our selection:

• Royal Society of Chemistry Chemistry World provides science journalism of high quality from international contributors. It aims to represent the global chemical science community. Its goal is to promote and support chemists and chemistry worldwide.
• Atlas Obscura The website presents a global community of explorers who have made a database of the world’s most beautiful places and foods.
• NPR NPR is an independent, non-profit media organization. Its mission is to create a more informed public. Through its network of member stations, NPR aims to make local stories national and global stories personal.
• Pacific Standard Pacific Standard is an American online magazine founded in 2008. It talks about social and environmental issues. Sometime after being founded, it transitioned to an online-only format.
• Quanta Magazine Quanta Magazine is an independent online journal. The Simons Foundation launched this fabulous magazine. It aims to enhance public understanding of science.
• Science Science Magazine is the peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is one of the world’s top resources on general science.
• Nature Nature is an international journal publishing research studies in all fields of science and technology. The basis is originality, importance, and interdisciplinary interest. The journal also provides rapid and insightful news of topical and coming trends influencing science.
• PLOS ONE PLOS One is an open-access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science. It shares research from any discipline, covering science and medicine.
• Frontiers Frontiers is an Open Science Platform with a mission to make science open to the public. The team of the platform believes that research is the foundation of modern society.
• Science Direct Science Direct is based in the Netherlands. This publishing company is concentrated on scientific, medical, and technical content.

10 Best Reliable News Websites

Don’t want to spend your time reading fake news? Here are the top 10 reliable news websites to learn about current events:

• Associated Press News The Associated Press is a news agency based in New York. It is non-profit, and it operates as an unincorporated association. Its members are U.S. newspapers and broadcasters.
• BBC News The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the most extensive broadcasting agency in the world. The British government funds the organization. It is considered a central news source and is believed to be one of the most trusted worldwide.
• C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) provides unbiased news coverage of the U.S. federal government and U.S. political events.
• Christian Science Monitor Christian Science Monitor is a news magazine that is a little different from the other news sources. The published stories are very in-depth, but they reflect all current issues.  You can get news from CSM in two ways: the daily edition or the weekly version.
• The Economist   The Economist is a well-known weekly magazine. It focuses on international business, economics, and politics. Though the subscription is not cheap, readers say it’s worth it.
• Reuters Reuters website has an excellent reputation for good reporting. Reuters uses a “value-neutral approach” to guard against bias in its reporting. So you can be sure that the information you get here is totally worth using.
• USA Today USA Today is a news source that is read all over the world. It is the primary source of news for millions of people daily. In the USA Today, you can get a range of different viewpoints.
• The Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal is an American daily newspaper. It will help you focus on business in your research. The journal is based in New York City. The WSJ Journal is highly trusted in the United States. It has a strong center rating, and it was the only trusted outlet in a recent survey.
• PBS PBS is an American broadcaster and television program distributor. It is a non-profit organization. It will provide you with the most prominent info about educational television programming.
• CBS CBS is an American commercial television network. It is the flagship property of the CBS Entertainment Group division.

10 Reliable Websites for Statistics

Looking for reliable source of data? Why don’t you check our selection of organizations that conduct original statistics research? See the list below:

• World Bank Open Data The website includes a selection of statistical databases. Some World Bank Data databases may be available by subscription only.
• International Monetary Fund Data The website lists databases of the International Monetary Fund with information from 1970 – 2010.
• Statistics Canada   Statistics Canada website offers data that help Canadians better understand their country. You will get statistics on many points, including population, resources, economy, and society.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a part of the United States Department of Labor. It is the leading agency for the U.S. government in the field of labor economics and statistics.
• The International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is an agency of the U.N. Its goal is to advance social and economic justice by establishing international labor standards. Here you will find the latest news about global labor situation.
• The Statistics Division   The Statistics Division aims to compile and disseminate global statistical information. It also develops standards and norms for statistical activities.
• OECD  Library   Access to this library is limited to University of Utah faculty. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the OECD’s Online Library of Statistical Databases, Books, and Periodicals.
• NationMaster   The website specializes in saving and collecting data with worldwide importance. It offers data in a graph format, which can be great for your research.
• UNCTAD This site aims to provide the statistical data essential for the analysis of world trade and investment. It will also help you specialize in international financial flows and development.
• Eurostat Eurostat is the statistical office. It belongs to the European Union, and it is situated in Luxembourg. Its purpose is to provide the European Union with statistics at the European level. These statistics enable comparison between countries and regions.

❓ Why Is It Important to Use Credible Sources in Research?

It is crucial to use credible sources while working on your research: you need to back up your argument with trustworthy evidence. It can only be possible if the sources you use are reliable and their credibility is indisputable.

❓ Why Are Government Websites Reliable?

Government websites provide only official data and statistics in their works. They also publish results of well-known researchers, which are trusted all around the world.

❓ What Are Non-Credible Sources?

Non-credible sources are the ones that you can’t trust. These websites contain information that isn’t proven. There is no evidence or backup facts for the information mentioned there. It is dangerous to use non-credible sources while doing your research, as they might be misleading. As a result, your research might be considered biased or even wrong. g.

❓ What Are Some Examples of Unreliable Sources?

Unreliable sources often have a strange design. The links are broken, and you see grammar and spelling errors. These websites probably lack authors or sources of information. Non-credible sources are not associated with credible institutions or organizations.

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21 Legit Research Databases for Free Journal Articles in 2024

#scribendiinc

Written by  Scribendi

Has this ever happened to you? While looking for websites for research, you come across a research paper site that claims to connect academics to a peer-reviewed article database for free.

Intrigued, you search for keywords related to your topic, only to discover that you must pay a hefty subscription fee to access the service. After the umpteenth time being duped, you begin to wonder if there's even such a thing as free journal articles.

Subscription fees and paywalls are often the bane of students and academics, especially those at small institutions who don't provide access to many free article directories and repositories.

Whether you're working on an undergraduate paper, a PhD dissertation, or a medical research study, we want to help you find tools to locate and access the information you need to produce well-researched, compelling, and innovative work.

Below, we discuss why peer-reviewed articles are superior and list out the best free article databases to use in 2024.

Download Our Free Research Database Roundup PDF

Why peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles are more authoritative.

Determining what sources are reliable can be challenging. Peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles are the gold standard in academic research. Reputable academic journals have a rigorous peer-review process.

The peer review process provides accountability to the academic community, as well as to the content of the article. The peer review process involves qualified experts in a specific (often very specific) field performing a review of an article's methods and findings to determine things like quality and credibility.

Peer-reviewed articles can be found in peer-reviewed article databases and research databases, and if you know that a database of journals is reliable, that can offer reassurances about the reliability of a free article. Peer review is often double blind, meaning that the author removes all identifying information and, likewise, does not know the identity of the reviewers. This helps reviewers maintain objectivity and impartiality so as to judge an article based on its merit.

Where to Find Peer-Reviewed Articles

Peer-reviewed articles can be found in a variety of research databases. Below is a list of some of the major databases you can use to find peer-reviewed articles and other sources in disciplines spanning the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

What Are Open Access Journals?

An open access (OA) journal is a journal whose content can be accessed without payment. This provides scholars, students, and researchers with free journal articles. OA journals use alternate methods of funding to cover publication costs so that articles can be published without having to pass those publication costs on to the reader.

Some of these funding models include standard funding methods like advertising, public funding, and author payment models, where the author pays a fee in order to publish in the journal. There are OA journals that have non-peer-reviewed academic content, as well as journals that focus on dissertations, theses, and papers from conferences, but the main focus of OA is peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles.

The internet has certainly made it easier to access research articles and other scholarly publications without needing access to a university library, and OA takes another step in that direction by removing financial barriers to academic content.

Choosing Wisely

Features of legitimate oa journals.

 There are things to look out for when trying to decide if a free publication journal is legitimate:

Mission statement —The mission statement for an OA journal should be available on their website.

Publication history —Is the journal well established? How long has it been available?

Editorial board —Who are the members of the editorial board, and what are their credentials?

Indexing —Can the journal be found in a reliable database?

Peer review —What is the peer review process? Does the journal allow enough time in the process for a reliable assessment of quality?

Impact factor —What is the average number of times the journal is cited over a two-year period?

Features of Illegitimate OA Journals

There are predatory publications that take advantage of the OA format, and they are something to be wary of. Here are some things to look out for:

Contact information —Is contact information provided? Can it be verified?

Turnaround —If the journal makes dubious claims about the amount of time from submission to publication, it is likely unreliable.

Editorial board —Much like determining legitimacy, looking at the editorial board and their credentials can help determine illegitimacy.

Indexing —Can the journal be found in any scholarly databases?

Peer review —Is there a statement about the peer review process? Does it fit what you know about peer review?

How to Find Scholarly Articles

Identify keywords.

Keywords are included in an article by the author. Keywords are an excellent way to find content relevant to your research topic or area of interest. In academic searches, much like you would on a search engine, you can use keywords to navigate through what is available to find exactly what you're looking for.

Authors provide keywords that will help you easily find their article when researching a related topic, often including general terms to accommodate broader searches, as well as some more specific terms for those with a narrower scope. Keywords can be used individually or in combination to refine your scholarly article search.

Narrow Down Results

Sometimes, search results can be overwhelming, and searching for free articles on a journal database is no exception, but there are multiple ways to narrow down your results. A good place to start is discipline.

What category does your topic fall into (psychology, architecture, machine learning, etc.)? You can also narrow down your search with a year range if you're looking for articles that are more recent.

A Boolean search can be incredibly helpful. This entails including terms like AND between two keywords in your search if you need both keywords to be in your results (or, if you are looking to exclude certain keywords, to exclude these words from the results).

Consider Different Avenues

If you're not having luck using keywords in your search for free articles, you may still be able to find what you're looking for by changing your tactics. Casting a wider net sometimes yields positive results, so it may be helpful to try searching by subject if keywords aren't getting you anywhere.

You can search for a specific publisher to see if they have OA publications in the academic journal database. And, if you know more precisely what you're looking for, you can search for the title of the article or the author's name.

Determining the Credibility of Scholarly Sources

Ensuring that sources are both credible and reliable is crucial to academic research. Use these strategies to help evaluate the usefulness of scholarly sources:

• Peer Review : Look for articles that have undergone a rigorous peer-review process. Peer-reviewed articles are typically vetted by experts in the field, ensuring the accuracy of the research findings.

