Guides: Open Access Publishing and Resources: Finding Open Access Content

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Journal Finder This link opens in a new window
Large Collection.
Updated daily.
1800s-Present
DML Catalog This link opens in a new window
Large collection.
Updated daily.
Lean Library This link opens in a new window
Updated daily.

Finding open access content

Open access content is included alongside subscription articles in almost every research database such as MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Web of Science. Within these databases, open access content is often, but not always, identified with the "open lock" icon.

The research databases listed below consist of only open access content. Please see the DML Databases A to Z list to see a comprehensive list of databases.

Finding tools

Lean Library This link opens in a new window
The Lean Library browser extension redirects to legal, Open Access versions of articles and/or to DML subscribed content. It is a browser extension to simplify access to DML full text resources and avoid unnecessary paywalls.

Instructions:
Download browser extension from the Lean Library site
Once installed, select Georgetown University Medical Center (Dahlgren Memorial Library) as your library and save.
Updated daily.
PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
Open Access, full text archive of biomedical and life sciences literature.
Large Collection.
Updated frequently.
2000-Present

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
The aim of the DOAJ is to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The DOAJ aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. In short, the DOAJ aims to be THE one stop shop for users of open access journals.

Europe PMC This link opens in a new window
European version of PubMed Central containing biomedical full-text articles, preprints, guidelines, abstracts, and patents from all over the world.
Large Collection.
2007-Present.
Updated daily.

medRxiv
medRxiv is an archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences.
OAButton
Site to obtain or request legal access to Open Access content
Unpaywall
Browser plug-in (Chrome and Firefox) that leads to legal, open access versions of articles.

Directory of Open Access Books
"The primary aim of DOAB is to increase discoverability of Open Access ... academic, peer reviewed books ."
National Academies Press
Offers thousands of full text books online from the National Academy of Sciences. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative information on important matters in science and health policy.
Project Gutenberg
Digitized versions of texts for which copyright has expired including historic medical texts

CDC datasets uploaded before January 28th, 2025
An archive of all CDC datasets uploaded to https://data.cdc.gov/browse before January 28th, 2025. Excludes corrupt datasets and data not publicly accessible.
DataCite
Locate, identify, and cite research data
Data.gov
Data.gov is the federal government’s open data site, and aims to make government more open and accountable. Opening government data increases citizen participation in government, creates opportunities for economic development, and informs decision making in both the private and public sectors.
Archive of Data.gov
Dryad
Dryad is an international repository of data underlying scientific and medical publications, particularly data for which no specialized repository exists. All material in Dryad is associated with a scholarly publication.
GenBank
GenBank ® is the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
Gene Expression Omnibus
GEO is a public functional genomics data repository.
HealthData.gov
Dedicated to making high value health data more accessible to entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers.
HMCA
Operated by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, HMCA preserves and disseminates health care data collected by selected research projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and facilitates secondary analyses of the data.
List of Data Sites by NICHSR
This list contains selective links representing a sample of available information. National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)
MIMIC Data
"MIMIC is an openly available dataset developed by the MIT Lab for Computational Physiology, comprising deidentified health data associated with ~40,000 critical care patients. It includes demographics, vital signs, laboratory tests, medications, and more."
PhysioNet
Site provides de-identified physiological and clinical data and related open-source software. Some content access requires individuals to go through a credentialing process before gaining access.

Flickr Creative Commons portal
Browse by license type or use the advanced searching options to limit to only Creative Commons content.
MedPix: Medical Image Database
MedPix® is a free online Medical Image Database, provided by the Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Informatics, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD.
MEDtube
MEDtube is an open access online repository of videos and educational content. The library contains medical videos, images, medical cases, visualizations and animations, eCourse, interviews, presentations, webcasts, case-reports and other professional materials in all medical specialties. Free account required.
NLM Digital Collections
Digital Collections is the National Library of Medicine's free online repository of biomedical resources including books, still images, videos, and maps. All of the content in Digital Collections is freely available worldwide and, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain.
Open Access Biomedical Image Search Engine
Open access image search engine which allows for searching by text, image, and license type.
Public Health Image Library (PHIL)
Gateway to images provided by the Center for Disease Control. Many of these images are in the public domain. Use restrictions are noted in the notes for each image.
Visible Human Project
From the National Library of Medicine, a publicly-available complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of a human male body and a human female body.

DigitalGeorgetown This link opens in a new window
Georgetown University's institutional repository representing the scholarly output of the University. Includes eBooks, articles, dissertations and theses, and other historical documents. To submit work to DigitalGeorgetown, email dmlresources@georgetown.edu
Large collection.
2009-Present.
Updated monthly.
Scholarly Commons - Georgetown Law Center This link opens in a new window
Georgetown University Law Center institutional repository representing the scholarly output of the Law Center. Includes articles, working papers and other historical documents.
Large Collection.
1973-Present
Updated frequently

Health Sciences Research Commons
Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC) is an online repository for gathering, archiving, and disseminating the research output of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the School of Nursing, and the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, at the George Washington University. HSRC is maintained by the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library.
MedEdPORTAL
Provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges in partnership with the American Dental Education Association, MedEdPORTAL Publications promotes educational scholarship and collaboration by facilitating the open exchange of peer-reviewed health education teaching and assessment resources.
OpenDOAR
"OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here." OpenDOAR is a world-wide resource, with links to repositories all over the world. You can browse the repositories or search them all at once.
MERLOT
Search the MERLOT database for curated Open Access online learning and support materials and content creation tools.

GitHub Biomedical
Github is the largest open source software code community in the world and includes code used for biomedical research.

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Open Access Publishing and Resources

DML Quick Links

Finding open access content

Finding tools

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