Unlock knowledge, together

Knowledge is meant to be shared. With open access and ethical digital habits, you have the power to learn freely, use information responsibly, and make smarter choices online. Let's explore the world of open resources!

Discover open resources

Many students don’t know where to find reliable, high-quality information for free, and they often hit paywalls or spend hours searching for credible sources. This page guides you to trustworthy open resources, saving you time, money, and frustration, while showing you how to use information responsibly and effectively for your learning and projects.

Digital Citizenship: Copyright, Creative Commons, Public Domain, and Fair Use

This video explains copyright, Creative Commons licensing, public domain, and fair use — all core concepts for ethical academic resource use.

Title: Digital Citizenship: Copyright, Creative Commons, Public Domain, and Fair Use
Author / Channel: Diana Neebe
License: CC BY license
Link / source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn-lb715Ojg&t=1s

Open Access & Open Educational Resources

A good overview of what open access and OER (open educational resources) are, why they matter, and how students and educators can use them

Title: Open Access & Open Educational Resources
Author / Channel: Emily Moran
License: CC BY license
Link / source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFbr4WhJnhE&t=3s

Digital Literacy Skills

A video licensed under Creative Commons that covers important digital literacy topics; useful for teaching about responsible online behavior, source evaluation, digital citizenship, etc.

Title: Digital Literacy Skills
Author / Channel: IT Sligo Centre for Online Learning
License: CC BY license
Link / source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wQoZj5lrSk

Open resources

Here are some examples of open resources that would be most useful for students:

Open-Access Journals & Research Databases

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) – Access thousands of peer-reviewed journals across disciplines.
Credit: DOAJ, https://doaj.org

PubMed Central (PMC) – Free full-text articles in biomedical and life sciences.
Credit: U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

arXiv.org – Preprints in physics, math, computer science, and more.
Credit: Cornell University Library, https://arxiv.org

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Khan Academy – Free video lessons and exercises for a wide range of subjects.
Credit: Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org

MIT OpenCourseWare – Free course materials from MIT, including lecture notes and assignments.
Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, https://ocw.mit.edu

OpenStax – Free, peer-reviewed textbooks for high school and college students.
Credit: OpenStax, Rice University, https://openstax.org

Tools for Collaboration & Learning

Zotero – Free tool for managing references and citations.
Credit: Corporation for Digital Scholarship, https://www.zotero.org

Overleaf – Free online LaTeX editor for collaborative writing and research papers.
Credit: Overleaf Ltd., https://www.overleaf.com

Open Data & Knowledge Platforms

Wikimedia Commons – Free media files for educational use.
Credit: Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Data.gov – Open datasets across multiple fields, useful for projects and research.
Credit: U.S. Government, https://data.gov

🌟 Top pick for students

Resource: DOAJ – https://doaj.org

DOAJ gives you free access to thousands of peer-reviewed articles across almost every subject. It’s perfect for research, projects, or just exploring new topics—without hitting expensive paywalls.

Tip: Bookmark it and use it whenever you need reliable, high-quality information fast.