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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Peer Review: An Introduction: Where to Find Peer Reviewed Sources

• Why not just use Google or Wikipedia?
• Where to Find Peer Reviewed Sources
• Where to Get More Help

Need More Help?

Have more questions? Contact Scholarly Communication and Publishing at [email protected]   for more information and guidance.

Ask a Librarian

The Ask a Librarian service for general reference is available during all of the hours when the Main Library is open. Visit the  Ask a Librarian  page to chat with a librarian.

Why is it so hard to find Peer-Reviewed Sources?

It isn't hard to find peer-reviewed sources: you just need to know where to look!  If you start in the right place, you can usually find a relevant, peer-reviewed source for your research in as few clicks as a Google search, and you can even use many of the search techniques you use in Google and Wikipedia.

The easiest way to find a peer-reviewed article is by using one of the Library's numerous databases. All of the Library's databases are listed in the Online Journals and Databases index. The databases are divided by name and discipline.

Departmental libraries and library subject guides have created subject-focused lists of electronic and print research resources that are useful for their disciplines. You can search the library directory  for links to the departmental libraries at the University of Illinois Library, or search library websites by college  if you're not sure which departmental library serves your subject.

Peer-Reviewed Resources for Disciplinary Topics

There are numerous print and digital resources for specific disciplines, areas of study, and specialist fields.  To find research resources and databases for your area, consult the comprehensive directory of LibGuides , the websites of specialist libraries, and above all, contact a librarian for help !

Here are a few major databases for finding peer-reviewed research sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences:

• MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Proved access to citations from worldwide publications, including periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies. more... less... Alternate Access Link
• Web of Science (Core Collection) This link opens in a new window Web of Science indexes core journal articles, conference proceedings, data sets, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
• Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others. Also includes full-text access to over 5,000 journals. Offers coverage of many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields. more... less... Alternate Access Link
• IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window Provides full-text access to IEEE transactions, IEEE and IEE journals, magazines, and conference proceedings published since 1988, and all current IEEE standards; brings additional search and access features to IEEE/IEE digital library users. Browsable by books & e-books, conference publications, education and learning, journals and magazines, standards and by topic. Also provides links to IEEE standards, IEEE spectrum and other sites.
• Scopus This link opens in a new window Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications and quality web sources. Subject coverage includes: Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Engineering; Life and Health Sciences; Social Sciences, Psychology and Economics; Biological, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
• Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window Provides bibliographic and full text content, including indexing and abstracts for scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 and full text journal articles in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. The database full text content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more. more... less... Alternate Access Link
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• Last Updated: Nov 9, 2023 11:15 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.illinois.edu/peerreview

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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Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
• Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
• Related articles: ✔
• References: ✔
• Cited by: ✔
• Links to full text: ✔
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
• Abstracts: ✔
• Related articles: ✘
• References: ✘
• Cited by: ✘
• Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
• Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
• Export formats: BibTeX

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
• Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

• Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
• Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
• Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
• Export formats: not available

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

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

Peer review templates, expert examples and free training courses

Joanna Wilkinson

Learning how to write a constructive peer review is an essential step in helping to safeguard the quality and integrity of published literature. Read on for resources that will get you on the right track, including peer review templates, example reports and the Web of Science™ Academy: our free, online course that teaches you the core competencies of peer review through practical experience ( try it today ).

How to write a peer review

Understanding the principles, forms and functions of peer review will enable you to write solid, actionable review reports. It will form the basis for a comprehensive and well-structured review, and help you comment on the quality, rigor and significance of the research paper. It will also help you identify potential breaches of normal ethical practice.

This may sound daunting but it doesn’t need to be. There are plenty of peer review templates, resources and experts out there to help you, including:

Peer review training courses and in-person workshops

• Peer review templates ( found in our Web of Science Academy )
• Expert examples of peer review reports
• Co-reviewing (sharing the task of peer reviewing with a senior researcher)

Other peer review resources, blogs, and guidelines

We’ll go through each one of these in turn below, but first: a quick word on why learning peer review is so important.

Why learn to peer review?

Peer reviewers and editors are gatekeepers of the research literature used to document and communicate human discovery. Reviewers, therefore, need a sound understanding of their role and obligations to ensure the integrity of this process. This also helps them maintain quality research, and to help protect the public from flawed and misleading research findings.

Learning to peer review is also an important step in improving your own professional development.

You’ll become a better writer and a more successful published author in learning to review. It gives you a critical vantage point and you’ll begin to understand what editors are looking for. It will also help you keep abreast of new research and best-practice methods in your field.

We strongly encourage you to learn the core concepts of peer review by joining a course or workshop. You can attend in-person workshops to learn from and network with experienced reviewers and editors. As an example, Sense about Science offers peer review workshops every year. To learn more about what might be in store at one of these, researcher Laura Chatland shares her experience at one of the workshops in London.

There are also plenty of free, online courses available, including courses in the Web of Science Academy such as ‘Reviewing in the Sciences’, ‘Reviewing in the Humanities’ and ‘An introduction to peer review’

The Web of Science Academy also supports co-reviewing with a mentor to teach peer review through practical experience. You learn by writing reviews of preprints, published papers, or even ‘real’ unpublished manuscripts with guidance from your mentor. You can work with one of our community mentors or your own PhD supervisor or postdoc advisor, or even a senior colleague in your department.

Go to the Web of Science Academy

Peer review templates

Peer review templates are helpful to use as you work your way through a manuscript. As part of our free Web of Science Academy courses, you’ll gain exclusive access to comprehensive guidelines and a peer review report. It offers points to consider for all aspects of the manuscript, including the abstract, methods and results sections. It also teaches you how to structure your review and will get you thinking about the overall strengths and impact of the paper at hand.

• Web of Science Academy template (requires joining one of the free courses)
• PLoS’s review template
• Wiley’s peer review guide (not a template as such, but a thorough guide with questions to consider in the first and second reading of the manuscript)

Beyond following a template, it’s worth asking your editor or checking the journal’s peer review management system. That way, you’ll learn whether you need to follow a formal or specific peer review structure for that particular journal. If no such formal approach exists, try asking the editor for examples of other reviews performed for the journal. This will give you a solid understanding of what they expect from you.

Peer review examples

Understand what a constructive peer review looks like by learning from the experts.

Here’s a sample of pre and post-publication peer reviews displayed on Web of Science publication records to help guide you through your first few reviews. Some of these are transparent peer reviews , which means the entire process is open and visible — from initial review and response through to revision and final publication decision. You may wish to scroll to the bottom of these pages so you can first read the initial reviews, and make your way up the page to read the editor and author’s responses.

• Pre-publication peer review: Patterns and mechanisms in instances of endosymbiont-induced parthenogenesis
• Pre-publication peer review: Can Ciprofloxacin be Used for Precision Treatment of Gonorrhea in Public STD Clinics? Assessment of Ciprofloxacin Susceptibility and an Opportunity for Point-of-Care Testing
• Transparent peer review: Towards a standard model of musical improvisation
• Transparent peer review: Complex mosaic of sexual dichromatism and monochromatism in Pacific robins results from both gains and losses of elaborate coloration
• Post-publication peer review: Brain state monitoring for the future prediction of migraine attacks
• Web of Science Academy peer review: Students’ Perception on Training in Writing Research Article for Publication

F1000 has also put together a nice list of expert reviewer comments pertaining to the various aspects of a review report.

Co-reviewing

Co-reviewing (sharing peer review assignments with senior researchers) is one of the best ways to learn peer review. It gives researchers a hands-on, practical understanding of the process.

In an article in The Scientist , the team at Future of Research argues that co-reviewing can be a valuable learning experience for peer review, as long as it’s done properly and with transparency. The reason there’s a need to call out how co-reviewing works is because it does have its downsides. The practice can leave early-career researchers unaware of the core concepts of peer review. This can make it hard to later join an editor’s reviewer pool if they haven’t received adequate recognition for their share of the review work. (If you are asked to write a peer review on behalf of a senior colleague or researcher, get recognition for your efforts by asking your senior colleague to verify the collaborative co-review on your Web of Science researcher profiles).

The Web of Science Academy course ‘Co-reviewing with a mentor’ is uniquely practical in this sense. You will gain experience in peer review by practicing on real papers and working with a mentor to get feedback on how their peer review can be improved. Students submit their peer review report as their course assignment and after internal evaluation receive a course certificate, an Academy graduate badge on their Web of Science researcher profile and is put in front of top editors in their field through the Reviewer Locator at Clarivate.

Here are some external peer review resources found around the web:

• Peer Review Resources from Sense about Science
• Peer Review: The Nuts and Bolts by Sense about Science
• How to review journal manuscripts by R. M. Rosenfeld for Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
• Ethical guidelines for peer review from COPE
• An Instructional Guide for Peer Reviewers of Biomedical Manuscripts by Callaham, Schriger & Cooper for Annals of Emergency Medicine (requires Flash or Adobe)
• EQUATOR Network’s reporting guidelines for health researchers

And finally, we’ve written a number of blogs about handy peer review tips. Check out some of our top picks:

• How to Write a Peer Review: 12 things you need to know
• Want To Peer Review? Top 10 Tips To Get Noticed By Editors
• Review a manuscript like a pro: 6 tips from a Web of Science Academy supervisor
• How to write a structured reviewer report: 5 tips from an early-career researcher

Want to learn more? Become a master of peer review and connect with top journal editors. The Web of Science Academy – your free online hub of courses designed by expert reviewers, editors and Nobel Prize winners. Find out more today.

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Top Peer Review Sites for Market Researchers

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Knowing where to turn when you need more information is often the hardest part of finding that information. There are so many opinions and recommendations out there, who can you trust?

Because you might not know Alchemer, we didn’t just draw up a list of sites where we scored well (even though we did score well most everywhere). Instead, we turned to our market-research customers to find out where they turn for advice and information. Only seven of the most popular sources for advice are peer review sites, so let’s look at those.

Gartner Peer Insights

Financesonline, sourceforge, software advice.

Each site offers something different and consequently is frequented by different kinds of people. Additionally, it’s good to know the ownership structure. G2.com (formerly G2 Crowd) is independently owned, as is FinancesOnline. SourceForge is owned by Slashdot Media, which also owns Slashdot.org and several smaller review sites. Gartner owns Gartner Peer Insights and Gartner Digital Markets, which includes Capterra , GetApp , and Software Advice . Understanding that Gartner holds those peer review sites shows how each site is targeted at a specific market.

The Analysis

All five sites present the opportunity to compare solutions. However, the proficiency of the peers reviewing on the site can affect how each site rates the solutions. Gartner Peer Insights is connected with Gartner Research and their famous Gartner Magic Quadrant. They place Survey Software in the Voice of the Customer group.

Seasoned market researchers also migrate to Capterra and G2 to find new solutions when they’ve outgrown or become dissatisfied with their current solutions. If you are looking for peer reviews for an enterprise-class solution or one that can scale up to large enterprise installations, these sites are very popular.