Tip: To determine whether an article has undergone rigorous peer review, review the journal's editorial policies, which are often available on the journal's website. Look for information about the peer-review process, including the criteria for selecting reviewers, the process for handling conflicts of interest, and any transparency measures in place.

• Publisher Reputation : Consider the reputation of the publisher. Established publishers, such as well-known academic journals, are more likely to adhere to high editorial standards and publishing ethics.
• Author Credentials : Evaluate the credentials and expertise of the authors. Check their affiliations, academic credentials, and past publications to assess their authority in the field.
• Citations and References : Examine the citations and references provided in the article. A well-researched article will cite credible sources to support its arguments and findings. Verify the accuracy of the cited sources and ensure they are from reputable sources.
• Publication Date : Consider the publication date of the article. While older articles may still be relevant, particularly in certain fields, it is best to prioritize recent publications for up-to-date research and findings.
• Journal Impact Factor : Assess the journal's impact factor or other metrics that indicate its influence and reputation within the academic community. Higher impact factor journals are generally considered more prestigious and reliable. 

Tip: Journal Citation Reports (JCR), produced by Clarivate Analytics, is a widely used source for impact factor data. You can access JCR through academic libraries or directly from the Clarivate Analytics website if you have a subscription.

• Peer Recommendations : Seek recommendations from peers, mentors, or professors in your field. They can provide valuable insights and guidance on reputable sources and journals within your area of study.
• Cross-Verification : Cross-verify the information presented in the article with other credible sources. Compare findings, methodologies, and conclusions with similar studies to ensure consistency and reliability.

By employing these strategies, researchers can confidently evaluate the credibility and reliability of scholarly sources, ensuring the integrity of their research contributions in an ever-evolving landscape.

The Top 21 Free Online Journal and Research Databases

Navigating OA journals, research article databases, and academic websites trying to find high-quality sources for your research can really make your head spin. What constitutes a reliable database? What is a useful resource for your discipline and research topic? How can you find and access full-text, peer-reviewed articles?

Fortunately, we're here to help. Having covered some of the ins and outs of peer review, OA journals, and how to search for articles, we have compiled a list of the top 21 free online journals and the best research databases. This list of databases is a great resource to help you navigate the wide world of academic research.

These databases provide a variety of free sources, from abstracts and citations to full-text, peer-reviewed OA journals. With databases covering specific areas of research and interdisciplinary databases that provide a variety of material, these are some of our favorite free databases, and they're totally legit!

CORE is a multidisciplinary aggregator of OA research. CORE has the largest collection of OA articles available. It allows users to search more than 219 million OA articles. While most of these link to the full-text article on the original publisher's site, or to a PDF available for download, five million records are hosted directly on CORE.

CORE's mission statement is a simple and straightforward commitment to offering OA articles to anyone, anywhere in the world. They also host communities that are available for researchers to join and an ambassador community to enhance their services globally. In addition to a straightforward keyword search, CORE offers advanced search options to filter results by publication type, year, language, journal, repository, and author.

CORE's user interface is easy to use and navigate. Search results can be sorted based on relevance or recency, and you can search for relevant content directly from the results screen.

Collection : 219,537,133 OA articles

Other Services : Additional services are available from CORE, with extras that are geared toward researchers, repositories, and businesses. There are tools for accessing raw data, including an API that provides direct access to data, datasets that are available for download, and FastSync for syncing data content from the CORE database.

CORE has a recommender plug-in that suggests relevant OA content in the database while conducting a search and a discovery feature that helps you discover OA versions of paywalled articles. Other features include tools for managing content, such as a dashboard for managing repository output and the Repository Edition service to enhance discoverability.

Good Source of Peer-Reviewed Articles : Yes

Advanced Search Options : Language, author, journal, publisher, repository, DOI, year

2. ScienceOpen

Functioning as a research and publishing network, ScienceOpen offers OA to more than 74 million articles in all areas of science. Although you do need to register to view the full text of articles, registration is free. The advanced search function is highly detailed, allowing you to find exactly the research you're looking for.

The Berlin- and Boston-based company was founded in 2013 to "facilitate open and public communications between academics and to allow ideas to be judged on their merit, regardless of where they come from." Search results can be exported for easy integration with reference management systems.

You can also bookmark articles for later research. There are extensive networking options, including your Science Open profile, a forum for interacting with other researchers, the ability to track your usage and citations, and an interactive bibliography. Users have the ability to review articles and provide their knowledge and insight within the community.

Collection : 74,560,631

Other Services : None

Advanced Search Options :   Content type, source, author, journal, discipline

3. Directory of Open Access Journals

A multidisciplinary, community-curated directory, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) gives researchers access to high-quality peer-reviewed journals. It has archived more than two million articles from 17,193 journals, allowing you to either browse by subject or search by keyword.

The site was launched in 2003 with the aim of increasing the visibility of OA scholarly journals online. Content on the site covers subjects from science, to law, to fine arts, and everything in between. DOAJ has a commitment to "increase the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, OA scholarly research journals globally, regardless of discipline, geography or language."

Information about the journal is available with each search result. Abstracts are also available in a collapsible format directly from the search screen. The scholarly article website is somewhat simple, but it is easy to navigate. There are 16 principles of transparency and best practices in scholarly publishing that clearly outline DOAJ policies and standards.

Collection : 6,817,242

Advanced Search Options :   Subject, journal, year

4. Education Resources Information Center

The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) of the Institution of Education Sciences allows you to search by topic for material related to the field of education. Links lead to other sites, where you may have to purchase the information, but you can search for full-text articles only. You can also search only peer-reviewed sources.

The service primarily indexes journals, gray literature (such as technical reports, white papers, and government documents), and books. All sources of material on ERIC go through a formal review process prior to being indexed. ERIC's selection policy is available as a PDF on their website.

The ERIC website has an extensive FAQ section to address user questions. This includes categories like general questions, peer review, and ERIC content. There are also tips for advanced searches, as well as general guidance on the best way to search the database. ERIC is an excellent database for content specific to education.

Collection : 1,292,897

Advanced Search Options : Boolean

5. arXiv e-Print Archive

The arXiv e-Print Archive is run by Cornell University Library and curated by volunteer moderators, and it now offers OA to more than one million e-prints.

There are advisory committees for all eight subjects available on the database. With a stated commitment to an "emphasis on openness, collaboration, and scholarship," the arXiv e-Print Archive is an excellent STEM resource.

The interface is not as user-friendly as some of the other databases available, and the website hosts a blog to provide news and updates, but it is otherwise a straightforward math and science resource. There are simple and advanced search options, and, in addition to conducting searches for specific topics and articles, users can browse content by subject. The arXiv e-Print Archive clearly states that they do not peer review the e-prints in the database.

Collection : 1,983,891

Good Source of Peer-Reviewed Articles : No

Advanced Search Options :   Subject, date, title, author, abstract, DOI

6. Social Science Research Network

The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a collection of papers from the social sciences community. It is a highly interdisciplinary platform used to search for scholarly articles related to 67 social science topics. SSRN has a variety of research networks for the various topics available through the free scholarly database.

The site offers more than 700,000 abstracts and more than 600,000 full-text papers. There is not yet a specific option to search for only full-text articles, but, because most of the papers on the site are free access, it's not often that you encounter a paywall. There is currently no option to search for only peer-reviewed articles.

You must become a member to use the services, but registration is free and enables you to interact with other scholars around the world. SSRN is "passionately committed to increasing inclusion, diversity and equity in scholarly research," and they encourage and discuss the use of inclusive language in scholarship whenever possible.

Collection : 1,058,739 abstracts; 915,452 articles

Advanced Search Options : Term, author, date, network

7. Public Library of Science

Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a big player in the world of OA science. Publishing 12 OA journals, the nonprofit organization is committed to facilitating openness in academic research. According to the site, "all PLOS content is at the highest possible level of OA, meaning that scientific articles are immediately and freely available to anyone, anywhere."

PLOS outlines four fundamental goals that guide the organization: break boundaries, empower researchers, redefine quality, and open science. All PLOS journals are peer-reviewed, and all 12 journals uphold rigorous ethical standards for research, publication, and scientific reporting.

PLOS does not offer advanced search options. Content is organized by topic into research communities that users can browse through, in addition to options to search for both articles and journals. The PLOS website also has resources for peer reviewers, including guidance on becoming a reviewer and on how to best participate in the peer review process.

Collection : 12 journals

Advanced Search Options : None

8. OpenDOAR

OpenDOAR, or the Directory of Open Access Repositories, is a comprehensive resource for finding free OA journals and articles. Using Google Custom Search, OpenDOAR combs through OA repositories around the world and returns relevant research in all disciplines.

The repositories it searches through are assessed and categorized by OpenDOAR staff to ensure they meet quality standards. Inclusion criteria for the database include requirements for OA content, global access, and categorically appropriate content, in addition to various other quality assurance measures. OpenDOAR has metadata, data, content, preservation, and submission policies for repositories, in addition to two OA policy statements regarding minimum and optimum recommendations.

This database allows users to browse and search repositories, which can then be selected, and articles and data can be accessed from the repository directly. As a repository database, much of the content on the site is geared toward the support of repositories and OA standards.

Collection : 5,768 repositories

Other Services : OpenDOAR offers a variety of additional services. Given the nature of the platform, services are primarily aimed at repositories and institutions, and there is a marked focus on OA in general. Sherpa services are OA archiving tools for authors and institutions.

They also offer various resources for OA support and compliance regarding standards and policies. The publication router matches publications and publishers with appropriate repositories.

There are also services and resources from JISC for repositories for cost management, discoverability, research impact, and interoperability, including ORCID consortium membership information. Additionally, a repository self-assessment tool is available for members.

Advanced Search Options :   Name, organization name, repository type, software name, content type, subject, country, region

9. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

The Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) is operated by the Bielefeld University Library in Germany, and it offers more than 240 million documents from more than 8,000 sources. Sixty percent of its content is OA, and you can filter your search accordingly.

BASE has rigorous inclusion requirements for content providers regarding quality and relevance, and they maintain a list of content providers for the sake of transparency, which can be easily found on their website. BASE has a fairly elegant interface. Search results can be organized by author, title, or date.

From the search results, items can be selected and exported, added to favorites, emailed, and searched in Google Scholar. There are basic and advanced search features, with the advanced search offering numerous options for refining search criteria. There is also a feature on the website that saves recent searches without additional steps from the user.

