Need Help?
When you graduate or leave URI, you no longer have access to library databases. How can you locate information without running into barriers and paywalls? This guide presents a variety of tools to help you find information to help you as you move forward in life and in your career.
Please note: Even after you graduate, you can still use any of the three University of Rhode Island libraries in person, and if you are a resident of Rhode Island, you can also get a Rhode Island Resident card, which allows you to check out books from any of the three libraries.
Resources Available from Other Libraries
Here are additional options for finding some of the things you had access to here at URI.
- Article Databases: Many public libraries subscribe to a variety of article databases. In most cases, you'll need a current library card.
- Scholarly Articles: If you live near a public academic institution, you may be able to use their article databases while on campus.
- Recreational Reading: Some public libraries use the Overdrive/Libby app to connect you with ebooks, others may use cloudLibrary.
- Free Videos: Some public libraries subscribe to services like Kanopy or Hoopla, which allow you to stream videos for free.
- Interlibrary Loan: If you find a book or article you're interested in and your library doesn't have it, ask your local librarian if they can order it for you.
Opportunities at different libraries my vary - please check with the librarians at the libraries you're interested in to determine what you have access to.
Finding Books
- WorldCat.org This link opens in a new window
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WorldCat is a listing of materials in libraries around the world. It will automatically display the libraries nearest you with an item, and you can change the location if needed.
- Google Books
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Search and preview millions of books from libraries and publishers worldwide using Google Book Search. The full text of titles in the public domain may be viewed online and downloaded. - Internet Archive
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Offers free and permanent access to texts (including full books), videos, audio files, software and website content on a variety of subjects from different time periods. - OpenStax
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"OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University..." providing a variety of open access textbooks. - National Academies Press
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"The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently-researched information on important matters in science and health policy." Provides free access to over 9,000 books.
Finding Articles & Preprints
- Google Scholar
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One of Google's specialized search tools, Google Scholar focuses primarily on information from scholarly and peer-reviewed sources. On occasion, there may be a link to an open access version of the material. If not, consult with your local library regarding ordering the item via Interlibrary Loan. - Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. DOAJ is funded through support from libraries, library associations, consortia, universities, research centers, publisher members, and other sponsors. URI has supported DOAJ since 2016.
- OSF Preprints
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Preprint repository from the Open Science Framework. Covers a variety of disciplines, not just science. - Unpaywall: An open database of 20 million free scholarly articles
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A browser extension that provides access to articles "from over 50,000 journals and open-access repositories from all over the world." - Get the Research (Beta)
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Get the Research is a search engine that connects research articles to context using Wikipedia and AI. For those without access to an academic library, the option to select articles that are "Open Access Only" may be useful.
Arts & Humanities
- H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online)
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H-Net hosts a wide variety of discussion lists related to topics in social and cultural history. - Making of America
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"Making of America (MoA) is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction." Contains images of books and journal articles published in the 19th century. Maintained by the University of Michigan. - Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
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The DPLA serves as a portal to the openly available, digitized contents of America’s libraries, archives, and museums. It indexes materials in all formats.
Education Resources
- ERIC (AccessERIC) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Main site of the Educational Resources Information Center. Provides information on ERIC products, services, contacts, and Clearinghouses. Users should note that ERIC Digests, offered on this site, are NOT the same as ERIC Documents.
- What dates are covered? 1966 - Present.
Health Resources
- PubMed
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This is a link to the publicly available version of PubMed, which provides citations to and abstracts of scholarly research articles in medicine. If you are currently affiliated with URI, please use the link under "Articles & Databases" to access the full text of articles. - BioMed Central
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"BMC has an evolving portfolio of some 300 peer-reviewed journals, sharing discoveries from research communities in science, technology, engineering and medicine."
Life Sciences & Environment Resources
- AGRICOLA (National Agricultural Library) This link opens in a new window
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- What’s included? Coverage of worldwide literature on agriculture and related subjects, including plant and animal sciences, forestry, entomology, soil and water resources, agricultural economics, etc. Citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, technical reports, and other materials.
- What dates are covered? 1970- (books) and 1981- (articles). Updated daily.
- BioMed Central
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"BMC has an evolving portfolio of some 300 peer-reviewed journals, sharing discoveries from research communities in science, technology, engineering and medicine."
Science & Technology Resources
- ArXiv.org
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Open-access archive of more than 1.5 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. - BioMed Central
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"BMC has an evolving portfolio of some 300 peer-reviewed journals, sharing discoveries from research communities in science, technology, engineering and medicine." - Current Cites
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"A team of librarians monitors information technology literature, selecting only the best items to annotate for this free publication. The resulting issue of 8-12 annotated citations of current literature is emailed to a mailing list and is available as an RSS feed." - PLOS | Public Library of Science
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PLOS (Public Library of Science) is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization founded to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Includes tens of thousands of research articles. - Science.gov
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"Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide users with access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results."
Social Sciences Resources
- Anthropological Index Online
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"Published by the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) in cooperation with Anthropology Library and Research Centre at the British Museum. It is an index to articles in journals taken by the Library and to films held at the Royal Anthropological Institute. The Library holds some 4,000 periodical titles (1,500 current) covering all branches and areas of anthropology. Nearly 800 journals, published in more than 40 languages, are indexed on a continuing basis. Records cover 1957 to the present." - Census Bureau
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Official government source for a broad range of social, demographic, business, and economic statistics. Historical data can be found under the "Publications" links on the Census homepage. - National Criminal Justice Reference Service
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Established in 1972, NCJRS is a federally funded resource "offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide" with links to resources on such topics as Corrections, Courts, Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice Statistics, Drugs and Crime, Juvenile Justice, Law Enforcement, and Victims. - Social Science Research Network
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The SSRN is an organization dedicated to the broad disemmination of social science research material. They maintain a database of abstracts of current and forthcoming research papers, and an Electronic Paper Collection of full text articles by current scholars. Organization is by individual subfield within the social sciences. - PsyArXiv Preprints
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"A free preprint service for the psychological sciences... maintained by The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science." - SocArXiv Papers
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"Open archive of the social sciences... SocArXiv papers are moderated before appearing. Visit SocOpen.org for more information."
Created by
Amanda Izenstark, 4/2019
Based on a 2017 guide titled Research After Graduation by Jessica Mason, University of Illinois.