FinancesOnline combines an expert analysis of solutions combined with peer reviews. Since the experts review the different software in a category, they have the advantage of seeing the best in each solution. When you combine this with peer reviews, you get a well-rounded approach that is well received in the market.

SourceForge and GetApp are more aligned with small and medium-sized businesses, especially those looking for new solutions. This is a great place to find peers who are looking for specific solutions to a need. SourceForge tends to have more of a do-it-yourself and technical audience since the site’s roots are in open-source software.

Software Advice is particularly good if you’re not sure what you need in a specific solution because you can get on a call with a consultant who talks with you about your needs and then helps you find the best solution.

If you’re looking for what market researchers find most important in a solution, read The 2022 Buyer’s Guide to Market Research Software . This will help you frame how you look at the different review sites.

Here are some examples of the kind of reviews you can expect.

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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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The 8 Best Open Access Journal Sites for Students

These sites provide credible research papers on a wide variety of subjects. Better yet, it's all free!

If you're a student, you know how important it is to cite your sources when making an argument. And to do so, you turn to no other than scholarly journals, which are basically physical or digital books that collect written works from experts in different fields.

Thanks to technology, there are a wealth of well-reputed scholarly journals on the internet for our perusal. However, due to intellectual property laws, many of them charge expensive fees.

Because of this, many nonprofit organizations have begun launching free, open access journal websites for the benefit of students and the general public.

What Are Open Access Journals?

Open access journals, as the name suggests, are websites where users are able to access scholarly articles and research papers for free. They are an immensely helpful source for individuals and groups who need to search for reliable academic information but are unable to pay for it.

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best open access journals for you to expand your knowledge on different disciplines.

1. Elsevier

With over 140 years of serving the scientific community, open access journals on Elsevier are known to be highly credible and widely cited.

Journals on Elsevier cover just about any area of science and medicine you can think of, including cardiology, anesthesiology, infectious diseases, and even soil mechanics.

The open access journals also have English translations of scientific publications from around the world, including Spain, Brazil, China, and Saudi Arabia.

To get started on Elsevier, simply navigate to its open access website, and search for journals that are marked as Gold open access . Keep in mind that journals with  Green open access  labels are subscription journals that you need to pay for.

2. SAGE Open

SAGE is another well-established journal publisher in academia. Its open access website promises to deliver studies that adhere to the most rigorous peer-review standards for researchers, students, and the general public.

Because of the pandemic, SAGE has also made all COVID-19-related studies free to read and download. In the social sciences, the Black Lives Matter movement has also made publications about structural racism and police violence on SAGE available for free.

Similar to Elsevier, SAGE’s open access journals on the site are marked as Gold .

3. SpringerOpen

Launched in 2010, SpringerOpen has since gained a reputation as one of the most reputable open access journals in academia. The organization invites professionals from all fields of science, technology, the humanities, and the social sciences to submit research papers to raise awareness on different issues in society.

In addition to open access journals, SpringerOpen also runs a blog where you can read about the latest interviews, insights, and analyses with researchers and editors from Springer.

If you are still not sure about what kinds of sources you are looking for, don't fret. SpringerOpen has a search engine called the Journal Suggester that will recommend suitable scholarly articles. This personalized approach makes Springer the more user-friendly selection on the list.

4. BioMed Central

BioMed Central’s (BMC) online journals have been open access since 1999. The publication is owned by Springer Nature, which also runs SpringerOpen.

Some of BMC’s most well-known publications include BMC Biology and BMC Medicine. So if you’re looking for information related to either of those fields, don’t forget to check out BMC.

BMC is also a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics, a UK charity organization that promotes integrity in scholarly research. With its history and affiliations, data obtained from BMC is reputable, so you don’t have to worry about spreading false information.

5. Royal Society Open Science

As its name clearly states, the Royal Society Open Science is an open access journal published by the Royal Society in the UK, the world’s oldest and perhaps most renowned independent scientific academy.

With that reputation alone, you can be sure that the quality of its research papers is top-notch. Its editorial team is also comprised of some of the best scientists in the field. The Royal Society Open Source publishes peer-reviewed content from a wide range of disciplines, including life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer sciences.

Research papers put out by the Royal Society Open Science are also regularly covered by mainstream news outlets, including BBC and CNN.

If you are a humanities student, especially an English major, consider JSTOR your savior. JSTOR is one of the best humanities-focused publications in academia, and by popular demand, it has now made many of its scholarly journals open access.

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Besides English, open access titles on JSTOR are available in Spanish, thanks to its partnership with El Colegio de Mexico and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

If you are a liberal arts student, get excited, because JSTOR also has a sister site called Artstor . Artstor has a collection of over 1.3 million images, videos, documents, and audio files from museums for you to download for free.

And as if that is not enough, JSTOR also has a section dedicated to  Early Journal Content . This makes articles published before 1923 in the US (and before 1870 everywhere else in the world) available for free.

7. MDPI Humanities

Here’s another Humanities-focused journal for students of the liberal arts.

MDPI is a publisher of open access journals based in Basel, Switzerland. It has an extensive worldwide network of over 67,000 editors working on 297 diverse, peer-reviewed journals.

Humanities is an online publication and is released quarterly. From film studies to linguistics and literature, you can find almost any research paper on different areas in the humanities and social sciences.

Aside from its quarterly journals, the website also has regular announcements about humanities-related conferences happening all around the world. If you’d like to receive new editions of the journal every quarter, you can also sign up for email alerts on the website.

8. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

If you're still unable to find what you're looking for from the above websites, why not try the DOAJ?

Think of the DOAJ as an alternative to Google Scholar. It's essentially a search engine that allows you to look up over 15,000 open access journals on the internet. Unlike other specialized publications on this list, journals on DOAJ cover all areas, in all disciplines. Journals in different languages from around the world can also be found on the site.

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The DOAJ is a 100 percent not-for-profit website, and its journal review process is supported by hundreds of passionate editorial staff, all of whom are volunteers.

Taking Advantage of Open Access Journals

Open access journals are probably the best sources of legitimate, reliable, and evidence-backed information on the internet.

The next time you’re completing an important assignment, don’t forget to browse these websites to locate the best scholarly journals to lend extra credibility to your argument.

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Effective Peer Review: Who, Where, or What?

Peer review is widely viewed as one of the most critical elements in assuring the integrity of scientific literature ( Baldwin, 2018 ; Smith, 2006 ). Despite the widespread acceptance and utilization of peer review, many difficulties with the process have been identified ( Hames, 2014 ; Horrobin, 2001 ; Smith, 2006 ). One of the primary goals of the peer review process is to identify flaws in the work and, by so doing, help editors choose which manuscripts to publish. It is surprising that one of the persistent problems in peer review is assessing the quality of the reviews. Both authors and journal editors expect peer review to detect errors in experimental design and methodology and to ensure that the interpretation of the findings is presented in an objective and thoughtful manner. In traditional peer review, two or more reviewers are asked to evaluate a manuscript on the basis of the expectation that if the two reviewers agree on the quality of the submission, the likelihood of a high-quality review is increased. Unfortunately, studies have not consistently confirmed a high degree of agreement among reviewers. Rothwell and Martynn (2000) evaluated the reproducibility of peer review in neuroscience journals and meeting abstracts and found that agreement was approximately what would be expected by chance. Similarly, Scharschmidt et al. (1994) found similar results in the evaluation of 1,000 manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Clinical Investigation, where clustering of grades in the middle resulted in an agreement being “…only marginally…” better than chance. These observations suggest that we cannot rely on the agreement of reviewers to be an indication of the quality of the reviews. Another potential way to evaluate the quality of reviews would be to assess the ability of reviewers to detect errors in submissions. It is generally accepted that detection of intentional fraud is beyond the scope of typical peer review, but we do expect reviewers to detect major and minor errors as a primary function of the traditional peer review system ( Hwang, 2006 ; Weissman, 2006 ). Schroter et al. (2008) evaluated the ability of reviewers to detect major and minor errors by introducing errors into three previously published papers describing randomized controlled clinical trials. Reviewers detected approximately three of the nine errors introduced in each manuscript. Unfortunately, reviewers who had undergone training in how to conduct a high-quality peer review were not significantly better than untrained reviewers. Similar results have been reported by Godlee et al. (1998) and Baxt et al. (1998) . Baxt et al. (1998) did report that reviewers who rejected or suggested revision of a manuscript identified more errors than those who accepted the manuscript (decision: 17.3% of major errors detected [accept], 29.6% of major errors detected [revise], and 39.1% of major errors detected [reject]). It is almost certainly true that the extent of the failure to recognize errors in submitted manuscripts may differ among scientific disciplines and journals. It also however seems likely that these observations do have some applicability to journals such as JID Innovations . It is critical that both authors and editors are cognizant of these limitations of peer review in their assessment of reviews. These findings compel journals to continue to work to develop new strategies to train and evaluate reviewers. The findings also suggest that factors beyond the failure to detect objective mistakes in a manuscript may be playing a role in the discrepancy in reviewers’ evaluations. One area of ongoing concern in the peer review process is the role of reviewer bias in assessing the scientific work of colleagues ( Kuehn, 2017 ; Lee et al, 2013 ; Tvina et al, 2019 ).

Bias in the peer review process can take many forms, including collaborator/competitor bias, affiliation bias based on an investigator’s institution or department, geographical bias based on the region or country of origin, racial bias, and gender or sex bias ( Kuehn, 2017 ; Lee et al, 2013 ; Tvina et al, 2019 ). All of these forms of bias present the risk that a decision of the reviewer will not be based solely on the quality or merit of the work but rather be influenced by a bias of the reviewer. We and other journals routinely seek to avoid selecting individuals to review work from their own institutions and ask all reviewers to declare any potential personal conflicts of interest. All these methods require either the editor or the reviewer to identify a bias and fail to address the issue of implicit or unconscious reviewer bias. The dominant method currently utilized for peer review is the so-called single-blind review, in which the identity and affiliations of the authors are known to the reviewers, whereas the identity of reviewers remains unknown to the authors. This has led to concern that knowledge of the identity of the authors and their institutions may be the source of significant reviewer bias, especially implicit bias, in the evaluation of manuscripts. Double anonymized peer review (DAPR), also known as double-blind peer review, has been suggested as a way to address this issue ( Bazi, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2013 ). Studies have compared single-blind with double-blind reviewing and reported that there is no significant difference in the quality of the reviews ( Alam et al, 2011 ; Godlee et al, 1998 ; Justice et al, 1998 ; van Rooyen et al, 1998 ). Although these studies looked at measures such as the number of errors detected, acceptance rate, and distribution of initial reviewer scores, they were not designed to address specific sources of bias such as authors’ gender, institution, or geographic location. Other studies have been undertaken to directly address the issue of bias in the peer review process. Ross et al (2006) compared the acceptance of abstracts submitted to the American Heart Association’s annual scientific meeting during a period when the reviewers knew the identity and origin of the authors (i.e., single-blind review) with when this information was not known by the reviewers (i.e., double-anonymized peer review). They found a significant increase in acceptance of non‒United States abstracts and abstracts from non-English speaking countries when the reviewers were unaware of the country of origin of the abstracts ( Ross et al, 2006 ). They also found a significant decrease in the acceptance of abstracts from prestigious institutions when the reviewers were unaware of the institutions where the work was done. In a similar study, Tomkins et al. (2017) found that papers submitted to a prestigious computer science meeting were more likely to be accepted if they were from famous authors, top universities, and top companies. Okike et al. (2016) documented similar results for manuscripts submitted to the orthopedic literature. They submitted a fabricated manuscript that was presented as being written by two prominent orthopedic surgeons (past Presidents of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) from prestigious institutions. When reviewed in the traditional single-blind fashion, which included the identity of the authors, the manuscript was accepted by 87% of the reviewers. By contrast, when the identity of the authors was unknown, the manuscript was accepted by 68% of the reviewers ( P  = 0.02) ( Blank, 1991 ). A study conducted at The American Economic Review found that authors at near-top-ranked universities experienced lower acceptance rates when authorship was anonymized ( Blank, 1991 ). Of interest, they also found that for women, there was no difference in the acceptance rate between the double-anonymized and single-blinded reviews; however, for men, the acceptance rate was lower with double-anonymized reviews.