Collection : 276,019,066 documents; 9,286 content providers

Advanced Search Options :   Author, subject, year, content provider, language, document type, access, terms of reuse

10. Digital Library of the Commons Repository

Run by Indiana University, the Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) Repository is a multidisciplinary journal repository that allows users to access thousands of free and OA articles from around the world. You can browse by document type, date, author, title, and more or search for keywords relevant to your topic.

DCL also offers the Comprehensive Bibliography of the Commons, an image database, and a keyword thesaurus for enhanced search parameters. The repository includes books, book chapters, conference papers, journal articles, surveys, theses and dissertations, and working papers. DCL advanced search features drop-down menus of search types with built-in Boolean search options.

Searches can be sorted by relevance, title, date, or submission date in ascending or descending order. Abstracts are included in selected search results, with access to full texts available, and citations can be exported from the same page. Additionally, the image database search includes tips for better search results.

Collection : 10,784

Advanced Search Options :   Author, date, title, subject, sector, region, conference

11. CIA World Factbook

The CIA World Factbook is a little different from the other resources on this list in that it is not an online journal directory or repository. It is, however, a useful free online research database for academics in a variety of disciplines.

All the information is free to access, and it provides facts about every country in the world, which are organized by category and include information about history, geography, transportation, and much more. The World Factbook can be searched by country or region, and there is also information about the world's oceans.

This site contains resources related to the CIA as an organization rather than being a scientific journal database specifically. The site has a user interface that is easy to navigate. The site also provides a section for updates regarding changes to what information is available and how it is organized, making it easier to interact with the information you are searching for.

Collection : 266 countries

12. Paperity

Paperity boasts its status as the "first multidisciplinary aggregator of OA journals and papers." Their focus is on helping you avoid paywalls while connecting you to authoritative research. In addition to providing readers with easy access to thousands of journals, Paperity seeks to help authors reach their audiences and help journals increase their exposure to boost readership.

Paperity has journal articles for every discipline, and the database offers more than a dozen advanced search options, including the length of the paper and the number of authors. There is even an option to include, exclude, or exclusively search gray papers.

Paperity is available for mobile, with both a mobile site and the Paperity Reader, an app that is available for both Android and Apple users. The database is also available on social media. You can interact with Paperity via Twitter and Facebook, and links to their social media are available on their homepage, including their Twitter feed.

Collection : 8,837,396

Advanced Search Options : Title, abstract, journal title, journal ISSN, publisher, year of publication, number of characters, number of authors, DOI, author, affiliation, language, country, region, continent, gray papers

13. dblp Computer Science Bibliography

The dblp Computer Science Bibliography is an online index of major computer science publications. dblp was founded in 1993, though until 2010 it was a university-specific database at the University of Trier in Germany. It is currently maintained by the Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics.

Although it provides access to both OA articles and those behind a paywall, you can limit your search to only OA articles. The site indexes more than three million publications, making it an invaluable resource in the world of computer science. dblp entries are color-coded based on the type of item.

dblp has an extensive FAQ section, so questions that might arise about topics like the database itself, navigating the website, or the data on dblp, in addition to several other topics, are likely to be answered. The website also hosts a blog and has a section devoted to website statistics.

Collection : 5,884,702

14. EconBiz

EconBiz is a great resource for economic and business studies. A service of the Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, it offers access to full texts online, with the option of searching for OA material only. Their literature search is performed across multiple international databases.

EconBiz has an incredibly useful research skills section, with resources such as Guided Walk, a service to help students and researchers navigate searches, evaluate sources, and correctly cite references; the Research Guide EconDesk, a help desk to answer specific questions and provide advice to aid in literature searches; and the Academic Career Kit for what they refer to as Early Career Researchers.

Other helpful resources include personal literature lists, a calendar of events for relevant calls for papers, conferences, and workshops, and an economics terminology thesaurus to help in finding keywords for searches. To stay up-to-date with EconBiz, you can sign up for their newsletter.

Collection : 1,075,219

Advanced Search Options :   Title, subject, author, institution, ISBN/ISSN, journal, publisher, language, OA only

15. BioMed Central

BioMed Central provides OA research from more than 300 peer-reviewed journals. While originally focused on resources related to the physical sciences, math, and engineering, BioMed Central has branched out to include journals that cover a broader range of disciplines, with the aim of providing a single platform that provides OA articles for a variety of research needs. You can browse these journals by subject or title, or you can search all articles for your required keyword.

BioMed Central has a commitment to peer-reviewed sources and to the peer review process itself, continually seeking to help and improve the peer review process. They're "committed to maintaining high standards through full and stringent peer review."

Additionally, the website includes resources to assist and support editors as part of their commitment to providing high-quality, peer-reviewed OA articles.

Collection : 507,212

Other Services : BMC administers the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) registry. While initially designed for registering clinical trials, since its creation in 2000, the registry has broadened its scope to include other health studies as well.

The registry is recognized by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), and it meets the requirements established by the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

The study records included in the registry are all searchable and free to access. The ISRCTN registry "supports transparency in clinical research, helps reduce selective reporting of results and ensures an unbiased and complete evidence base."

Advanced Search Options :   Author, title, journal, list

A multidisciplinary search engine, JURN provides links to various scholarly websites, articles, and journals that are free to access or OA. Covering the fields of the arts, humanities, business, law, nature, science, and medicine, JURN has indexed almost 5,000 repositories to help you find exactly what you're looking for.

Search features are enhanced by Google, but searches are filtered through their index of repositories. JURN seeks to reach a wide audience, with their search engine tailored to researchers from "university lecturers and students seeking a strong search tool for OA content" and "advanced and ambitious students, age 14-18" to "amateur historians and biographers" and "unemployed and retired lecturers."

That being said, JURN is very upfront about its limitations. They admit to not being a good resource for educational studies, social studies, or psychology, and conference archives are generally not included due to frequently unstable URLs.

Collection : 5,064 indexed journals

Other Services : JURN has a browser add-on called UserScript. This add-on allows users to integrate the JURN database directly into Google Search. When performing a search through Google, the add-on creates a link that sends the search directly to JURN CSE. JURN CSE is a search service that is hosted by Google.

Clicking the link from the Google Search bar will run your search through the JURN database from the Google homepage. There is also an interface for a DuckDuckGo search box; while this search engine has an emphasis on user privacy, for smaller sites that may be indexed by JURN, DuckDuckGo may not provide the same depth of results.

Advanced Search Options :   Google search modifiers

Dryad is a digital repository of curated, OA scientific research data. Launched in 2009, it is run by a not-for-profit membership organization, with a community of institutional and publisher members for whom their services have been designed. Members include institutions such as Stanford, UCLA, and Yale, as well as publishers like Oxford University Press and Wiley.

Dryad aims to "promote a world where research data is openly available, integrated with the scholarly literature, and routinely reused to create knowledge." It is free to access for the search and discovery of data. Their user experience is geared toward easy self-depositing, supports Creative Commons licensing, and provides DOIs for all their content.

Note that there is a publishing charge associated if you wish to publish your data in Dryad.  When searching datasets, they are accompanied by author information and abstracts for the associated studies, and citation information is provided for easy attribution.

Collection : 44,458

Advanced Search Options : No

Run by the British Library, the E-Theses Online Service (EThOS) allows you to search over 500,000 doctoral theses in a variety of disciplines. All of the doctoral theses available on EThOS have been awarded by higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.

Although some full texts are behind paywalls, you can limit your search to items available for immediate download, either directly through EThOS or through an institution's website. More than half of the records in the database provide access to full-text theses.

EThOS notes that they do not hold all records for all institutions, but they strive to index as many doctoral theses as possible, and the database is constantly expanding, with approximately 3,000 new records added and 2,000 new full-text theses available every month. The availability of full-text theses is dependent on multiple factors, including their availability in the institutional repository and the level of repository development.

Collection : 500,000+

Advanced Search Options : Abstract, author's first name, author's last name, awarding body, current institution, EThOS ID, year, language, qualifications, research supervisor, sponsor/funder, keyword, title

PubMed is a research platform well-known in the fields of science and medicine. It was created and developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It has been available since 1996 and offers access to "more than 33 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books."

While PubMed does not provide full-text articles directly, and many full-text articles may be behind paywalls or require subscriptions to access them, when articles are available from free sources, such as through PubMed Central (PMC), those links are provided with the citations and abstracts that PubMed does provide.

PMC, which was established in 2000 by the NLM, is a free full-text archive that includes more than 6,000,000 records. PubMed records link directly to corresponding PMC results. PMC content is provided by publishers and other content owners, digitization projects, and authors directly.

Collection : 33,000,000+

Advanced Search Options : Author's first name, author's last name, identifier, corporation, date completed, date created, date entered, date modified, date published, MeSH, book, conflict of interest statement, EC/RN number, editor, filter, grant number, page number, pharmacological action, volume, publication type, publisher, secondary source ID, text, title, abstract, transliterated title

20. Semantic Scholar

A unique and easy-to-use resource, Semantic Scholar defines itself not just as a research database but also as a "search and discovery tool." Semantic Scholar harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to efficiently sort through millions of science-related papers based on your search terms.

Through this singular application of machine learning, Semantic Scholar expands search results to include topic overviews based on your search terms, with the option to create an alert for or further explore the topic. It also provides links to related topics.

In addition, search results produce "TLDR" summaries in order to provide concise overviews of articles and enhance your research by helping you to navigate quickly and easily through the available literature to find the most relevant information. According to the site, although some articles are behind paywalls, "the data [they] have for those articles is limited," so you can expect to receive mostly full-text results.

Collection : 203,379,033

Other Services : Semantic Scholar supports multiple popular browsers. Content can be accessed through both mobile and desktop versions of Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Opera.

Additionally, Semantic Scholar provides browser extensions for both Chrome and Firefox, so AI-powered scholarly search results are never more than a click away. The mobile interface includes an option for Semantic Swipe, a new way of interacting with your research results.

There are also beta features that can be accessed as part of the Beta Program, which will provide you with features that are being actively developed and require user feedback for further improvement.

Advanced Search Options : Field of study, date range, publication type, author, journal, conference, PDF

Zenodo, powered by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), was launched in 2013. Taking its name from Zenodotus, the first librarian of the ancient library of Alexandria, Zenodo is a tool "built and developed by researchers, to ensure that everyone can join in open science." Zenodo accepts all research from every discipline in any file format.

