Research Guides: Visitors & Community Members: Free Electronic Resources

These databases and sites are excellent places to start your research.

Databases for Finding Articles

AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) (Open)
A primary public source of access to agricultural information. Books and articles found may be requested by using interlibrary loan from your local library.
ERIC - Education Resources Information Center (Open)
Largest education database in the world. Many articles will be linked to the full-text.
PEDro (Physiotherapy evidence database) (Open)
Free database of citations to randomized trials, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines in physical therapy. Four search pages provided, including one for consumers.
PTSDpubs Database (Open)
Free database providing citations to articles in all publications relevant to post-traumatic stress disorder. Produced by the National Center for PTSD and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
PubMed (Open)
The world's premier database for biomedical literature. Many articles will have a link to full-text in PubMed Central (see Open Access Journals below). Links to other National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) resources are at the bottom of the page. Articles that are not freely available may be requested using Loansome Doc (see separate box on this page). Fees apply to this service.
Find It Virginia (Restricted)
Online resources available from your Virginia public library. Many of the databases provide scholarly full-text from a variety of publications. You must have a library card from a Virginia public library or from the Library of Virginia to access.
Academic Search Alumni Edition & Business Source Alumni Edition (Restricted to VCU Alumni)
Full-text articles from several thousand scholarly and general publications in a variety of fields. Also includes citations to articles in additional publications. Available only to registered members of the VCU Alumni Association.

Open Access

There's a lot of great -- and often scholarly -- information available for free online. The Open Access movement has resulted in many rigorously reviewed collections of scholarly information available free online.

Open Access Journals

PubMed Central (PMC)
Full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
BioMed Central
Open access publisher of more than 275 peer-reviewed science, technology, and medical journals.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.

Google Scholar
Open web resource that allows users to search for journal articles, citations, theses, preprints, and book availability on the web.

Other Open Access Resources

VCU Scholars Compass
Repository of work from VCU's academic, research, and administrative communities.
OpenDOAR
Directory of academic open access repositories.
Open Access Research Guide
This VCU Libraries Research Guide offers an array of open educational resources including articles, books, images, and more.

You can also find highly credible information other than scholarly content online. There are advanced ways to search Google, and to use Google for your research.

Library of Virginia Collections

Using the Collections
For Virginia residents with either a Library of Virginia card number or pre-registered Virginia driver's license or ID number, access resources on current and historical research, magazines/ journals, genealogical resources, and more.

Searching Think Tank Publications

Harvard's Kennedy School provides a Google custom search that will search Web publications from a large number of 'think tanks'. Enter your search term(s) in the box as in any Google search. Most of the materials will be freely available.

Think Tank Search

Government Information

USA.gov
Portal to a vast array of online information from government agencies.
Congress.gov
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
ClinicalTrials.gov
World Factbook - CIA