These studies provide strong evidence that knowledge of who and where the study was performed can impact the acceptance of abstracts and manuscripts. This conflicts with the goal of the review process to base our judgments on the quality of what the results demonstrate. It is difficult to estimate how much this may affect the fate of a manuscript at JID Innovations . We do not have evidence that our review process has been impacted by bias as is reported in the studies discussed. However, neither can we state with certainty that such bias is not a factor in the reviews we receive. One of the goals of JID Innovations is to be a truly open-access journal available to all investigators in skin science from around the world. We have sought to be an outlet for studies that challenge existing paradigms or that may report negative results. We want to be seen as providing fair and objective reviews for all authors, regardless of where they work or who they are. If we are to achieve this goal, it is imperative that the who and where of a specific manuscript do not negatively impact the evaluation of the what. We want young investigators, investigators at less prestigious institutions or from less well-known laboratories, and investigators from any country around the world to be confident that their work will be judged by what they report and not by the who and the where.

To be true to this mission, JID Innovations will be initiating DAPR starting in October 2022. This is not being done because we are aware of any issues of bias with our current process of peer review but because we realize that the absence of proof is not proof of absence. As a part of this process, authors will be asked to remove identifying material from manuscripts at the time of submission in preparation for the review process ( https://www.jidinnovations.org/content/authorinfo ). As a result, primary reviewers will see only the what of the manuscript. We realize that this process involves extra work for both the authors and our staff, but we feel the benefits will outweigh this small cost. Indeed, in other journals that have taken this step, surveys have shown that both authors and reviewers ultimately prefer double-anonymized reviews ( Bennett et al, 2018 ; Moylan et al, 2014 ). We realize that achieving 100% anonymization of a manuscript is nearly impossible. Studies have shown that the rate of successful anonymizing, where the reviewers cannot discern the authorship of a manuscript, ranged from 47 to 73%. It is however interesting that even with this rate of success in the anonymizing process, a meta-analysis of trials of double- versus that of single-blind peer review has suggested an impact, with lower acceptance rates with double-anonymized peer review ( Ucci et al, 2022 ). More work clearly needs to be done to assess the value of the DAPR process, and we will be monitoring our results carefully.

The institution of DAPR in JID Innovations will assure our authors that the what of their manuscript is our focus. It does not matter who you are or where you are from. It will also emphasize to our reviewers that our focus is on the what. We will be carefully monitoring the results of this new policy and plan to report back on our experience. We also welcome your feedback on your experience as a reviewer and author for JID Innovations ; send your comments to us at [email protected] .

Finally, this decision should be seen not as the end of our efforts to improve the peer review process but merely as a first step. We will continue to work to improve all aspects of the peer review process for JID Innovations . We firmly believe that the use of double-blind -anonymized peer review will bring us closer to ensuring to our authors and readers that the work that is published by JID Innovations has been selected on the basis of what the paper reports and not on who performed the studies or where they were located.

Conflict of Interest

The author states no conflicts of interest.

• Alam M., Kim N.A., Havey J., Rademaker A., Ratner D., Tregre B., et al. Blinded vs. unblinded peer review of manuscripts submitted to a dermatology journal: a randomized multi-rater study. Br J Dermatol. 2011; 165 563‒7. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
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Facilitating Digital Peer Review

Main navigation.

There are a lot of different ways to facilitate peer review and the ubiquity of online commenting and composing tools gives users yet another option for conducting peer review work. Asking students to conduct peer review on hard paper copies is one of the most common ways of encouraging students to do peer review, but a number of digital tools can make the peer review process more streamlined. This page will lay out some of the options for conducting peer review digitally, weighing the pros and cons of each approach.

Why Conduct Peer Review Digitally?

Accessibility.

When peer review is conducted via paper, it does not allow students the flexibility to re-size font sizes or colors; the document is static. When conducting peer review digitally, students have more options for viewing documents in ways that may better suit their ways of thinking and reading. Further, not all students can read each other's handwriting effectively; typed text is clearer and easier for other students to read and process. Because increasing numbers of students also type and write digitally on a regular basis, it is also physically less demanding for many students to write extensive comments in typed text rather than via handwriting.

Room for extensive feedback 

When students are constrained to a limited space, they may not feel incentivized to offer clear, extensive, and legible feedback. Digital spaces gives students a lot of room to unpack comments.

Ease of archiving exchanges

It can be easy for students and instructors alike to lose pieces of paper! Archiving peer review work digitally allows everyone to maintain a clear paper trail of feedback given and received so it's easy to see which comments to which students chose to respond.

Promoting digital literacy  

The more experience that students have offering feedback in digital spaces, the more comfortable they'll become if, in future school or work contexts, they are asked to give feedback in a digital space.

Available Tools for Facilitating Digital Peer Review

Description .

The peer review tool in Canvas, our campus' learning management system, allows students to comment on their peers' papers, give marginal feedback, give summative comments, and complete rubrics. The instructor sets up the Canvas peer review tool via Assignments (see the Canvas Help Center guide for more information on  how to create a peer review assignment ) and then assigns students into groups to allow students to view work submitted to Canvas assignments. Once a student has been assigned to read their peers' papers, they use Canvas' PDF editing tool to give comments on the paper itself. They will also be able to add comments via a comments box on the side bar. If an instructor wants a student to fill out a specific rubric, the instructor can attach a rubric to the assignment, which students can fill out, or the instructor can create a rubric within  Canvas' Outcomes tool . 

Advantages to Using Canvas

Using one centralized tool for managing class activities is generally a best practice in digital teaching and learning. Students tend to prefer going to one place to find all of their class activities. Canvas' tool also includes robust commenting features that allow students to highlight, underline, and comment on features of their peers' texts. By using Canvas, students can also find their students' peer review comments more easily so that all of their drafts are in one unified place. Canvas' interface also makes it easy for students to exchange papers without running the risk of errors.

Disadvantages to Using Canvas

In Canvas, students can only engage in a one-to-one exchange; within a peer review group, students cannot see their peers' comments on different papers. Rather, they can also see the comments they give and the comments that they receive. Therefore, if instructors want students to work as a full group - commenting on each other's comments - then Canvas will not be the right tool to facilitate that process. In addition, on the instructor end, setting up peer review can feel a little confusing since it has to be done through the Assignments feature.

Google Docs

Description.

Google Docs is a collaborative writing platform where students can comment on each other's work online. Google Docs has largely the same functionality as a word processor, but with the advantages of allowing students to work on documents collaboratively in real time. With rigorous version control tools that allow students to track revisions by different users over time, Google Docs allows students to quickly see how their paper is getting revised by their peers. Students can offer both comments in the margins and offer a marginal end note. While no rubric tool is built into Google Docs, instructors can create a separate document for students to complete a required rubric.

Advantages to using Google Docs 

Google Docs offers users a lot of flexibility for commenting on student work and is the most collaborative tool available since it allows users to see each other's comments and work together in real time. Google Docs' commenting tools are also quite robust; students can make a variety of changes. Plus, Stanford students all have access to a Google Drive account, so it is likely that students use Google Docs in other class contexts and may have some familiarity with how the tool works already, eliminating the need to offer much technical orientation.

Disadvantages to using Google Docs 

The privacy and visibility settings in Google Docs can be confusing to students; they will need to make sure that they've shared their docs in a way that will allow peer reviewers both to see and edit the document. Further, as a third party tool, students will need to navigate outside of the course management system to access it. Google Docs' comments can also be challenging to download since the format of the documents is meant to be viewed on the screen.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processing tools for writers to use and it offers robust commenting tools. For example, students can write comments in the margin of the paper or write summative comments at the end of the paper. Microsoft Word is not a free program, but with their Stanford accounts, students  can install the Microsoft Office suite for free.

Advantages to using Microsoft Word 

The Microsoft word interface is basically a digitized version of a hard copy, so it has the advantages of looking visually familiar to students who are accustomed to printed peer review. The commenting tools are clear and will help students easily archive and keep track of comments and changes to their essays.

Disadvantages to using Microsoft Word

Like Canvas, Microsoft Word mostly facilitates one-to-one exchanges. While students could send each other versions of their papers with peers' comments, this process can be a bit cumbersome because it requires that students upload new versions of their documents every time that another person contributes to the conversation. Further, Microsoft Word documents can be easy to lose track of precisely because they are not stored in the cloud and cannot be commented on in real time.

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100 Best Websites to Find Research Articles, Papers & Journals

In the vast landscape of digital information, access to credible academic resources is indispensable for the curious mind. Navigating through a myriad of websites to find scholarly journals, articles, and books can be a daunting task. To aid in this quest for knowledge, we’ve curated a list of the top 100 websites renowned for their repository of academic treasures . These platforms serve as indispensable tools for researchers, students, and enthusiasts seeking reputable and diverse scholarly materials. From comprehensive databases to user-friendly interfaces, each website stands as a testament to the democratization of education and the evolution of digital learning.

Join us on this expedition through the virtual libraries that serve as gateways to a world of intellectual richness and exploration.

1. Google Scholar

As a widely-used academic search engine, Google Scholar provides access to scholarly articles, theses, books, and conference papers across various disciplines. Its user-friendly interface allows researchers to explore a vast database of scholarly literature, offering citations, abstracts, and sometimes even full-text access. Its citation tracking feature enables scholars to follow research trends and connect with related publications. With its comprehensive coverage and indexing of academic sources, Google Scholar is an indispensable tool for academics, students, and researchers seeking reliable and diverse scholarly content.

2. ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is a comprehensive platform offering access to a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books across various scientific disciplines. With a user-friendly interface, it provides researchers and students with a plethora of scholarly resources in fields like science, technology, medicine, and social sciences. ScienceDirect grants access to a multitude of peer-reviewed journals, research articles, book chapters, and reference works. Its advanced search functionalities and intuitive navigation streamline the process of locating relevant literature for academic pursuits.

3. ReaserchGate

As a prominent academic networking platform, ResearchGate fosters collaboration among researchers globally. Offering access to a vast repository of academic journals, articles, and books across disciplines, it serves as a hub for scholarly communication. Researchers can connect, share findings, and access a diverse range of publications, facilitating knowledge exchange and collaborative efforts in advancing scientific endeavors.

4. Springerlink

SpringerLink stands as a prominent platform for accessing academic journals, books, and reference works across disciplines such as science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences. Offering a vast collection of peer-reviewed content from renowned publishers, SpringerLink provides access to high-quality research articles, book chapters, and reference materials. Its user-friendly interface facilitates easy navigation and searchability, making it a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and students seeking in-depth academic literature and cutting-edge research in various fields.

VET-Bib serves as a specialized repository for veterinary science-related literature, catering to professionals, researchers, and students in the field. This platform offers a curated collection of academic journals, articles, and books specific to veterinary medicine, animal health, and related disciplines. VET-Bib facilitates access to a diverse range of scholarly resources, including research papers, clinical studies, textbooks, and reports, contributing significantly to advancements in veterinary sciences.

6. Academia.edu

Academia.edu is a social networking platform designed for academics to share and access scholarly papers, articles, and research. It allows researchers to create profiles, upload their work, and connect with peers worldwide, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange. Users can explore a wide range of academic disciplines, access papers, follow scholars, and track research interests. Academia.edu serves as a hub for disseminating research, accessing scholarly content, and networking within the academic community.

7. arXiv.org e-Print Archive

arXiv.org is a preprint repository primarily focused on physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. It hosts a vast collection of research papers, providing early access to cutting-edge findings before formal publication. Researchers worldwide contribute to arXiv, sharing their work and enabling the dissemination of crucial discoveries within these disciplines. Its open-access nature encourages collaboration, facilitates rapid dissemination of research, and serves as a vital resource for scholars and students alike.

8. Astrophysics Data System

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) stands as an authoritative digital library providing access to a wealth of literature in astrophysics, astronomy, and related sciences. ADS serves as a comprehensive platform offering academic journals, articles, conference proceedings, and data sets relevant to the field. Its sophisticated search tools enable researchers to explore astronomical literature, access preprints, and gather valuable resources for their scholarly inquiries.

9. Google Books

Google Books offers an extensive and diverse collection of digitized books, providing access to a wide range of academic literature across multiple disciplines. While not exclusively academic, Google Books encompasses a significant repository of scholarly works, allowing users to preview, purchase, or access full texts of books relevant to their research. Its search feature allows users to explore content, view excerpts, and locate academic publications, making it a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and students.

10. ProQuest

An extensive digital library offering access to a vast array of scholarly journals, articles, and books across multiple disciplines. ProQuest’s user-friendly platform facilitates research, providing comprehensive resources for academics, researchers, and students worldwide. With diverse content, including historical archives, current publications, and multimedia resources, it’s a go-to destination for in-depth exploration and reliable sources.

11. Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)

ERIC is a comprehensive platform offering an array of educational resources, research articles, and publications. It specializes in curating scholarly content related to education, spanning diverse topics from early childhood to higher education. ERIC acts as a centralized hub for educators, researchers, and policymakers, providing access to peer-reviewed articles, reports, and conference papers. With its extensive database, ERIC facilitates exploration and dissemination of knowledge, fostering advancements in educational practices and policies.

12. Microsoft Academic Search

Microsoft Academic Search is a dynamic platform dedicated to facilitating academic exploration and research discovery. Leveraging advanced algorithms and vast data sets, it offers a user-friendly interface to access scholarly articles, publications, and citations across various disciplines. This tool provides in-depth search functionalities, citation analysis, and semantic understanding, empowering researchers to navigate through a plethora of academic resources. Microsoft Academic Search encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovative scholarly pursuits by offering a robust platform for academic exploration.

13. Oxford Academic Journals Search

Oxford Academic Journals Search is a prestigious repository hosting a wide spectrum of scholarly articles and publications across multiple disciplines. Renowned for its high-quality content and authoritative contributions, it serves as a gateway to scholarly excellence. This platform offers access to esteemed journals published by Oxford University Press, encompassing diverse fields such as humanities, social sciences, science, and medicine. With its rigorous peer-review process and rich historical archive, Oxford Academic Journals Search fosters academic inquiry, knowledge dissemination, and intellectual discourse.

JSTOR is a revered digital library providing access to an extensive collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Catering to researchers, students, and scholars worldwide, JSTOR archives scholarly content across various disciplines, including arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Known for its archival depth and user-friendly interface, JSTOR grants access to a wealth of peer-reviewed articles, books, and research materials. Its comprehensive database and interdisciplinary approach facilitate scholarly research, critical analysis, and the exploration of historical and contemporary academic literature. JSTOR remains a vital resource for academic pursuits and intellectual discovery.

15. Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Behavioral and Brain Sciences is a prestigious academic journal that publishes target articles and commentary on significant and controversial topics in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and related fields. Recognized for its unique format, BBS publishes comprehensive articles accompanied by multiple commentaries from experts in the field, fostering in-depth discussions and debates on key issues. This journal serves as a platform for rigorous scientific discourse, shaping the direction of research and theory development in behavioral and brain sciences.

16. PubChem

Operated by the NCBI, PubChem stands as an extensive chemical database, offering insights into compound properties, structures, and biological activities. Its collection includes scientific articles, journals, and books relevant to chemistry, pharmacology, and life sciences. Researchers benefit from its comprehensive information on chemical compounds, aiding in drug discovery, bioinformatics, and chemical research.

PubMed serves as a comprehensive resource for accessing biomedical literature. With millions of articles from various fields like medicine, biology, and health sciences, it provides researchers, healthcare professionals, and students with a vast repository of peer-reviewed articles. Its user-friendly interface allows easy navigation through research articles, clinical studies, and reviews, making it an invaluable tool for staying updated on the latest advancements in healthcare and life sciences.

18. CiteSeerX

CiteSxeerX project is funded by the National Science Foundation, is a public integrated digital library, database, and search engine for scientific papers in chemistry. The goal of this project is to develop an intelligent search and database that provides easy access to relevant data for diverse community of users who need for chemical information.

19. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an academic search engine that utilizes artificial intelligence methods to provide highly relevant results for journal articles. It is designed to quickly highlight the most important papers and identify the connections between them. It currently includes on computer science and biomedical publications.

20. Web of Science

Web of Science is an online subscription-based scientific citation indexing service that provides a comprehensive citation search. It gives access to multiple databases that reference cross-disciplinary research allowing in-depth exploration of specialized sub-fields within an academic or scientific discipline.

21. Analytical Abstracts

Analytical Abstracts is a literature updating service that keeps researchers and students informed of the latest developments in analytical science. It includes details of the most relevant literature presented as individual records that are easily searchable by analyte, matrix, technique and subject area.

22. Merck Index

The Merck Index is a revered compendium of chemical compounds, providing in-depth information on their properties, structures, and uses. Widely used by chemists, researchers, and students, it offers a wealth of data on chemicals, drugs, and biological substances. With over 11,000 monographs featuring precise details, including synthesis pathways and safety information, it remains an indispensable reference for understanding and researching chemical compounds and their applications.

23. MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus is an online information service created by the United States National Library of Medicine. The service provides curated consumer health information and brings together information from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations.

24. Agricola

Agricola is a bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library. The database indexes a wide variety of publications covering agriculture and its allied fields, including, animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture, fisheries, and many more.

25. AGRIS: Agricultural Database

AGRIS is a global public domain database with more than 8 million structured bibliographical records on agricultural science and technology. The AGRIS Search system allows scientists, researchers to perform sophisticated searches using keywords, journal titles or names of countries, institutions, and authors.

26. WorldCat

WorldCat stands as a vast catalog of library collections worldwide, encompassing books, journals, multimedia materials, and more. It facilitates access to resources held in numerous libraries globally, allowing users to locate and borrow items beyond their local collection. Its extensive database aids researchers, scholars, and enthusiasts in discovering a broad range of academic resources, fostering collaborative research and access to diverse perspectives across various subjects and disciplines.

27. IOPscience

IOPscience serves as a leading platform for accessing scientific content in physics, engineering, and related disciplines. Hosting journals, conference proceedings, and magazines published by the Institute of Physics, it offers a trove of high-quality research articles, reviews, and cutting-edge studies. Researchers and academics benefit from its authoritative content, advanced search features, and access to vital information shaping the forefront of scientific exploration and technological advancements.

28. PLOS ONE

PLOS ONE stands as an open-access, peer-reviewed journal publishing multidisciplinary scientific research. It houses a vast repository of articles across various scientific disciplines, fostering accessibility and collaboration within the academic community. Known for its rigorous review process and commitment to transparency, PLOS ONE promotes diverse research findings and encourages innovation in scientific exploration.

A comprehensive abstract and citation database catering to scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences. Scopus offers access to an extensive collection of peer-reviewed literature, providing researchers and institutions with powerful tools for tracking, analyzing, and visualizing research trends and data. Its vast coverage and analytical features make it a vital resource in the academic community.

30. Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database

The Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database provides extensive coverage of advanced technology literature. It features over 26 million A&I records and more than 250 full-text titles that date back to 1962. Its topics cover aeronautics, communications, computer and IT, electronics, lasers, space sciences, telecommunications and many more.

31. Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals (AULIMP)

AULIMP specializes in curating military-centric literature, indexing journals, periodicals, and articles vital to military studies and defense. Catering to scholars, military personnel, and historians, it provides a wealth of resources covering military history, strategy, technology, and policy analysis, aiding in comprehensive research within the defense domain.

32. ACM Digital Library

Geared towards computing professionals, the ACM Digital Library hosts an extensive collection of journals, conference proceedings, and books in computer science and related fields. It offers a rich repository of cutting-edge research, enabling access to pivotal works and fostering innovation and advancement in the realm of technology and computing.

33. Project MUSE

Project MUSE offers a comprehensive digital collection of scholarly journals and books in humanities and social sciences. Recognized for its extensive coverage and user-friendly interface, it provides access to high-quality content from reputable publishers and institutions worldwide. With a focus on academic excellence, Project MUSE supports research, learning, and intellectual discovery.

34. Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory

Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory serves as an authoritative resource for information on academic journals, magazines, and other periodicals. It offers detailed bibliographic data, including publication details, peer-review status, and indexing information. Widely used by researchers, librarians, and institutions, Ulrich’s facilitates the identification and evaluation of publications, aiding in academic research and scholarly communication.