However, Zenodo also curates uploads and promotes peer-reviewed material that is available through OA. A DOI is assigned to everything that is uploaded to Zenodo, making research easily findable and citable. You can sort by keyword, title, journal, and more and download OA documents directly from the site.

While there are closed access and restricted access items in the database, the vast majority of research is OA material. Search results can be filtered by access type, making it easy to view the free articles available in the database.

Collection : 2,220,000+

Advanced Search Options : Access, file type, keywords

Check out our roundup of free research databases as a handy one-page PDF.

How to find peer-reviewed articles.

There are a lot of free scholarly articles available from various sources. The internet is a big place. So how do you go about finding peer-reviewed articles when conducting your research? It's important to make sure you are using reputable sources.

The first source of the article is the person or people who wrote it. Checking out the author can give you some initial insight into how much you can trust what you’re reading. Looking into the publication information of your sources can also indicate whether the article is reliable.

Aspects of the article, such as subject and audience, tone, and format, are other things you can look at when evaluating whether the article you're using is valid, reputable, peer-reviewed material. So, let's break that down into various components so you can assess your research to ensure that you're using quality articles and conducting solid research.

Check the Author

Peer-reviewed articles are written by experts or scholars with experience in the field or discipline they're writing about. The research in a peer-reviewed article has to pass a rigorous evaluation process, so it's a foregone conclusion that the author(s) of a peer-reviewed article should have experience or training related to that research.

When evaluating an article, take a look at the author's information. What credentials does the author have to indicate that their research has scholarly weight behind it? Finding out what type of degree the author has—and what that degree is in—can provide insight into what kind of authority the author is on the subject.

Something else that might lend credence to the author's scholarly role is their professional affiliation. A look at what organization or institution they are affiliated with can tell you a lot about their experience or expertise. Where were they trained, and who is verifying their research?

Identify Subject and Audience

The ultimate goal of a study is to answer a question. Scholarly articles are also written for scholarly audiences, especially articles that have gone through the peer review process. This means that the author is trying to reach experts, researchers, academics, and students in the field or topic the research is based on.

Think about the question the author is trying to answer by conducting this research, why, and for whom. What is the subject of the article? What question has it set out to answer? What is the purpose of finding the information? Is the purpose of the article of importance to other scholars? Is it original content?

Research should also be approached analytically. Is the methodology sound? Is the author using an analytical approach to evaluate the data that they have obtained? Are the conclusions they've reached substantiated by their data and analysis? Answering these questions can reveal a lot about the article's validity.

Format Matters

Reliable articles from peer-reviewed sources have certain format elements to be aware of. The first is an abstract. An abstract is a short summary or overview of the article. Does the article have an abstract? It's unlikely that you're reading a peer-reviewed article if it doesn't. Peer-reviewed journals will also have a word count range. If an article seems far too short or incredibly long, that may be reason to doubt it.

Another feature of reliable articles is the sections the information is divided into. Peer-reviewed research articles will have clear, concise sections that appropriately organize the information. This might include a literature review, methodology, results (in the case of research articles), and a conclusion.

One of the most important sections is the references or bibliography. This is where the researcher lists all the sources of their information. A peer-reviewed source will have a comprehensive reference section.

An article that has been written to reach an academic community will have an academic tone. The language that is used, and the way this language is used, is important to consider. If the article is riddled with grammatical errors, confusing syntax, and casual language, it almost definitely didn't make it through the peer review process.

Also consider the use of terminology. Every discipline is going to have standard terminology or jargon that can be used and understood by other academics in the discipline. The language in a peer-reviewed article is going to reflect that.

If the author is going out of their way to explain simple terms, or terms that are standard to the field or discipline, it's unlikely that the article has been peer reviewed, as this is something that the author would be asked to address during the review process.

Publication

The source of the article will be a very good indicator of the likelihood that it was peer reviewed. Where was the article published? Was it published alongside other academic articles in the same discipline? Is it a legitimate and reputable scholarly publication?

A trade publication or newspaper might be legitimate or reputable, but it is not a scholarly source, and it will not have been subject to the peer review process. Scholarly journals are the best resource for peer-reviewed articles, but it's important to remember that not all scholarly journals are peer reviewed.

It's helpful to look at a scholarly source's website, as peer-reviewed journals will have a clear indication of the peer review process. University libraries, institutional repositories, and reliable databases (and now you have a list of legit ones) can also help provide insight into whether an article comes from a peer-reviewed journal.

Common Research Mistakes to Avoid

Research is a lot of work. Even with high standards and good intentions, it's easy to make mistakes. Perhaps you searched for access to scientific journals for free and found the perfect peer-reviewed sources, but you forgot to document everything, and your references are a mess. Or, you only searched for free online articles and missed out on a ground-breaking study that was behind a paywall.

Whether your research is for a degree or to get published or to satisfy your own inquisitive nature, or all of the above, you want all that work to produce quality results. You want your research to be thorough and accurate.

To have any hope of contributing to the literature on your research topic, your results need to be high quality. You might not be able to avoid every potential mistake, but here are some that are both common and easy to avoid.

Sticking to One Source

One of the hallmarks of good research is a healthy reference section. Using a variety of sources gives you a better answer to your question. Even if all of the literature is in agreement, looking at various aspects of the topic may provide you with an entirely different picture than you would have if you looked at your research question from only one angle.

Not Documenting Every Fact

As you conduct your research, do yourself a favor and write everything down. Everything you include in your paper or article that you got from another source is going to need to be added to your references and cited.

It's important, especially if your aim is to conduct ethical, high-quality research, that all of your research has proper attribution. If you don't document as you go, you could end up making a lot of work for yourself if the information you don't write down is something that later, as you write your paper, you really need.

Using Outdated Materials

Academia is an ever-changing landscape. What was true in your academic discipline or area of research ten years ago may have since been disproven. If fifteen studies have come out since the article that you're using was published, it's more than a little likely that you're going to be basing your research on flawed or dated information.

If the information you're basing your research on isn't as up-to-date as possible, your research won't be of quality or able to stand up to any amount of scrutiny. You don't want all of your hard work to be for naught.

Relying Solely on Open Access Journals

OA is a great resource for conducting academic research. There are high-quality journal articles available through OA, and that can be very helpful for your research. But, just because you have access to free articles, that doesn't mean that there's nothing to be found behind a paywall.

Just as dismissing high-quality peer-reviewed articles because they are OA would be limiting, not exploring any paid content at all is equally short-sighted. If you're seeking to conduct thorough and comprehensive research, exploring all of your options for quality sources is going to be to your benefit.

Digging Too Deep or Not Deep Enough

Research is an art form, and it involves a delicate balance of information. If you conduct your research using only broad search terms, you won't be able to answer your research question well, or you'll find that your research provides information that is closely related to your topic but, ultimately, your findings are vague and unsubstantiated.

On the other hand, if you delve deeply into your research topic with specific searches and turn up too many sources, you might have a lot of information that is adjacent to your topic but without focus and perhaps not entirely relevant. It's important to answer your research question concisely but thoroughly.

Different Types of Scholarly Articles

Different types of scholarly articles have different purposes. An original research article, also called an empirical article, is the product of a study or an experiment. This type of article seeks to answer a question or fill a gap in the existing literature.

Research articles will have a methodology, results, and a discussion of the findings of the experiment or research and typically a conclusion.

Review articles overview the current literature and research and provide a summary of what the existing research indicates or has concluded. This type of study will have a section for the literature review, as well as a discussion of the findings of that review. Review articles will have a particularly extensive reference or bibliography section.

Theoretical articles draw on existing literature to create new theories or conclusions, or look at current theories from a different perspective, to contribute to the foundational knowledge of the field of study.

10 Tips for Navigating Journal Databases

Use the right academic journal database for your search, be that interdisciplinary or specific to your field. Or both!

If it's an option, set the search results to return only peer-reviewed sources.

Start by using search terms that are relevant to your topic without being overly specific.

Try synonyms, especially if your keywords aren't returning the desired results.

Even if you've found some good articles, try searching using different terms.

Explore the advanced search features of the database(s).

Learn to use Booleans (AND, OR, NOT) to expand or narrow your results.

Once you've gotten some good results from a more general search, try narrowing your search.

Read through abstracts when trying to find articles relevant to your research.

Keep track of your research and use citation tools. It'll make life easier when it comes time to compile your references.

7 Frequently Asked Questions

1. how do i get articles for free.

Free articles can be found through free online academic journals, OA databases, or other databases that include OA journals and articles. These resources allow you to access free papers online so you can conduct your research without getting stuck behind a paywall.

Academics don't receive payment for the articles they contribute to journals. There are often, in fact, publication fees that scholars pay in order to publish. This is one of the funding structures that allows OA journals to provide free content so that you don't have to pay fees or subscription costs to access journal articles.

2. How Do I Find Journal Articles?

Journal articles can be found in databases and institutional repositories that can be accessed at university libraries. However, online research databases that contain OA articles are the best resource for getting free access to journal articles that are available online.

Peer-reviewed journal articles are the best to use for academic research, and there are a number of databases where you can find peer-reviewed OA journal articles. Once you've found a useful article, you can look through the references for the articles the author used to conduct their research, and you can then search online databases for those articles, too.

3. How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles?

Peer-reviewed articles can be found in reputable scholarly peer-reviewed journals. High-quality journals and journal articles can be found online using academic search engines and free research databases. These resources are excellent for finding OA articles, including peer-reviewed articles.

OA articles are articles that can be accessed for free. While some scholarly search engines and databases include articles that aren't peer reviewed, there are also some that provide only peer-reviewed articles, and databases that include non-peer-reviewed articles often have advanced search features that enable you to select "peer review only." The database will return results that are exclusively peer-reviewed content.

4. What Are Research Databases?

A research database is a list of journals, articles, datasets, and/or abstracts that allows you to easily search for scholarly and academic resources and conduct research online. There are databases that are interdisciplinary and cover a variety of topics.

For example, Paperity might be a great resource for a chemist as well as a linguist, and there are databases that are more specific to a certain field. So, while ERIC might be one of the best educational databases available for OA content, it's not going to be one of the best databases for finding research in the field of microbiology.

5. How Do I Find Scholarly Articles for Specific Fields?

There are interdisciplinary research databases that provide articles in a variety of fields, as well as research databases that provide articles that cater to specific disciplines. Additionally, a journal repository or index can be a helpful resource for finding articles in a specific field.

When searching an interdisciplinary database, there are frequently advanced search features that allow you to narrow the search results down so that they are specific to your field. Selecting "psychology" in the advanced search features will return psychology journal articles in your search results. You can also try databases that are specific to your field.

If you're searching for law journal articles, many law reviews are OA. If you don't know of any databases specific to history, visiting a journal repository or index and searching "history academic journals" can return a list of journals specific to history and provide you with a place to begin your research.

6. Are Peer-Reviewed Articles Really More Legitimate?

The short answer is yes, peer-reviewed articles are more legitimate resources for academic research. The peer review process provides legitimacy, as it is a rigorous review of the content of an article that is performed by scholars and academics who are experts in their field of study. The review provides an evaluation of the quality and credibility of the article.

Non-peer-reviewed articles are not subject to a review process and do not undergo the same level of scrutiny. This means that non-peer-reviewed articles are unlikely, or at least not as likely, to meet the same standards that peer-reviewed articles do.

7. Are Free Article Directories Legitimate?

Yes! As with anything, some databases are going to be better for certain requirements than others. But, a scholarly article database being free is not a reason in itself to question its legitimacy.

Free scholarly article databases can provide access to abstracts, scholarly article websites, journal repositories, and high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles. The internet has a lot of information, and it's often challenging to figure out what information is reliable. 

Research databases and article directories are great resources to help you conduct your research. Our list of the best research paper websites is sure to provide you with sources that are totally legit.

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Research articles

Effect of locomotor preference on the evolution of mitochondrial genes in Bovidae

• Honghai Zhang

Staphylococcus aureus carriage and prevalence of skin and soft tissue infections among people who inject drugs: a longitudinal study

• Jimmy Jörgensen
• Disa Dahlman
• Anna C. Nilsson

Associations between time in range and insulin secretory capacity in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes

• Kenichi Tanaka
• Yosuke Okada
• Yoshiya Tanaka

Calf deep veins are safe and feasible accesses for the endovascular treatment of acute lower extremity deep vein thrombosis

• Xiande Zeng

Revolutionizing outcomes: endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage using innovative electrocautery enhanced-lumen apposing metal stents for high-risk surgical patients

• Hyung Ku Chon
• Yun Chae Lee
• Seong-Hun Kim

Radiomic white matter parameters of functional integrity of the corticospinal tract in high-grade glioma

• Erdem Güresir
• Johannes Kasper

Aqueductal CSF stroke volume is associated with the burden of perivascular space enlargement in chronic adult hydrocephalus

• Pasquale Gallina
• Berardino Porfirio
• Antonio Scollato

Match running performance preceding scoring and conceding a goal in men’s professional soccer

• Marek Konefał
• Błażej Szmigiel
• Piotr Żmijewski

Design and analysis of 2D one-way splitter waveguide based on topological photonics

• Mohammadreza Mehdipoura
• Mohammadreza Moeini
• Reza Poursalehi

The prescription of beta-blockers in older patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: an observational study in Vietnam

• Tan Van Nguyen
• Hoa T. K. Nguyen
• Tu Ngoc Nguyen

Exploring the association between theobromine intake and hepatic steatosis in young people

• Xingxing Chen

Association between uric acid and referable diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes

• David Rivera-De-la-Parra
• Sergio Hernández-Jiménez
• David Kershenobich-Stalnikowitz

Different clinical course of BPPV according to the medical conditions

• Jeon Mi Lee
• Hyun Jin Lee

Evolution of ferromagnetic cluster in perovskite La 0.88 Sr 0.12 MnO 3 nanocrystalline detected by EPR spectrum

• Shaozhen Li

Observations of enhanced rainfall variability in Kenya, East Africa

• Susan M. Kotikot
• Erica A. H. Smithwick
• Helen Greatrex

Design and application of virtual simulation teaching platform for intelligent manufacturing

• Pengfei Zheng
• Junkai Yang

Characterization of two different alginate-based bioinks and the influence of melanoma growth within

• Raphael Schipka
• Stefanie Heltmann-Meyer
• Rafael Schmid

Adaptive RAO ensembled dichotomy technique for the accurate parameters extraction of solar PV system

• P. Ashwini Kumari
• C. H. Hussaian Basha
• Ali ELrashidi

Discrete element modeling and experimental study of biomechanical properties of cotton stalks in machine-harvested film-stalk mixtures

• Jianhua Xie

Electrical lymph node scanning (ELS) system for real-time intra-operative detection of involved axillary lymph nodes in adjuvant breast cancer patients

• Fereshteh Abbasvandi
• Reihane Mahdavi
• Mohammad Abdolahad

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Who can you trust? A review of free online sources of “trustworthy” information about treatment effects for patients and the public

Andrew d. oxman.

1 Centre for Informed Health Choices, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, N-0403 Oslo, Norway

2 University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Elizabeth J. Paulsen

Associated data.

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and the Additional file 1 .

Information about effects of treatments based on unsystematic reviews of research evidence may be misleading. However, finding trustworthy information about the effects of treatments based on systematic reviews, which is accessible to patients and the public can be difficult. The objectives of this study were to identify and evaluate free sources of health information for patients and the public that provide information about effects of treatments based on systematic reviews.

We reviewed websites that we and our colleagues knew of, searched for government sponsored health information websites, and searched for online sources of health information that provide evidence-based information. To be included in our review, a website had to be available in English, freely accessible, and intended for patients and the public. In addition, it had to have a broad scope, not limited to specific conditions or types of treatments. It had to include a description of how the information is prepared and the description had to include a statement about using systematic reviews. We compared the included websites by searching for information about the effects of eight treatments.

Three websites met our inclusion criteria: Cochrane Evidence , Informed Health , and PubMed Health . The first two websites produce content, whereas PubMed Health aggregated content. A fourth website that met our inclusion criteria, CureFacts , was under development. Cochrane Evidence provides plain language summaries of Cochrane Reviews (i.e. summaries that are intended for patients and the public). They are translated to several other languages. No information besides treatment effects is provided. Informed Health provides information about treatment effects together with other information for a wide range of topics. PubMed Health was discontinued in October 2018. It included a large number of systematic reviews of treatment effects with plain language summaries for Cochrane Reviews and some other reviews. None of the three websites included links to ongoing trials, and information about treatment effects was not reported consistently on any of the websites.

It is possible for patients and the public to access trustworthy information about the effects of treatments using the two of the websites included in this review.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12911-019-0772-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Patients and the public must make choices among different treatment options. We define “treatment” broadly, as any preventive, therapeutic, rehabilitative, or palliative action intended to improve the health or wellbeing of individuals or communities [ 1 ]. This includes, for example, drugs, surgery and other types of “modern medicine”; lifestyle changes, such as changes to what you eat or how you exercise; herbal remedies and other types of “traditional” or “alternative medicine”, and public health interventions. Few people would prefer that decisions about what they should and should not do for their health should be uninformed. Yet, if a decision is going to be well informed rather than misinformed, they need information that is relevant, trustworthy, and accessible. They also need to be able to distinguish between claims about the effects of treatments that are trustworthy and those that are not [ 2 ].

Often the problem is too much information rather than too little. For example, a Google search for “back pain” yields over 60 million hits [ 3 ]. PubMed, a free search engine for accessing MEDLINE and other databases maintained by the United States National Library of Medicine, includes over 27 million citations [ 4 ], and this represents only a fraction of the biomedical literature. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, a bibliographic database that is restricted to controlled trials of treatments, contains over a million citations [ 5 ]. It is not practical for people making decisions about treatments to use search engines or databases such as these to find relevant information, critically appraise the studies they find, synthesize them, and interpret the results.

Systematic reviews reduce the risk of being misled by bias (systematic errors) and the play of chance (random errors), by using systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant studies, and to collect and analyse data from them [ 6 ]. For information about treatment effects to be trustworthy, it should be based on systematic reviews. For it to be accessible to patients and the public, it should be easy to find and should be clearly communicated in plain language [ 7 ].

Unfortunately, a large amount of information about treatment effects is not based on systematic reviews and is not trustworthy [ 8 – 19 ]. This includes handouts for patients [ 8 , 9 ], internet-based information [ 10 , 11 ], information in social and mass media [ 12 – 18 ], information produced by patient organisations [ 8 , 9 , 12 ]. press releases [ 18 ], and advertisements [ 19 ]. Studies of the trustworthiness of health information have used a variety of criteria, but have consistently found important limitations [ 8 – 19 ]. Although trustworthy information about treatment effects can be found, evidence-based information is frequently written for health professionals or researchers, rather than for patients and the public [ 7 ].

There is an abundance of health information on the internet, which has become an important source of health information over the past two decades [ 10 , 11 , 20 – 24 ], but patients and the public find it difficult to search the internet for trustworthy information [ 21 – 23 ], and are unlikely to critically appraise the information that they do find [ 22 , 23 ].

There are a number of websites that aim to improve access to trustworthy health information for patients and the public. The objectives of this study were to identify free sources of health information for patients and the public which provide information about the effects of treatments based on systematic reviews, and to evaluate those websites.

Our motivation for undertaking this review grew out of a desire to respond to people who were looking for trustworthy information about the effects of specific treatments and landed on Testing Treatments international [ 25 ], a website for promoting critical thinking about treatment claims. Rather than simply noting that the Testing Treatments website does not provide the information they were seeking, we wanted to help them by directing them to sources that do provide this information. Given this motivation, we restricted our review of websites to ones with a broad scope. There were two reasons for this. First, websites with a broad scope can meet the needs of most people seeking trustworthy information about treatment effects. Furthermore, although disease-specific websites can be useful, it would be impractical to assess any more than a small sample of websites for specific conditions or types of treatments. Second, it is easier to become familiar with one or a small number of websites than it is to use multiple websites for questions about different conditions or types of treatments.

We considered any website that defined itself as providing “health information”, which included information about treatments. To be included in this review a website needed to be:

• Available in English
• Freely accessible (i.e. non-commercial with no cost to users or membership fees)
• That described itself as being intended for patients and the public
• Broad in scope (not limited to specific conditions or types of treatments)
• Explicitly based on systematic reviews (i.e. there had to be a description of how the information is prepared and the description had to include a statement about using systematic reviews)

We identified websites that potentially met those criteria by considering websites that we and our colleagues (see Acknowledgements) knew of. The first author (AO) searched for government sponsored websites in English speaking countries (including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA); searched Google for “health information” and “patient information” to identify websites that are frequently accessed for health information; and checked links to other websites on the websites that were identified. On 29 January 2018, AO conducted a final set of searches using the following terms: “health information”, “patient information”, “evidence-based health information”, and “evidence-based patient information”; and these search engines: Google [ 3 ], Bing [ 26 ], DuckDuckGo [ 27 ], and HONsearch patients [ 28 ]. Google and Bing are the two most popular search engines, DuckDuckGo is not affected by your previous search history, and HONsearch searches “trustworthy” health websites. The first 20 hits for each search were screened, and any websites that looked like they might meet our inclusion criteria were checked.