35. OAIster Database

OAIster functions as a global aggregator, collating digital resources from diverse libraries worldwide. With access to academic content spanning journals, theses, and books sourced from various repositories and institutions, it provides a comprehensive search platform across disciplines, aiding researchers in accessing a wide array of scholarly materials.

36. Beilstein Database

A renowned resource in organic chemistry, Beilstein Database aggregates exhaustive data on organic compounds, providing critical information on their properties, reactions, and synthesis methods. Researchers access a plethora of peer-reviewed articles, journals, and books, empowering scientific exploration and innovation in chemical research and development.

37. Mendeley

Mendeley, a reference manager and academic social network, empowers researchers to organize, annotate, and collaborate on research papers and articles. Its user-friendly platform enables citation management, document sharing, and networking among scholars globally. With integrated features for discovery and collaboration, Mendeley streamlines the research process and supports scholarly communication.

38. Chinese Social Science Citation Index

Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) is an interdisciplinary citation index program in China. This citation database covers more than 500 Chinese academic journals of humanities and social sciences. Many Chinese universities and institutes use CSSCI as a basis for the evaluation of academic achievements and promotion.

39. Library of Congress

The Library of Congress offers an extensive collection of academic journals, articles, and books spanning diverse disciplines. As the largest library in the world, it provides access to unparalleled resources, including historical manuscripts, government publications, and research materials. With a vast digital repository, users can delve into scholarly literature, research papers, and educational resources, making it an indispensable hub for academic pursuits.

40. CiNii Articles

As a comprehensive Japanese academic database, CiNii Articles houses a diverse collection of scholarly articles, theses, and research papers spanning multiple disciplines. Drawing from Japanese academic institutions, it facilitates cross-disciplinary research, serving as a valuable resource for global knowledge dissemination.

41. PsycINFO

PsycINFO, curated by the American Psychological Association (APA), is a comprehensive database encompassing literature in psychology and related disciplines. It indexes scholarly journals, books, conference proceedings, and other resources, providing access to psychological research, behavioral sciences, and mental health literature. With its extensive coverage of peer-reviewed content, PsycINFO aids researchers, psychologists, educators, and students in accessing credible and relevant information, enabling informed analysis and understanding within the realm of psychology and associated fields.

42. Tisch Library – Journals and Articles

Tisch Library serves as a central academic resource hub at Tufts University, providing access to a vast collection of scholarly materials, including books, journals, databases, and multimedia resources. With expert librarians offering guidance and support, Tisch Library facilitates research and learning, offering access to diverse information sources and fostering a conducive environment for academic exploration.

43. OpenEdition.org

OpenEdition.org is a digital publishing platform dedicated to the humanities and social sciences. Hosting journals, books, and research content, it promotes open access to scholarly resources, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge dissemination. With a commitment to free access and innovative publishing models, OpenEdition.org facilitates academic exchange and contributes to the democratization of knowledge.

44. Digital Library Of The Commons Repository (DLC)

DLC is a comprehensive resource housing academic works on the commons, including scholarly articles, theses, and research papers. It curates a vast collection focused on topics like environmental studies, economics, and social sciences. Users access a wealth of resources supporting interdisciplinary research on communal resources, governance, and sustainability.

45. Arts & Humanities Citation Index

The Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a citation index, with abstracting and indexing for more than 1,700 arts and humanities journals, and coverage of disciplines that includes social and natural science journals. Its subjects cover arts, humanities, language, poetry, music, classical works, history, philosophy, architecture, religion, and many more.

46. Science Citation Index

An esteemed bibliographic database, Science Citation Index, meticulously indexes scientific literature across various disciplines. It enables researchers to navigate and explore scholarly articles based on citation connections, facilitating robust literature reviews and comprehensive insights into academic trends and advancements.

47. EurekaMag Biomedical Library

Focused on the biomedical field, EurekaMag offers an extensive repository of research articles, journals, and publications. Specializing in biological and medical sciences, this library provides a wealth of knowledge for professionals, researchers, and students. Its curated collection spans diverse subfields, offering valuable insights and updates within the biomedical domain.

48. CERN Document Server (CDS)

The CERN Document Server is the institutional repository that provides acquisition, search and collaborative tools to manage collections of documents produced at CERN. This includes HEP documents, multimedia documents, bulletins, administrative documents, EU project documents and many more.

49. Open Library

Open Library stands as a digital repository, granting free access to an impressive array of academic journals, articles, and books. Its open-source platform enables users to explore a wide spectrum of scholarly content, fostering global access to educational resources. With a user-friendly interface, it supports research endeavors by offering a comprehensive collection of materials, ranging from classic literature to contemporary academic publications.

50. Ei Compendex

A pivotal resource for engineers, Ei Compendex boasts an extensive engineering database comprising journals, conference proceedings, and articles. Covering a wide array of engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering, it serves as a gateway to cutting-edge research and advancements in the field.

Embase stands as a pivotal repository for biomedical research, housing a wide array of peer-reviewed journals, conference abstracts, and articles. Specializing in pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine, it aids medical professionals and researchers in accessing crucial information for evidence-based practice and scientific exploration.

52. IEEE Xplore

A paramount platform for engineering and technology, IEEE Xplore is a treasure trove of research papers, conference proceedings, and technical articles. It hosts a plethora of resources spanning electrical engineering, computer science, and related fields, fostering innovation and knowledge dissemination among professionals and academia.

53. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN serves as a leading platform for social sciences, offering a vast repository of preprints, working papers, and published articles. Embracing disciplines like economics, law, and humanities, SSRN facilitates scholarly collaboration and dissemination, fostering discussions and advancements in social science research.

54. The World Factbook – CIA

The World Factbook offers information on the people, history, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. It provides maps of the major world regions, flags of the World, political maps of the World, world oceans map as well as standard time zones of the world map.

55. Europe PMC

A comprehensive platform for accessing biomedical literature, Europe PMC hosts a vast repository of academic journals, articles, and books. It offers a user-friendly interface, allowing researchers to explore a wealth of scientific content, including full-text articles, abstracts, and research papers across various disciplines within the life sciences. With powerful search capabilities and access to funding information, Europe PMC facilitates efficient navigation through a diverse collection, supporting scholars, scientists, and healthcare professionals in their quest for credible and relevant academic resources.

56. National Diet Library

Serving as Japan’s national library, the National Diet Library provides a rich assortment of academic journals, articles, and books, reflecting the country’s cultural and scholarly heritage. It encompasses an extensive collection of publications, archives, and digital resources, catering not only to researchers and scholars but also to the general public. With its emphasis on Japanese history, culture, and scholarly works, the library offers a valuable repository, fostering academic exploration and knowledge dissemination on a national scale.

57. DBLP Computer Science Bibliography

Renowned in the field of computer science, DBLP stands as a comprehensive bibliographic database, meticulously curating academic journals, articles, and books within the realm of computing. Its meticulous indexing covers a wide array of topics, including algorithms, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. Researchers benefit from its organized and structured platform, facilitating easy access to authoritative publications, conference proceedings, and scholarly contributions, making it an indispensable resource for the computer science community worldwide.

58. National Archives Catalog

As a treasure trove of historical records and government documents, the National Archives Catalog preserves the rich tapestry of the United States’ history. It serves as a gateway to a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books, encompassing an extensive range of topics spanning politics, culture, and society. With its user-friendly interface and comprehensive search functionalities, researchers, historians, and the public can delve into primary sources, manuscripts, and official records, unraveling the nation’s past and shaping contemporary understanding.

59. University of Guelph Library

The University of Guelph Library stands as a comprehensive repository, offering an extensive collection of books, journals, and articles across diverse disciplines. It caters to the research and academic needs of students, faculty, and scholars, fostering a conducive environment for learning, exploration, and scholarly pursuits.

60. Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)

CAS is an online source of chemical information that provides many tools such as SciFinder and tagged keywords, summaries, indexes of disclosures and structures of compounds in recently published scientific documents. CAS has over 8,000 journals, technical reports, dissertations, conference proceedings available in different languages.

61. Scientific Information Database (SID)

SID serves as an Iranian digital repository housing scholarly journals, articles, and theses across various domains. It plays a pivotal role in disseminating scientific knowledge, enabling research collaboration and providing access to valuable academic content within Iran and globally, fostering innovation and academic growth.

A leading aggregator of open-access research content, CORE collates millions of academic journals, articles, and books from various repositories and repositories globally. It offers a centralized platform, facilitating seamless access to diverse scholarly publications across multiple disciplines. Emphasizing open access, CORE champions unrestricted availability to research literature, providing researchers and students with a valuable resource for discovering scholarly works, enhancing academic exploration, and fostering collaboration. With its expansive collection and user-friendly interface, CORE stands as an essential tool for accessing credible and diverse academic resources.

63. Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)

RePEc is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers to enhance the dissemination of research in economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components, all maintained by volunteers.

64. Book Review Index Online

Offering a comprehensive collection of book reviews, this platform serves as a valuable resource for scholars and book enthusiasts. Users gain access to extensive critiques spanning various genres and subjects, aiding in informed decision-making for academic pursuits or leisure reading. Its indexed reviews enable efficient searches and critical assessments, providing a nuanced understanding of literary works and their scholarly reception.

65. IngentaConnect

IngentaConnect provides online articles from over 30000 publications. Abstracts are free; full text is available by subscription or pay-per-view. The site is ideal for publishers looking to put their content online for the first time and increase the global visibility of their publications.

66. ASCE Library

ASCE Library is an online civil engineering database that provides the contents of peer-reviewed journals, proceedings, e-books, and standards published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It offers free access to abstracts of academic journal articles, proceedings papers, e-books, standards, etc.

67. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Renowned for its pivotal role in economic research, NBER is a hub for high-quality academic papers and data-driven analysis. Catering to economists and policymakers, it disseminates groundbreaking research on diverse economic facets. The site offers access to a wealth of working papers, economic indicators, and conferences, fostering collaboration and innovation in the field.

Tailored for researchers in science and engineering, Inspec is an indispensable database hosting a vast collection of peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, and patents. Its meticulously curated content covers an array of disciplines, providing in-depth insights and cutting-edge information crucial for technological advancements and academic pursuits.

69. INSPIRE-HEP

INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics. In addition to scientific papers, It provides other information like citation metrics, plots extracted from papers or internal experiment notes and tools for users to improve metadata.

70. MathSciNet Mathematical Reviews

MathSciNet is a fully searchable database with many tools designed to help navigate the mathematical sciences literature. It serves researchers and scholars in the mathematical sciences by providing peer-reviewed articles and books.

71. African Journals Online (AJOL)

AJOL is the world’s largest online library of peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals. With AJOL, you can browse peer-reviewed journals from Africa and download full text articles. Articles can be searched by title, authors or keywords.

72. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

A champion of open access, DOAJ serves as a goldmine for scholarly literature, housing a wide spectrum of peer-reviewed journals across disciplines. By promoting unrestricted access to quality research, it empowers academics worldwide. Its stringent criteria ensure credibility, fostering transparency and democratizing knowledge dissemination.

73. JournalTOCs

Aiming to streamline academic research, JournalTOCs aggregates tables of contents from thousands of scholarly journals. This platform facilitates swift access to the latest articles, aiding researchers in staying updated within their areas of interest. Its user-friendly interface and customizable alerts enable efficient navigation through a plethora of scholarly content, optimizing the research process.

74. AcademicJournals.org

AcademicJournals.org is a broad-based open access publisher. It provides free access to research information to the international community without financial, legal or technical barriers. All the journals from this organization will be freely distributed and available from multiple websites.

75. Library Genesis (LibGen)

A controversial yet immensely popular platform, LibGen hosts an extensive catalog of academic texts, journals, and books. Known for its extensive collection and accessibility, LibGen is a resource for individuals seeking academic materials that might not be readily available through traditional channels. It has gained traction as a resource for users worldwide due to its broad range of content.

76. PhilPapers.org

PhilPapers.org is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. It’s an online source of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, open access archives, and personal pages maintained by academics.

77. SciELO.org

SciELO hosts a vast collection of academic journals primarily from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and other Ibero-American regions. It’s a rich resource for accessing scholarly articles in various disciplines, offering open access to high-quality research, fostering knowledge sharing, and promoting regional academic excellence.

78. EBSCO Information Services

EBSCO is a comprehensive platform providing access to a wide array of scholarly journals, articles, and books across multiple disciplines. With its user-friendly interface and robust search capabilities, it’s a go-to resource for researchers, libraries, and institutions globally, offering diverse content and valuable research tools.

79. Econlit

EconLit, a premier resource for economics research, curates a comprehensive database of scholarly journals, articles, and books in the field. Tailored for economists, researchers, and students, it encompasses a vast array of economic literature, including peer-reviewed articles, working papers, and conference proceedings. Its specialized focus ensures in-depth coverage of economic theories, trends, and analyses, serving as an indispensable tool for those immersed in economic studies and research.

80. State Legislative Websites Directory

This online database contains information gleaned from the websites of the 50 state legislatures, the District of Columbia and the territories. You can select to view specific website content materials such as, bills, press rooms, statutes from any states.

81. Information Bridge: Department of Energy Scientific and Technical Information

The Information Bridge serves as a hub for the Department of Energy’s vast scientific and technical knowledge repository. It houses a comprehensive collection of academic journals, articles, and books, focusing on energy-related research. Researchers and academics access cutting-edge information on various energy disciplines, from renewable energy to nuclear physics, aiding in scholarly pursuits and industry advancements.

82. BioOne Complete

BioOne Complete is a specialized database catering to the life sciences, environmental studies, and related fields. It curates a collection of high-impact scholarly journals and research articles, facilitating access to cutting-edge biological research and ecological studies.

83. Civil Engineering Database

CEDB is a free bibliographic database for all ASCE publications including journals, conference proceedings, books, standards, manuals, magazines, and newspapers on all the disciplines of civil engineering. The coverage dates back to 1872.

84. LessonPlanet

LessonPlanet serves educators by offering a vast repository of lesson plans, teaching resources, and educational materials. It’s an invaluable tool for teachers, providing curated content to enhance classroom instruction and streamline lesson planning across various subjects and grade levels.

85. CiteULike

CiteULike is a free online service that allows users to save and share citations to academic papers. Based on the principle of social bookmarking, the site works to promote and to develop the sharing of scientific references amongst researchers.

86. Science.gov

Science.gov acts as a centralized gateway to authoritative scientific information sourced from multiple U.S. government agencies. It aggregates a wide spectrum of academic journals, articles, and books across scientific domains. This resource facilitates comprehensive searches, empowering researchers with reliable scientific data and publications crucial for academic research and evidence-based decision-making.

87. Cochrane Library

Cochrane Library is renowned for its systematic reviews and evidence-based healthcare research. It’s a crucial resource for medical professionals and researchers, offering comprehensive reviews that inform healthcare decisions and practices worldwide.

88. CAB Abstracts – CABI

CAB Abstracts is an English-language bibliographic information online service that provides access to the world’s applied life sciences literature. It comes with CABI Full Text, giving users automatic access to over 410,000 journal articles, conference papers and reports.

Zenodo is an open-access repository for scientific research data, enabling researchers to store, share, and explore datasets across disciplines. It promotes collaboration, transparency, and accessibility in scientific research, fostering innovation and knowledge exchange within the global research community.

90. Archives Hub

Archives Hub serves as a gateway to historical archives in the UK, offering access to a wealth of primary sources. It consolidates descriptions of archives held in various institutions, facilitating academic research. Through detailed records, researchers explore diverse topics spanning arts, humanities, and social sciences. The platform enables users to locate specific materials, aiding in comprehensive and in-depth investigations. Archives Hub stands as a vital resource for scholars delving into historical records, fostering a deeper understanding of past events and societal evolution.

91. OpenStax

Dedicated to advancing access to education, OpenStax offers free, peer-reviewed, and openly licensed textbooks. As an initiative aiming to alleviate the financial burden of education, OpenStax provides quality academic resources across various subjects. With a mission to make learning more accessible, it supports educators and learners globally by offering high-quality educational materials at no cost.

92. Bioline Internationl

Bioline International stands as a prominent platform offering open-access scholarly resources in the life sciences. Hosting a vast repository of peer-reviewed journals from developing countries, it promotes global access to valuable research. With a focus on biodiversity, environment, and healthcare, Bioline International facilitates the dissemination of cutting-edge scientific knowledge. Its diverse collection empowers researchers, students, and practitioners worldwide, fostering collaboration and advancing scientific discovery in crucial fields.

93. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience serves as a global platform, aggregating scientific content from various countries and international organizations. It offers access to an extensive repository of academic journals, articles, and books, transcending geographical barriers. Researchers benefit from diverse perspectives and a wealth of information, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange on an international scale.

94. Dimensions.ai

Dimensions.ai is an innovative research platform revolutionizing academic exploration. It integrates a vast array of scholarly resources, including articles, datasets, grants, and patents, offering a comprehensive view of research landscapes. Using sophisticated analytics and visualization tools, it assists researchers in uncovering connections, trends, and emerging areas of study. Dimensions.ai facilitates efficient literature searches, empowering scholars to navigate the expansive realm of academia and make informed contributions to their fields.

95. Ethnologue

Ethnologue is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It contains information on over 7000 languages including the number of speakers, locations, dialects, linguistic affiliations, autonyms, etc.

96. Taylor & Francis Online

Taylor & Francis Online hosts a vast collection of academic journals, articles, and books across various disciplines. With a user-friendly interface, it offers extensive resources in fields like science, humanities, social sciences, and more. Researchers benefit from comprehensive search tools, robust citation metrics, and access to cutting-edge research.

97. Zentralblatt MATH

Zentralblatt MATH serves as a comprehensive database for mathematical literature, covering a broad spectrum of mathematical research. With its extensive collection of abstracts and reviews, it provides valuable insights into mathematical publications worldwide. Researchers benefit from its indexing of mathematical articles, enabling efficient access to critical information, fostering collaboration, and supporting advancements in the field of mathematics.

98. PubMed Central

PubMed Central, a free digital repository, is a treasure trove of biomedical and life sciences literature. Hosting a vast archive of peer-reviewed articles, PubMed Central is a go-to platform for researchers, healthcare professionals, and students. Its comprehensive database encompasses a myriad of topics, facilitating easy access to authoritative information and fostering advancements in healthcare and life sciences.

99. EconBiz

EconBiz stands as a crucial resource for economists and social scientists, offering access to economic literature, research, and information. It aggregates a diverse range of publications, including articles, working papers, and research papers, facilitating comprehensive research in economics and related disciplines. EconBiz empowers users with efficient search functionalities, access to full-text documents, and information on events and job opportunities, fostering a vibrant academic community in the field of economics.

100. RefSeek – Academic Search Engine

RefSeek is a powerful academic search engine that scours the internet for scholarly resources. It indexes millions of documents, including articles, books, encyclopedias, and journals, ensuring a wide breadth of sources for researchers. With its user-friendly interface and advanced search capabilities, RefSeek streamlines the process of locating credible and authoritative information across various disciplines. It prioritizes academic content, making it an indispensable tool for students, scholars, and educators in their quest for reliable and relevant research materials.

101. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

BASE functions as a robust academic search engine, scouring the web for scholarly resources, including journals, articles, and books. It indexes content from various repositories, providing a user-friendly interface for researchers worldwide. With a focus on open access materials, BASE enhances accessibility to academic literature, supporting scholarly investigations across multiple disciplines.

102. JournalSeek

JournalSeek operates as a comprehensive database for academic journals, offering easy access to scholarly publications. It catalogs journals from diverse disciplines, allowing users to discover relevant articles and research papers. Researchers benefit from a user-friendly interface, streamlined search capabilities, and detailed journal information, facilitating efficient academic exploration and literature reviews.

Click here for more academic databases and search engines .

Remember, while these platforms offer valuable resources, access to some content may require institutional subscriptions or payment. Additionally, it’s essential to verify the credibility and peer-reviewed status of the sources before citing them in academic work.

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Peer review

Rigorous, constructive, efficient, and transparent

Two phases: independent review and interactive, collaborative review

Identity transparency: single anonymized: reviewer identity is not made visible to author, author identity is visible to reviewer, reviewer and author identity is visible to the decision-making editor

Reviewers interact with the handling editor and the authors

Review information published: reviewer identities, editor identities

Average time from submission to final decision: 61 days

How it works

Our collaborative peer review process maximizes quality while ensuring researchers' rights to submit their work for a rigorous, constructive, and transparent review.

Peer review is handled by active researchers, carefully appointed to our editorial boards according to strict excellence criteria, and who certify the validity of research with their names on the published article.

We believe peer review must be centered on objective criteria for the validity and quality of the work presented. It should be rigorous, fair, constructive, accountable, and transparent for everyone involved. Last, but not least, the process needs to be efficient.

To achieve this, we developed a unique, award-winning collaborative review forum that unites authors, reviewers, and the handling editor online and brings the highest quality service to all participants. We continuously innovate to provide cutting-edge tools and services for an efficient peer review.

All submissions, including those that are part of themed Research Topic article collections, undergo the same rigorous review process.

Frontiers Discover

We know researchers' time to contribute by engaging in peer review is limited. And the way researchers are invited to review can be inefficient. That's why we built  Frontiers Discover - a platform that enables Frontiers' review editors to:

browse manuscripts that have been submitted to our journals

identify submissions that match their expertise

support their colleagues, and the community, by offering to review these submissions

contribute as a reviewer when it's convenient to them.