AO assessed each identified website for inclusion and the second author (EP) checked those judgements using information provided on the websites. In addition, we emailed each excluded website to confirm that our reason for excluding it was correct.

AO collected the following information for each included website:

• The stated purpose
• A statement that information about treatment effects is based on systematic reviews
• Availability of links to the systematic reviews
• Reporting size of effects
• Reporting certainty of the evidence; i.e. a judgement using GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) [ 29 – 31 ] or another formal approach or an informal judgement about how sure we can be about the reported effects
• Availability of links to ongoing trials
• Information about how up-to-date information about treatment effects is
• What other information is provided
• What tools there are for searching, sorting, and filtering information
• Use of plain language (i.e. summaries written for patients and the public) and the availability of a glossary

EP checked all of the information that was recorded and the judgements that were made. To inform these judgements, both authors independently searched each included website for eight questions about treatments to assess the ease of finding information (AO on 22 December 2017 and EP on 9 January 2018). We selected the eight questions by searching Google for “common health questions” and selecting the first relevant list that we found ( 25 Questions About Your Health Answered - Oprah.com ). Many of the questions in that list were not about treatment effects and we modified some of the questions with the intention of having a variety of questions for different types of conditions and treatments. Table  1 shows the original question from that list, our question, the conditions, the treatments, and the initial search terms that we used to find information about treatment effects on each website.

Questions about treatments used to assess the included websites

We then independently assessed what was reported about treatment effects, the consistency of reporting, and the advantages and disadvantages of each website. Disagreements were resolved by discussion. Based on these assessments and the information we had collected for each website we suggested how the websites could be improved and provided tips for website users.

For each question, we searched for information using plain language terms without Boolean logic (using the first terms shown for each question in the last column of Table ​ Table1). 1 ). We recorded the number of hits for each search and each relevant summary that we found. We assessed the search as easy if we found relevant information using plain language terms without Boolean logic and the relevant information was one of the first few hits. We assessed searches as hard if we had to use technical terms or Boolean logic, or if we could not find relevant information; and as moderate if finding relevant information required some minor fiddling with the search terms or screening more than a few hits.

For each relevant summary that we found, we recorded whether any information was provided about benefits of the treatment and harms of the treatment, whether quantitative information was provided for at least one outcome, and whether a formal or informal assessment of the certainty of the evidence was provided. We then ranked the three websites for each question based on an overall assessment of how hard it was to find relevant information and the completeness of the information about the effects of the treatments.

We considered 35 websites for inclusion. Of these, 26 were excluded because information about treatment effects was not explicitly based on systematic reviews (Table  2 ), five were excluded because they were not intended for patients and the public (Table  3 ), and one was under development (Table  4 ). Three of the 34 websites met our inclusion criteria: Cochrane Evidence , Informed Health , and PubMed Health (Table  5 ). Cochrane Evidence and Informed Health produce content, whereas PubMed Health , which was discontinued in October 2018, aggregated content, including content from the first two websites.

Websites excluded because they are not explicitly based on systematic reviews a

a These websites were excluded because they do not include a description of how information is prepared that includes a statement about using or being based on systematic reviews of research evidence. It is unclear to what extent information about treatment effects on these websites is based on systematic reviews

Websites excluded because they are not intended for patients and the public a

a These websites were excluded because they are not primarily intended for patients and the general public. However, some patients and members of the general public use these databases

Websites under development a

a Last accessed 14 February 2018

Included websites

a The headings used were inconsistent for all three

b We got an error message (“A technical error has occurred. Please try again later.”) when we used AND to limit searches on Informed Health , and no search results when we used quotation marks (e.g. “back pain”). It was possible to use this logic on the other two websites

Cochrane Evidence provides plain language summaries of over 7500 Cochrane Reviews, most of which are systematic reviews of the effects of treatments. The systematic reviews and the plain language summaries are prepared and updated by Cochrane review groups. Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers, and people interested in health, with over 37,000 contributors from more than 130 countries.

The plain language summaries include links to the full reviews. The full reviews are available in The Cochrane Library, which can be accessed for free in countries that have a national subscription or if the review or an update was published more than one year previously. The headings and content of the plain language summaries are inconsistent. The summaries include some background information, the authors’ conclusions, and links to other summaries that may be of interest. There is variability in the quality of the summaries. Some summaries include pop-up definitions (but not links to longer explanations) for some research and medical terms, and there is a glossary of terms relevant for Cochrane Reviews available on the Cochrane website. The summaries are translated into Chinese, Croatian, Czech, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, and Thai. The glossary is only in English.

No other information regarding treatments is provided in Cochrane Evidence , besides the plain language summaries of Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane website, where Cochrane Evidence is found has other information about the Cochrane Colaboration. Navigation tools for Cochrane Evidence are limited to a simple search for the entire Cochrane website. It is possible to sort findings by relevance, alphabetically, or by date of publication; and to filter the summaries by broad health topics and whether the reviews are new or updated.

Informed Health is the English-language version of the German website Gesundheitsinformation.de. The website is prepared by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in Germany. IQWiG is a professionally-independent, scientific institute established under the Health Care Reform 2004.

The Informed Health website provides information about treatment effects together with other information for a wide range of topics. The website includes “research summaries” for some but not all treatments. “These are objective, brief summaries of the latest findings on a research question described in the title. They usually summarize the results of studies, for instance the results of one or (rarely) several systematic reviews or IQWiG reports. They also describe the study/studies in more detail and explain how the researchers came to their conclusions.” The website states that they “mainly use systematic reviews of studies to answer questions about the benefits and harms of medical interventions.” Links to systematic reviews are provided when these are used, but the reviews may not be freely available.

All of the research summaries that we examined (Additional file  1 ) included quantitative information about the size of the benefits, and they included frequencies for at least one outcome, but most often only for one outcome. The certainty of the evidence is not reported. All of the information is in plain language, written for patients and the public. There are hyperlinks to background information (but not pop-up definitions). There is a glossary of “medical and scientific” terms that includes primarily medical terms and few research terms.

In addition to information about treatments, Informed Health includes information about symptoms, causes, outlook, diagnosis, everyday life, where to learn more, and explanations (“Extras”) of topics such as how the body works, how treatments work, and types of treatments. Navigation tools for Informed Health include browsing by broad topic areas, an index (A to Z list) and a simple search. Search results can be sorted by relevance, the date information on the website was created, or the date it was updated.

PubMed Health specialized in systematic reviews of clinical effectiveness research. It included plain language summaries and abstracts of Cochrane Reviews; abstracts (technical summaries) of systematic reviews in the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) up to 31 March 2015; full texts of reviews from public agencies; information developed by public agencies for consumers and clinicians based on systematic reviews; and methods resources about the best research and statistical techniques for systematic reviews and clinical effectiveness research. PubMed Health was a service provided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It was discontinued October 31, 2018 “in an effort to consolidate similar resources and make information easier to find”. It included information from over 40,000 systematic reviews from a variety of sources, but plain language summaries were not available for most of those reviews. Links to the systematic reviews were provided, but not all of the reviews were freely available.

The reporting was inconsistent. Headings, reporting of effects, and reporting of the certainty of the evidence were inconsistent. PubMed Health had an extensive glossary (Health A – Z) and background information on drugs. Navigation tools included a simple search. Search results could be sorted by date of publication and filtered by Article types (including “Consumer information”); when information was added to PubMed Health , Content providers (including Cochrane and IQWiG); and Reviews with a quality assessment.

None of the three included websites includes links to ongoing trials and adverse effects are not consistently reported on any of the websites. All three include information about how up-to-date the information about treatment effects is.

PubMed Health was the easiest website to search, despite the large number of records that it includes. However, we had difficulties searching all three websites. We found information easily in Cochrane Evidence and Informed Health for one of the eight questions in Table ​ Table1, 1 , and for three of the questions in PubMed Health (Additional file 1 ). Conversely, it was hard to find information (or we did not find any information) for the five questions in Cochrane Evidence , six questions in Informed Health , and three questions in PubMed Health . It was not possible to use Boolean logic when searching Informed Health . This was possible on the other two websites, but none of the three provided any instructions or help for searching.

When we found information, it was consistently available about benefits, but only Informed Health consistently reported this information quantitatively in the plain language summaries. Quantitative information was provided in the linked scientific abstracts. None of the websites consistently reported information about harms or the certainty of the evidence, although Cochrane plain language summaries in Cochrane Evidence and PubMed Health frequently reported the certainty of the evidence. When the certainty of the evidence was reported using GRADE or another systematic approach, there was not a link to an explanation of what the grade means.

Overall we were most satisfied with Cochrane Evidence for 2 questions, with Informed Health for one question, and with PubMed Health for 3 of our questions. We did not find information about treatment effects on any of the three websites for two questions: “Should I stop using phone, tablet, computer, and TV screens before going to bed (for insomnia)?” and “Should I get my osteoarthritic knee replaced?” Informed Health provided advice for the first question (“For instance, it might help to only listen to relaxing music before going to bed and keep from talking on the phone or playing computer or mobile phone games”), but no reference to research evidence for that advice. We easily found relevant systematic reviews for both of these questions in Epistemonikos (Additional file 1 ).

We identified three websites for patients and the public that provide free information about treatment effects based on systematic reviews. A fourth, promising website, CureFacts, was under development (Table ​ (Table4), 4 ), and is still under development as of February 2019. Twenty-two other websites that provide free information for patients and the public claim to provide trustworthy, evidence-based information. However, it is not possible to know the extent to which the information they provide about treatment effects is based on systematic reviews, so is therefore less likely to be trustworthy. We considered four websites that provide access to systematic reviews, but none of these is intended for patients and the public (Table ​ (Table3). 3 ). Nonetheless, some people may find these useful, particularly Epistemonikos . It includes over 100,000 systematic reviews with the abstracts translated to Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. It is aimed for health professionals, researchers and policymakers but plain language summaries are not available for most of the reviews. Although it is not intended for patients and the public, it “has been used by well-informed lay people and journalists successfully” (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

We did not consider databases that are not free, such as Trip Pro, which includes access to over 100,000 systematic reviews; or patient information from web-based medical compendia for clinicians, such as Best Practice , Dynamed , and UptoDate. We also did not consider websites that provide information for patients and the public based on guidelines, such as the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for patients; or websites that are limited to specific conditions or types of treatments.

The three websites for patients and the public that explicitly provided information about treatment effects based on systematic reviews were likely to appeal to different people and their appeal may vary depending on the question being asked. We found that we preferred each of the websites for at least one of the eight questions we used as test cases (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). We found PubMed Health somewhat easier to search, despite the large number of records it includes, and we found both Cochrane plain language summaries and Health Information research summaries when searching PubMed Health . Simple instructions regarding the use of Boolean logic and the use of quotations to limit searches would help improve the ease of use for all three websites. For example, the default for Cochrane Evidence appears to be to insert OR between words, resulting in large numbers of irrelevant hits.

All of the websites could be improved by more consistent use of headings and consistent reporting of both benefits and (especially) harms; inclusion of quantitative information about the size of the effects; and information about the certainty of the evidence based on the use of a consistent set of criteria, such as GRADE [ 29 – 31 ], and links to explanations of what the grades mean. Because many systematic reviews, including Cochrane Reviews, do not consistently provide this information, plain language summaries based on systematic reviews cannot always provide this information. However, they can alert users to the absence of trustworthy information about adverse effects, when this is the case, and it is possible to provide an assessment of the certainty of the evidence even when review authors have not done this [ 32 , 33 ].

All three websites provided plain language summaries of systematic reviews and all three had glossaries. However, none of the websites included both pop-up short definitions (which can be quickly accessed and read as scroll overs without having to go to another webpage) and links to longer explanations (that can be easily accessed when needed).

None of the websites included links to ongoing trials. This is something that, for example, NHS Choices does [ 34 ]. This is important because when there is important uncertainty about the effects of treatments, participating in a randomised trial may be the best option for patients [ 35 , 36 ].

We are not aware of any other studies that have attempted to systematically identify and evaluate websites that provide free access to information about the effects of treatments for patients and the public which is based on systematic reviews. There are thousands of websites that provide health information and we did not systematically screen all of these. Although we believe it is unlikely that there are other websites that meet our inclusion criteria, we did not consider websites for specific conditions or types of interventions, non-English language websites, or websites that were not freely accessible. Others might want to assess these and other sources of information about treatment effects in future studies.

"The evaluation criteria that we used were based on our judgement about what information is important and what is needed to make that information accessible. For example, providing a link to the systematic review enables people to go to the source of information about treatment effects for more information, if they desire. It also makes the basis of the information clear. Information about the size of effects and the certainty of the evidence is essential for making well-informed decisions. Basic search tools are necessary to make it easy to find information on the websites, and summaries that are written in plain language for patients and the public are more likely to be understandable than abstracts written for researchers or health professionals. Consistent headings, content, and use of language make it easier for users to become familiar with the websites and to find and understand information.

Our evaluation was based in part on searching for answers for eight treatment questions (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). The criteria that we used to assess what we found for each question did not require a great deal of judgement. Consequently, there were only minor disagreements in our assessments (Additional file 1 ), and those were easily resolved. It is uncertain how representative what we found for those questions is for what would be found for other treatment questions, but we believe they provided a fair basis for assessing the websites. Moreover, we sent full drafts of this report to people responsible for each website and their corrections did not substantially alter our assessments or conclusions.

We did not evaluate the readability of the plain language summaries and, although we described other information that each website provides, we did not evaluate whether the websites provided other information that patients and the public want or need to make informed decisions; for example, information about other treatment alternatives, costs, and people’s experiences with the treatment [ 37 , 38 ]. We also did not evaluate how users of the websites experience them [ 39 ]. All of these are potential areas for future research."

Conclusions

It is possible for patients and the public to access trustworthy information about the effects of treatments based on systematic reviews using two of the three websites included in this review. However, all three of these websites could be improved and made more useful and easier to use by consistently reporting information about the size of both the benefits and harms of treatments and the certainty of the evidence, and by making it easier to find relevant information.

Searching the three websites frequently yielded much irrelevant information. Users can limit searches by using Boolean logic - inserting AND between terms (e.g. for the condition and for the treatment) and quotation marks to indicate that words need to be next to each other; e.g. “back pain”. However, this is unlikely to be obvious to novice users. Some users may want to use sources that are not intended for patients and the public, such as Epistemonikos , if they are unable to find information on one of these websites. They also might want to consider searching for ongoing trials, if there is important uncertainty about the effects of relevant treatments.

There are many other websites that claim to provide evidence-based or reliable information about treatments, but it is difficult to assess the reliability of the information about treatment effects provided on those websites since they do not explicitly base that information on systematic reviews.

Additional file

Appendix review of online evidence-based patient info. Assessments of three included websites. Description of data: Search results and assessments of the information found in the three included websites for eight common health questions. (XLSX 29 kb)

Acknowledgements

With support from the James Lind Initiative, Anita Peerson prepared an earlier unpublished version of this review with advice from Iain Chalmers, Douglas Badenoch, Sarah Rosenbaum, and Astrid Austvoll-Dahlgren. We would like to thank the following colleagues for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper: Astrid Austvoll-Dahlgren, Atle Fretheim, Claire Glenton, Hilda Bastian, Iain Chalmers, Jon Brasey, Karla Soares-Weiser, Marit Johansen, Marita Sporstøl Fønhus, Sarah Rosenbaum, Signe Flottorp.

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

Abbreviations, authors’ contributions.

AO made all of the initial assessments and wrote the first draft of this report. EP checked all of the assessments and contributed to revisions of this report. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Consent for publication, competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Andrew D. Oxman, Email: on.enilno@namxo .

Elizabeth J. Paulsen, Email: [email protected] .

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Evaluating Digital Sources

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Because so much information is now available online, it’s important to know how to navigate digital sources versus print sources. Today, almost every print source has a digital edition (e.g., ebooks, online newspapers), and some academic journals only publish digitally. However, despite the many credible digital sources available today, there are still many unreliable sources available on the internet. Below are some suggestions for evaluating digital texts and a breakdown of the different types of sources available online.

Example of just one fallacious quotation that can be found online.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (often abbreviated SEO) is a strategy used to increase unpaid views on a website from search engines. By using an algorithm, SEO works by locating keywords and sorting information for relevancy and accuracy. For example, if you were to search “How to change a flat tire” in a search engine, you would most likely get how-to videos and pages, rather than someone selling their car on Craigslist, because the algorithm sorts the webpages based on the keywords you input.

Different search engines may utilize SEO differently, which also means that, depending on what search engine you use, you might have different results appear first. For example, companies that are owned by Google will most likely appear first when searching for something on Google. However, if you used a different search engine, such as Yahoo or Bing, your results may differ.

Understanding SEO is important because it dictates the initial information you’re presented with when using a search engine for your research.

Differences in Domain Extensions

Different websites have different domain extensions, that is, the final string of letters following the period on a website’s domain name. Domain extensions help differentiate the type of websites and the different purposes they serve.

Below is a breakdown of the most common domain extensions:

• .com ⁠— a commercial website
• .gov ⁠— a government owned/operated website
• .org ⁠— a website associated with an organization
• .edu ⁠— a website associated with an educational institution
• .net ⁠— a website used by network providers

While there is no universal rule for whether a website’s domain extension makes it credible, it’s important to know that .com, .org, and .net domain extensions can be purchased and used by anyone. However, the .edu domain extension is reserved only for educational institutions, and the .gov domain extension is only used by governmental institutions.

Determining a website’s credibility can be especially confusing for websites with a .org extension that appear to have a governmental or educational affiliation. For example, the website passportUSA.org appears to contain official instructions for applying for a passport online; however, it is simply a PDF editing site. Because of the .org domain extension, it appears more credible.

On the other hand, some well-known organizations use a .com domain extension. Both National Geographic and TED use .com domain extension, despite the fact that they’re large organizations.

It’s important to not necessarily evaluate an online source simply based on its domain extension. As you navigate through different sources, you need to examine the authors and the website’s other credentials before making assumptions simply by the domain extension.

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created by the Wikimedia Foundation. Like other encyclopedias, Wikipedia can provide valuable information about certain topics. However, unlike encyclopedias, Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, which means that sometimes the information stated is not reliable and is edited for the sake of making a joke (see example below).

An example of a Wikipedia page that has been vandalized to include a joking reference to the film  Fight Club. Though this sort of vandalism is rare, it is not unheard of.

In fact, even Wikipedia itself encourages its users to take caution when gathering information from its site. It states: “Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start. Indeed, many articles start out by giving one—perhaps not particularly evenhanded—view of the subject, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate, and argument that they gradually take on a  consensus  form. Others may become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint and can take some time—months perhaps—to regain a better-balanced consensus” (see “Researching with Wikipedia” ).

While it’s not encouraged to use Wikipedia as one of your main sources, Wikipedia can be used as a jumping-off point for other sources. At the bottom of most Wikipedia pages, you can find a list of sources that will take you to other pages (see image below).

An example of a References section from a Wikipedia article that has been carefully sourced.

Clickbait is a type of sensationalized advertisement that seeks to attract viewers through catchy or seemingly unbelievable headlines. Most sites that use clickbait use it to simply gain “clicks” on their site.

When looking for sources online, it’s important to recognize which article titles sound like clickbait. Most clickbait articles want to shock the reader, so be aware of words like surprising , alarming , and shocking in titles. Another form of clickbait is a page that challenges the viewer to a quiz or test. These will entice the reader by stating that the reader probably cannot answer each question correctly.

An example of a sensationalistic clickbait headline.

Understanding which articles are clickbait helps you evaluate your sources for credibility. Because clickbait sources exist simply to promote webpages, they are not considered credible sources.

Social Media

Social media is simply defined as any type of digital space that allows users to create content and share it with others in a social setting. A few of the most common social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Instagram. While social media is not regularly used as a source in research, sometimes you might use a YouTube video or a tweet from a well-known individual.

When evaluating social media sites, it’s important to know more about a user beyond their username. For example, if you were interested in examining how scientists use Twitter as a platform, you might find yourself quoting a tweet by Bill Nye or the physicist Brian Cox. Both of these individuals have blue checks next to their Twitter handles, which means the accounts are verified. However, you might not want to quote a tweet by someone with an anonymous name and a Twitter handle such as @iluvscience321. 