Visit discover.frontiersin.org to find out more.

Frontiers Discover also allows our editors to maintain control of the peer review process. All review editors that volunteer through the platform are vetted by our associate editors, specialty chief editors, or field chief editors, to ensure the best possible peer review experience.

Principles of peer review

Frontiers upholds strict quality standards for manuscripts and the peer review process through clear criteria and dedicated teams. Manuscripts that pass these criteria are accepted, those that do not pass the criteria are rejected. We don't reject manuscripts based on their perceived potential impact, nor do we set a rejection rate – formal or informal. Instead, we judge the value and validity of presented work through rigorous quality checks and empower our editorial boards to take charge of content decisions.

Handling editors and reviewers can recommend rejection at any time; editors make acceptance decisions; and chief editors make acceptance and rejection decisions. Frontiers' in-house research integrity team performs pre- and post-review quality screens and can reject articles that do not meet acceptance criteria (listed below). This model ensures rigorous peer review, rapid decisions, and the publication of high-quality research.

What is expected of everyone involved?

Authors must submit a manuscript that has significant scholarly value and falls within the scope of the journal. They must comply with all editorial and ethical policies and take all reviewer and editor comments into consideration.

Reviewers are subject experts and evaluate manuscripts by using the quality assessment tool and designated review questionnaire that prioritize scientific quality, rigor, and validity. They evaluate the methodology of a study for solidity and rigor, and ensure the research provides valid conclusions and is supported by sufficient data.

Editors are subject experts and assess the peer-review process and manuscripts meticulously. They only endorse publication if the reviewers validate the contents of a manuscript.

Chief editors, handling editors, reviewers, and authors are guided and supported by our peer review team, which upholds and ensures high quality standards for manuscripts and the peer review itself, certifying the quality, scientific rigor, and validity of research articles and promoting collaboration among authors, reviewers, and editors.

If an editor, reviewer, or author is in doubt on how to proceed during the peer-review process, the peer review team is the main point of contact for guidance, with two specialized sub-teams: research integrity and editorial review operations.

Manuscript quality standards

Our research integrity team ensures that manuscripts adhere to high quality research and ethical standards and prevents the publication of any manuscripts that are below our quality standards.

At any stage before official publication, if a manuscript does not meet our editorial criteria and standards for publication, or if peer-review or research integrity concerns are raised by any review participant or reader (abstracts are published online ahead of official publication), the journal's chief editors and Frontiers' Chief Executive Editor will investigate these concerns, regardless of peer review or acceptance stage.

Frontiers applies the following criteria for acceptance and rejection of manuscripts. See further information on our editorial and ethical policies below, as well as in our author guidelines , Frontiers policies and publication ethics , and terms and conditions .

Peer review quality standards

Our editorial review operations team ensures a high quality, rigorous, and efficient peer-review process for all manuscripts submitted to Frontiers. The team establishes and upholds the peer-review guidelines for editors, reviewers, and authors, which incorporate the best practices and editorial policies.

The team is responsible for upholding the following quality standards:

Editors and reviewers are experts in the subject of the manuscript, with necessary expertise to evaluate the research by having established a sufficient research work or publication record on the same or related research area

Editors and reviewers have no relationship to the authors and/or research that would affect the objectivity of the peer-review process

In case the peer review is ongoing, and it is discovered that editors or reviewers do not have the relevant expertise or have a conflict-of-interest, they can be revoked and replaced during review by the peer review team and/or the editor

In case editors or reviewers inappropriately request the citation of their own published papers or the journal's (coercive citations), they can be revoked and replaced during review

Reviewers thoroughly complete the subject-specific questionnaire provided to assess the scientific rigor, quality, and validity of the manuscript they are reviewing. Review reports are verified to ensure they provide a constructive assessment of the manuscripts' validity and quality to the authors

Final editorial checks to verify that the peer-review process adhered to the quality standards, that the reviewers' and editor's concerns have been addressed, and that the manuscript is ready for publication

Only high-quality manuscripts that pass our acceptance criteria (listed above) are published.

In accepting a peer-review assignment with Frontiers, editors and reviewers agree to:

have the necessary expertise to judge the manuscript's quality, rigor, and validity

submit thorough, high-quality review reports

provide feedback in a timely manner, remaining responsive to collaborate with the authors

behave in a professional, ethical way and be constructive during interactions with the editors, authors, and editorial team

abide by ethical publishing practices and refrain from requesting the addition of citations of their own articles, or the journal's articles (coercive citations), unless valid and justifiable academic reasons are conveyed.

As part of our quality standards, such practices will be monitored and may result in editors and reviewers being revoked from assignments and editorial board membership.

If an editor or reviewer fails to disclose ongoing collaborations that would affect their ability to perform an objective review, or be discovered to have otherwise manipulated the peer-review process using fake identities, fake or deceptive review reports, or a ring of members to expedite manuscript review (peer-review ring), all their involvement in peer review will be terminated, and any ongoing submissions rejected. The issue will be raised with the researchers' institutions.

The journal's chief editors and Frontiers' Chief Executive Editor retain the right after a decision has been made by the handling editor to request further manuscript revisions, additional expert evaluation, and to overrule either acceptance or rejection. This decisional power is part of Frontiers' editorial policies as well as the terms and conditions , which all authors agree to before manuscript submission. All submissions to Frontiers are subject to the same processes and editorial policies.

In parallel, for manuscripts to remain under consideration for publication, the authors must:

remain engaged with the peer-review process and responsive for queries from the editors, reviewers, or Frontiers' editorial office

behave in a professional way, use constructive, respectful language when communicating with the editorial board members, reviewers, or the editorial office, and collaborate effectively during the peer-review process.

Participants in the peer review will be removed from their assignments if they do not adhere to and meet these review standards. Manuscripts can also be rejected should the authors be unresponsive for an extended period of time (30 days) or use inappropriate, offensive language when communicating with the editorial board members or Frontiers' editorial office.

Pillars of peer review

Collaborative review.

Our collaborative review forum unites authors, reviewers, and the handling editor (called the associate editor for editorial board members, or topic editor for Research Topics) – and if need be, the specialty chief editor – in a direct online dialogue, enabling quick iterations and facilitating consensus. Editors and reviewers work with the authors to improve their manuscript.

Objective review

Frontiers promotes a strict separation between review and evaluation. Frontiers' editors and reviewers have the mandate to focus on objective criteria evaluating the quality, rigor, and validity of the study and to ensure that the results are valid, the analysis is correct, and the quality high. We publish all papers assessed to be valid and of good quality. Reviewers may recommend rejection based upon objective errors and the criteria for rejection. Judgments regarding the importance of a paper can be made through open post-publication reviews. We also use objective impact metrics – reflecting the opinion of the entire community – to spotlight outstanding discoveries.

Rigorous review

Frontiers provides a review questionnaire template to make reviews systematic and convene the efforts of reviewers on objective issues. The review must focus solely on the quality of both the research and the manuscript, and must aim at providing constructive comments to bring the final paper to its best quality. This allows fair, rapid, comprehensive, and comparable assessment of research. The evaluation of the research will be done successively by means of the article-level impact metrics. Moreover, Frontiers provides authors with the highest quality review service by assigning only the world's top researchers to the Frontiers' chief and associate editorial boards.

Transparent review

To guarantee the most rigorous and objective reviews, the identities of reviewers remain anonymous during the review period. When a manuscript is accepted for publication, the names of the reviewers who endorsed its publication appear on the published article, without exceptions . If a reviewer recommends rejection or withdraws during any stage of this process, their name will not be disclosed. The handling editor's name is also made public on the published article, acknowledging their contribution.

As a result of this process, reviews are conducted constructively, with editors and reviewers holding a level of accountability and responsibility for the paper by providing rigorous feedback that delivers the highest possible quality publication. Please also note that, as Frontiers operates a single anonymized peer review process, the authors' identities are known to the reviewers.

Efficient review

Frontiers' publishing platform is custom-built. We offer one of the fastest systems among academic publishers. Our collaborative review forum guides authors, reviewers, and editors smoothly through the review process and alerts them when any action is required. This has shortened the average time from submission to final decision to 61 days.

Full peer review guidelines

All article types undergo a full peer review, except for Editorials, Classifications, and Grand Challenges.

The full collaborative peer review process consists of two phases:

Independent review During the independent review phase, the reviewers assess the manuscript independently from each other and from the authors, according to a standardized review template. These templates are adapted to each article type.

Interactive review During the interactive review phase, authors and reviewers can interact with each other through real-time comments in the discussion forum – with the aim of addressing all concerns about the manuscript. The handling editor oversees the review process, and, if required, the specialty chief editor can also enter the review forum.

Post-submission steps

Once a manuscript is submitted, our editorial office conducts a pre-screening for validation of research integrity and quality standards. If a manuscript meets Frontiers' quality criteria, an editor from the relevant specialty section is invited to handle the manuscript's peer-review process. After a preliminary content check, the editor decides whether to send the manuscript for review or to recommend it for immediate rejection to the specialty chief editor.

In the latter case, the specialty chief editor may confirm the handling editor's recommendation of immediate rejection due to the following reasons:

Objective errors in the methods, applications, or interpretations were identified in the manuscript that prevent further consideration

Ethical issues were identified in the manuscript that prevent further review or publication

The manuscript does not fulfill the standards established for the journal to be considered for publication (see full rejection criteria above).

The specialty chief editor may, nevertheless, override the handling editor's recommendation and decide that the manuscript deserves being reviewed before a final decision is made. In this case they will assign the manuscript to a new handling editor for another assessment.

The handling editor invites experts to review the manuscript; most article types require at least two reviewers to complete a review. These reviewers can either be invited from the board of review editors or appropriately recruited among experts in the field.

Handling editors: reviewer invitations

If a manuscript is sent for peer review, the handling editor is accountable for inviting and overseeing expert reviewers. Most article types require at least two reviewers to complete a review. These reviewers can either be invited from the board of review editors or appropriately recruited among experts in the field.

It is the prerogative of a handling editor to manage the reviewer recommendations of a manuscript. When the reviewers make their recommendation – to reject, revise, or accept the manuscript – the handling editor must validate this decision in line with our clearly defined acceptance and rejection criteria (see above).

If the handling editor disagrees with the final recommendation of a reviewer, whether it is to reject or accept the manuscript, it is the handling editor who is afforded the right to seek further expert feedback and invite an additional reviewer(s). In 2020, in nine out of 10 cases, the handling editors followed the recommendations from reviewers, to accept or reject, without seeking additional expert opinions.

Frontiers remains independent of this process and does not set or seek to influence acceptance or rejection rates . We are confident in the quality of our editors and peer-review process, whose proficiency has enabled Frontiers' open access publications to become one of the most highly cited in the world.