Similarly, YouTube videos can either be posted by a large organization or a single user. If you are interested in using a YouTube video in your research, look at whether the publisher is a larger organization (such as TED or National Geographic) or a single user that only publishes under a username. While not all large organizations produce unbiased information, more well-known organizations will most likely provide more credible information.

In general, while you will probably not use a lot of social media in your research, if you do, try to locate the people or groups behind the usernames. After you identify the person or organization, you can find out more about them and determine their credibility.

Personal Websites

Many people have personal websites, such as blogs, that are not associated with a larger group or organization. Blogs can range in subject, from seasonal fashion tips to discussing every one of Emily Dickinson’s poems. When evaluating a personal website, find out what you can about the author and their affiliations. Some personal websites exist solely to spread propaganda or other biased information.

Podcasts are becoming a much more popular digital medium today. Podcasts are essentially audio files that can be streamed on a computer or mobile device, like portable radio. They are usually part of a series or follow a theme.

Like YouTube videos, podcasts can be valuable resources if used correctly. While almost anyone can produce a podcast, and topics range from discussing tv shows or books like The Bachelor  and Harry Potter , other podcasts give in-depth information about science, history, anthropology, and a wide variety of other topics. For example, podcasts like Stuff You Missed in History Class  and Historium Unearthia  provide information on often-overlooked historical events.

Like most sources, you should try to find out information about the author and cross-check the information in the podcast to see if you can find it elsewhere. Because anyone can produce a podcast, be aware that biased podcasts exist, and some might be used as propaganda.

Online News Articles

It’s possible to find many news articles online, both from digital newspapers and websites that post news articles. When examining online news articles, find out what you can about the organization behind the articles. Different news outlets may have different agendas attached to their reporting. For example, some websites are known for being more left-wing or right-wing.

Online Databases

Often, the most reliable information you will find on the internet will come from online databases. A database is a large collection of data, usually about one specific topic or idea. Some databases contain a broader field of information, while some are narrower. For example, Hoosier State Chronicles is a database that only houses Indiana newspapers, while JSTOR is a database that holds a wider variety of journals and books.

When looking for online sources, using a database helps you find credible information. In order for a source to be included in a database, it usually must go through a screening process that requires individuals to verify the information in the text. Because of this cross-checking process, the articles you find in databases will usually be more reliable than sources you might find simply by looking for them using a search engine.

List of Credible Sources for Research. Examples of Credible Websites

Looking for relevant sources of information for your research is already a tiring process, but when you also need to pay attention to their credibility, it becomes almost impossible! However, it’s still a quite critical aspect to pay attention to. Using unreliable sites like Wikipedia, even if it’s a two-page essay in middle school, is not welcomed.

Don’t know how to find credible sources? No worries! Custom-Writing experts have created this brilliant guide for you. It’s not merely a compilation of best tips on how to choose reliable websites for research. There are also many examples of reliable sources that you can use for basically any type of paper you may need to write!

👨‍🎓️ What Are Credible Sources?

• Natural Science

✅ Website Reliability Checklist

Credible sources: definition.

In general, credible sources are the ones that can be considered unbiased and have some sort of evidence to rely on . Popular dictionaries can give you a whole list of the criteria that help you identify one. For example, a credible book would be written by respected and recognized authors in the last ten years.

Credible Sources:

• information published within last 10 years;
• texts written by respected authors;
• websites belonging to educational and governmental institutions;
• articles from Google Scholar;
• academic databases.

Non-credible sources:

• outdated information;
• texts written by someone without proper credentials;
• commercial websites;
• articles without citations;
• blog posts.

Non-credible sources are the complete opposite of the definition above. They shouldn’t be used, especially when you are working on essential pieces of writing. An unreliable source would most definitely be outdated and coming from the writers with no credentials. Also, beware of unknown blog posts that don’t have any citations!

How to Determine Credible Sources?

You need to pay close attention to several things when looking for credible sources. First of all, the information needs to be published at least within the last few years. Check whether the authors are well-known and have received some acknowledgment. The majority of websites belonging to governmental and educational institutions are reliable. If you’re still not sure, you can always check if the source is present in Google Scholar or any other academic database.

In some cases, your teacher or supervisor might provide you with particular requirements regarding the sources. For instance, you would need to pick the most recent studies published within the last five or even three years.

Why Is it Important to Use Credible Sources for Research?

Long story short, no one will believe the arguments you make in your essay are correct if they are based on Wikipedia’s information. So taking your time and picking trustworthy sources guarantees that your statements will convince the readers. An academic research paper is expected to be backed up by reliable evidence.

This way, you, as the author of the paper, gain the audience’s trust and support. When your main arguments derive from credible places, they know that you haven’t made it up. Also, it’s more than just about the authority. Sometimes, unreliable sources may contain errors and mistakes, which is especially bad for science projects. Because then you’ll have to use a rewriting tool or otherwise fix your text. So make sure you can trust the information!

🌐 Examples of Credible Sources: Websites

A list of reliable sources for research papers.

Finding reliable sources for a research paper is not an easy task. Let’s start with the easily accessible ones – websites. You have probably heard and used Google Scholar, but surprise-surprise, there are so many similar services that can help you find credible books and articles! Check out a list of credible online platforms that will help you do that.

• Google Scholar . It’s the most popular and easy-to-use search engine that can present scholarly pieces of writing on any topic you require. Google Scholar is free to use, and you can choose to look for any type of publishing format.
• JSTOR . JSTOR is an online library of all kinds of sources, such as books, articles, and journals. Even though access is limited, it can be a great help for students. It is also considered one of the most reliable databases since the sources are selected very carefully before being placed there.
• SAGE Publishing . This independent publisher gives you open access to academic journals and much more in case of your subscription! Every year they drop thousands of high-quality content in the form of books and journals, so it’s a pretty reputable source.
• Taylor and Francis Online . It is quite well-known by many researchers and has a good reputation. They publish peer-reviewed journal articles. This online tool gives you access to all the journals published by this company. Free admission is limited, so you should double-check the terms first.
• ScienceDirect . ScienceDirect is a massive database of scientific and medical literature, which you can access via subscription. All 18 million pieces published there are known to be credible. Therefore, this tool can be more than efficient and reliable for your research.
• Academia . Academia is a free resource similar to Google Scholar, where you can look through and even download any paper you want. However, sometimes the authors only upload a part of their work. So you would need to contact them yourself if you’re interested.
• Scopus . It is one of the biggest databases of peer-reviewed journals and articles. Note that they only offer the option of checking the abstracts and citations for free, but not the papers’ full content. So you need to review the terms to gain full access.

A List of Credible News Sources

Of course, journalism isn’t comparable to academic writing . No matter how hard you try to describe world news, politics, or economics, thousands of people will find your article subjective.

But still, there are some less credible and more credible news sources. We’ve gathered here several news websites with a good reputation.

• BBC News . BBC News is one of the most trusted sources you can ever find. They post all the fresh pieces of news in text, video, or audio format on their official website. Since it’s a TV channel, you don’t need to pay extra to access the content.
• The Economist . The Economist is a well-known and respected weekly magazine with a focus on international business, economics, and politics. It is also available online. Even though the subscription fee is not that small, people say it’s totally worth it.
• The Wall Street Journal . It is another American-based giant of the business journals’ world. It appears to be extremely popular and published both digitally and in broadsheet format. You can always find business news for free, but the readers still recommend investing in The Wall Street Journal .
• Google News . You can think of Google News as a personal organizer of the most relevant headlines. You just set up your preferences, and this tool generates an endless stream of articles based on your interests. It’s believed to be the largest of its kind.
• The Guardian . We could never miss The Guardian ! This British newspaper, staying in business for over two hundred years now, is one of the people’s favorites. Their online publications are free for everybody, but they would appreciate your input since they are running on donations.
• CNN . CNN is another international TV channel which mainly covers business and politics. It’s amongst the most popular channels in the US and is famous for delivering breaking news. It’s a great place to start if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of the North American news.

A List of Credible Sources on Natural Science

And in this last section of useful links, you’ll find reputable sources on natural science . Every link presents a trusted website filled with knowledge you can easily apply to your research paper.

• NASA . There is no denying that NASA is quite reliable. It’s a governmental source of information about the most recent discoveries and explorations of space. Not only can you find videos, reports, and pictures there, but you can join the live streams of such events as launching and landing!
• Scientific American . It’s an absolute must-have for everyone interested in science and technology! The works of the most famous scientists were published there. Even Albert Einstein’s article featured in one of the issues! You can either buy a paper version of the magazine or subscribe to their website.
• Popular Science . This science-oriented source is more for the general audience. Even though it covers various discussions and doesn’t always present the latest discoveries, Popular Science is still a reliable and respectable source of infor mation. As a journal, it has won multiple awards!
• National Geographic . For the lovers of nature, this source is perfect for exploring the most exciting news and documentaries on any topic you want! It’s originally a TV network, but you can also check out their website and even a smartphone application. It’s also known for being reliable as they provide good sourcing and evidence.

How can you tell if a website is credible? Check it for these factors:

• Contact information
• Up-to-date material
• Regularly revised information
• Links to support every side fact
• Informative purpose
• No broken links on the page
• No grammar or punctuation mistakes
• No misspellings
• Mentioned in scientific sources
• Bibliography

If you can’t find at least nine of these signs in your article, be careful—there’s a chance you’re dealing with a non-credible source.

Remember, you can always use our lists of credible websites for faster access to trusted investigations.

✏️ Credible Sources FAQ

What definitely makes a website credible is .edu or .gov in the URL code. You may add “inurl:.edu” or “inurl:.gov” to your Google search. If a website is not updated, the content is not structured, the texts contain grammatical and formatting mistakes – that source is probably not reliable.

Any website that contains .edu or .gov in the URL code would serve as an example of a credible online source. Other relatively reliable sources include famous online dictionaries and encyclopedias. However, beware of unreliable copies of such websites with a similar title or design.

It is usually possible to tell if the source is credible relying on common sense. For example, if there are formatting and grammatical mistakes, the content is not structured, the pages do not load properly, and the website is not updated, it is probably unreliable.

To determine that an online source might not be credible, pay attention to details. Does the site look neat and structured? Are there mistakes in grammar or formatting? Do the pages load properly? Does it have huge ad banners that hinder the website usage?

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