Independent review phase

The reviewers are asked to submit the standardized independent review report via the online collaborative review forum within seven days after accepting the assignment. This is done independently by each reviewer. The handling editor is automatically notified as soon as each of the reports is submitted, along with the recommendation of that reviewer. If the reviewer recommends acceptance, they are able to immediately endorse the manuscript and finalize their review.

Once all reviewers have submitted a report, the editor is responsible for activating the next phase, the interactive review, to release the review reports to the authors. If the editor would like to recommend rejection during the independent review phase, they can do so by activating the interactive review phase with major concerns, providing the authors with the reports and a unique opportunity for rebuttal during a defined timeframe.

Interactive review phase

Once the editor activates the interactive review phase, authors are immediately notified and granted access to the collaborative review forum, where they are able to view the reviewers' comments. Authors are asked to respond and/or submit a revised manuscript within seven, 10, or 14 days, depending on the level of revisions requested by the editor. If the authors are unresponsive to multiple communication attempts, the editorial office will send a final email to the authors with a seven-day deadline to respond. Following this, the editorial office reserves the right to withdraw the manuscript from the review process.

The editor can access and post comments in the collaborative review forum at any time. The editor also monitors the discussions occurring between authors and reviewers within the forum and ensures not only the timeliness, but also the constructiveness, of the participants' interactions.

If a dispute arises at this stage, the editor acts as a mediator, working with all parties involved to resolve the issues and even inviting new reviewers for further opinions if needed. If the disagreement persists, the specialty chief editor is then invited to enter the interactive review phase, assess the situation, and take a final decision as to whether the review should be ended by rejecting the manuscript or continued – potentially, but not necessarily, with a new handling editor and set of reviewers.

When a disagreement cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of a reviewer, they can choose to recommend rejection of the manuscript. The handling editor is then informed of the rejection recommendation and the reason. A reviewer can also withdraw from the review at any time. In both cases of rejection recommendation and withdrawal, the reviewer will no longer participate in the review forum, but may continue to follow the manuscript status under their My Frontiers page. The editor is informed of the reviewer recommendations and may choose to further recommend rejection to the chief editor, or invite other reviewers to receive additional expert opinions. If a reviewer submitted an independent review report prior to withdrawal or rejection recommendation, the report will be maintained in the review forum for participants to access throughout the review process. It is not removed or lost.

During this phase, a manuscript may be rejected at any point for the following reasons:

Objective errors in the methods, applications, or interpretations were identified in this manuscript that prevent further consideration

Ethical issues were identified in this manuscript that prevent further review or publication

The manuscript does not fulfill the standards established for the journal to be considered for publication

The manuscript could not be sufficiently revised by the authors to address the concerns raised by the reviewers or editor during the review process

Other reasons that meet the rejection criteria (listed above).

The review is complete only once all reviewer and editor comments have been satisfactorily addressed by the author.

Author triggered arbitration

If a dispute arises regarding the rejection of a manuscript, the authors may rebut the decision and trigger an arbitration.

Authors should provide enough information as part of their rebuttal so that an informed decision can be made on whether the grievance is valid. For example, if a rebuttal relates to lack of ethics approval, an author should provide a letter obtained from the relevant ethics committee as part of the rebuttal. Rebuttals should be factual and constructive. We will not consider rebuttals that contain inappropriate or derogatory language.

As a first step, the editorial office will arbitrate. They may discuss the case with editors and reviewers to try and resolve the dispute, depending on the peer review stage where rejection occurs and the reasons for rejection. At the discretion of the editorial office, independent experts may also be called for confidential arbitration evaluation. This process can include an assessment of rebuttal validity and/or the peer review process.

Depending on case complexity, authors should expect the arbitration process to take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. While a decision can take a significant amount of time, authors should anticipate receiving updates every 2–4 weeks.

Should an arbitration rule in favor of the authors, the editorial office will consider reinstating a manuscript to the stage where the rejection occurred and/or restarting the peer review process with a newly appointed editor and/or reviewer(s).

A manuscript will remain rejected if the arbitration rules that any of the above rejection criteria are met. While arbitration for a rejected manuscript is ongoing, authors should not submit a revised version of the manuscript.

Reviewer triggered arbitration

Reviewers are also entitled to trigger an arbitration if they judge that the authors are reluctant to make required changes as part of peer review. Reviewers may of course recommend rejection at any time or withdraw from the review process if they disagree with the arbitration ruling (in both cases their identity remains undisclosed). The withdrawal of a reviewer requires the recruitment of a replacement, which slows down the peer review process; therefore, authors are encouraged to cooperate as much as possible in addressing the concerns of the reviewers involved with their manuscript. Should an arbitration rule in favor of the authors, then the manuscript can be accepted even if there was a previous rejection recommendation.

Manuscript acceptance

If the reviewers endorse the publication of the manuscript in its current form, they must finalize their review reports, which automatically notifies the handling editor. For acceptance to be considered, the manuscript must:

be VALID as defined in the acceptance criteria above

have an editor and the minimum number of independent reviewers assigned for the article type

be endorsed by a majority of the assigned, non-withdrawn reviewers.

The editor can then either accept the final version of the manuscript or request further changes as necessary, typically within a few days. Acceptance of a manuscript can be decided by the handling editor and does not require the approval of the specialty chief editor.

Acceptance by the handling editor moves the article into the final validation phase, during which Frontiers' peer review team performs final technical and quality checks, including whether the review was performed adequately. Should the manuscript fail the final checks, it can either be put back into review to address the identified issue(s) or else the provisional acceptance decision can be overridden and the manuscript will be rejected at this stage without publication.

The article processing charge (APC) is payable within 30 days of acceptance and is required before final publication of the manuscript.

Manuscript rejection

If the minimum required number of reviewers to endorse the manuscript is not met (usually two, and must be a majority), then the handling editor must recommend to the specialty chief editor that the manuscript be rejected for publication. The final rejection decision is usually made by the specialty chief editor but can also be made by the research integrity team based on the rejection criteria above.

If a manuscript is rejected, no APC or other fee is charged.

Short peer review guidelines

Two article types, Editorials and Classifications, undergo a shortened peer review.

Short peer reviews differ from full peer reviews in two aspects: they are directly forwarded to the interactive review phase and they may be reviewed by the handling editor alone. It is up to the editor's consideration if further reviewers are invited to the review process.

Therefore, following submission, an editor of the relevant Frontiers specialty is immediately invited to take on the manuscript editorial assignment, which encompasses the role of the reviewer, too. Since no independent review report is required, the manuscript enters the interactive review phase immediately.

Interactive review, manuscript acceptance, and rejection follow the same rules as for full peer reviews.

Editorial policies

Conflicts of interest.

Frontiers is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes publication malpractice and conflicts of interest very seriously. Personal, financial, and professional affiliations or relationships can be perceived as conflicts of interest. All authors and all members of Frontiers' editorial boards are required to disclose any actual and potential conflicts of interest at submission or upon accepting an editorial or review assignment.

Our review system is designed to guarantee transparent and objective editorial and review process, and because handling editor and reviewers' names are made public upon the publication of articles, conflicts of interest will be openly apparent.

Authors must disclose any potential conflict of interest during the submission process. Consider the following questions and make sure you disclose any positive answers. If you failed to disclose any of the potential conflict of interest below during submission, please contact the journal's editorial office with the details as soon as possible.

Handling, topic, and review editors

Handling (associate) editors, review editors, and external reviewers are requested to fill a questionnaire before taking on an assignment to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Research Topic editors are also asked to complete the questionnaire upon assignment to a manuscript under their Research Topic. If you can answer yes to any of the questions below, Frontiers considers this to be a potential conflict of interest. Such potential conflicts might be between the editor and authors, the reviewers and authors, or the reviewers and editors. Editors are recommended to invite independent reviewers from a broad range of institutional and geographic locations to promote diversity of thought and to ensure an objective and fair peer review process.

If you have any doubt about whether a relationship or an interest qualifies as a conflict of interest, it is always better to disclose this potential conflict such that editors and the Frontiers editorial office can determine whether it necessitates disclosure on the article, or whether an alternate reviewer or editor should be assigned.

Editors must report actual or potential conflicts of interest to the journal's editorial office . Reviewers must report actual or potential conflicts of interest both to the journal's editorial office and the editor handling the manuscript.

In case of doubt, please contact your journal's office by email. You should provide the details of the situation and the potential conflict(s) that you would like to report.

External reviewers

External reviewers at Frontiers should hold a PhD or an equivalent degree, or the equivalent number of years to a recognized qualification, in the relevant field of research. It is also encouraged that all external reviewers have sufficient experience in scientific publishing, either from the perspective of an author or reviewer.

Frontiers wants to help the development of early career researchers by offering them exposure to the peer review process. To foster this development, we allow early career researchers to collaborate in the review process with a senior researcher. Please contact the editorial office for any questions on how to proceed in such cases.

External reviewers are subject to the same conflicts of interest restrictions as Frontiers review editors, and must report actual or potential conflicts of interest both to the journal's editorial office and the editor handling the manuscript.

AI use by editors and reviewers

Generative AI technologies should not be used to review the content of a submitted manuscript or used to make decisions as to the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. Responsibility for the integrity of the review process must remain with the editors and reviewers who have accepted their roles as relevant experts.

The use of generative AI technologies in the writing or editing of a submitted manuscript remains under the discretion of the author following the policy outlined above.

Publication ethics

Frontiers takes issues relating to publication ethics very seriously. Frontiers endeavors to follow the guidelines and best practice recommendations published by the Committee on Publication Ethics ( COPE ). Frontiers is a member of COPE and is also represented on the COPE council by its Editorial Office Manager. Frontiers follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors ( ICMJE ) guidelines including its recommended authorship criteria. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine is listed as a journal following ICMJE recommendations on its website.

Authors are expected to abide by ethical standards in regard to the attribution of authorship, conflicts of interest, respect of ethical considerations in the use of experimental animal and human participants, financial support disclosures, and participation in the peer review process. Additionally, cases of invalid or fraudulent data, plagiarism, and dual submissions will constitute grounds for rejection. Please refer to our terms and conditions for complete details on the authors' responsibilities.

Frontiers editors and reviewers are also expected to abide by ethical standards in regard to conflicts of interest, confidentiality of the reviewed papers, objective evaluation of the work, and preservation of reviewers' anonymity until acceptance, in addition to refraining from coercive citation. Editors bear the authority and responsibility for the acceptance of papers.

While Frontiers strives for transparency regarding the identity of reviewers and editors, the external posting of review reports or discussions from the review process is strictly prohibited. As contributions made to the interactive review process come from a number of different parties, the decision to share these contributions are not the reserve of any one party.

Malpractice and misconduct

Frontiers will investigate allegations of misconduct both before and after publication. Corrections or retractions will be published if necessary, in order to maintain the integrity of the academic record. Our research integrity team should be contacted immediately on suspicions of misconduct. Frontiers also investigates allegations made on social media or other relevant websites as we become aware of them.

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• Rebecca Knight

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