5 free and available research paper

5 Free Paper Download Sites Beyond Sci-Hub: Download Research Papers For Free

Navigating the vast ocean of academic research can be daunting, especially when you’re on a quest for specific research papers without the constraints of paywalls. Fortunately various platforms are offering free downloads of scholarly articles.

5 websites to get free paper downloads beyond Scihub include:

Google Scholar

• Research Gate
• Science Open

In this article, we explore some of the best websites that provide researchers, students, and academicians with free access to a plethora of papers across diverse fields, ensuring that knowledge remains within everyone’s reach.

Best Websites To Download Research Papers For Free

As a researcher, you might find Google Scholar to be a repository brimming with academic papers covering a broad span of domains like social sciences, computer science, and humanity, including:

• Journal articles
• Conference papers, and

Type a topic, DOI, or title into the search bar. For example, search “climate change effects on agriculture pdf.” You’ll see a list of academic papers, some with direct download links.

For free access, look to the right of each search result. Often, there’s a clickable link or access through an open-access repository.

These links bypass paywalls, providing free access to research papers.

Google Scholar also helps you find preprints and publicly available versions of journal articles.

Use the “All Versions” link under a paper’s title to check if there’s a free version hosted elsewhere, like on a university library site.

Pair Google Scholar with tools like Unpaywall , OA.mg , or Sci-Hub for free paper download. Unpaywall integrates with your browser and flags free open-access versions automatically.

You can also copy a paper’s DOI and paste it into repositories like Library Genesis or tools like PaperPanda . These tools search open-access platforms for free, full-text PDFs of journal articles.

ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a unique platform that blends social networking with academic research, making it an essential tool for researchers and scientists across various disciplines.

It’s also goldmine for academic papers and high quality journal articles – you can download papers for free too here.

Sign up for a free account. Once logged in, you can search for:

• journal papers,
• research articles, or
• scientific papers.

Many papers include a  direct download link.

If the paper you need isn’t immediately available, click the “Request full-text” button. This sends a direct message to the author. They often respond quickly with a free paper download.

Researchers upload preprints, final versions, or open-access research articles to their profiles. You can download these for free without hitting paywalls.

Use ResearchGate alongside tools like Unpaywall or Library Genesis . If ResearchGate doesn’t have a PDF, copy the paper’s DOI and paste it into these repositories. They often host millions of research articles for free.

Remember, ResearchGate’s community-driven model means you’re interacting with real authors. Always thank them when they facilitate you with accessing research papers for free—it builds goodwill in the scientific community.

ScienceOpen

ScienceOpen is a comprehensive repository that hosts a multitude of open-access, cutting-edge research articles across various fields, from the social sciences to computer science. 

The process of downloading a paper on ScienceOpen is remarkably straightforward. Since it’s an open-access platform, most of the papers are available to download as PDFs without any cost.

This means you can access high-quality, peer-reviewed academic research without encountering paywalls that are often a barrier in many other scientific platforms.

For instance, if you’re delving into the latest 2023 scientific papers in mathematics, ScienceOpen can be your go-to source. You can easily search for papers on the search engine using:

• Browsing through various open access journals featured on the site.

The direct download feature simplifies access to these papers, making it convenient for you to obtain the research you need.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a digital library is an extensive repository of up-to-date, open-access, peer-reviewed journals , covering a wide array of subjects from humanities to nuclear science. There are also many latest research articles freely available here.

When you’re navigating DOAJ, you’ll discover that it’s not just a platform to download academic papers; it’s a gateway to a world of academic research.

Each journal article listed is freely accessible, meaning you can download these scholarly articles without any cost or subscription.

The process is simple: search for papers using specific keywords, subjects, or even DOAJ’s advanced search functionality that includes filters like:

• Language, or
• The year of publication.

For example, if you’re delving into the latest developments in scientific research in 2023, 2024 of beyond, DOAJ allows you to refine your search to the most recent publications.

Once you find a relevant paper, you can easily access the full text through a direct download link. This is particularly useful for accessing high-quality, open-access research papers that are not always readily available on other platforms like Sci-Hub or Library Genesis.

PubMed hosts millions of research and scientific articles, primarily in the fields of medicine and life sciences, but also encompassing a broad range of scientific research. There may be thousands of articles available here. 

When you’re on PubMed, you can search for papers using:

• Authors, or
• Specific journal names.

While PubMed lists both open-access and subscription-based journal articles, it offers a unique feature for accessing papers for free.

If you’re looking for a particular paper, say in the domain of computer science or social sciences from 2023, you can directly access its abstract on PubMed. For open access articles, a free full-text link is often available, allowing you to download the papers.

PubMed integrates with tools like Unpaywall and the Open Access Button. These browser extensions help you find open-access versions of the articles you’re interested in, bypassing the paywalls that often restrict access to scholarly literature.

While PubMed itself doesn’t provide direct download links for all articles, its connection with these tools and various open access repositories ensures that you, as a researcher, have greater access to scientific papers.

Sci-Hub (with Caution)

Sci-Hub, often dubbed the ‘Pirate Bay of Science,’ has been a game-changer in the scientific community since its inception by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011.

It operates as a controversial, yet widely used platform providing free access to millions of academic papers and academic articles that are typically locked behind paywalls.

As a researcher, you might find Sci-Hub an intriguing, albeit contentious, tool for accessing scholarly literature.

When you’re looking to download a paper from Sci-Hub, the process is relatively straightforward.

Say you need a journal article on computer science or a groundbreaking study in social sciences from 2024; you just need to have the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the paper.

By entering this DOI into Sci-Hub’s search bar, the website bypasses publisher paywalls, offering you direct download links to the articles.

It’s crucial to note that while Sci-Hub provides access to a vast repository of scientific research, its legality is under constant scrutiny.

The platform operates via various proxy links and has been the subject of numerous legal battles with publishers and academic institutions.

Nevertheless, Sci-Hub remains a popular go-to for researchers and scientists globally, especially those without access to university libraries or digital archives.

While it opens doors to a wealth of knowledge, users should be aware of the ethical and legal implications of using such a service in their respective countries.

Wrapping Up: You Can Get Free Academic Papers 

The digital landscape offers a wealth of resources for accessing academic research without financial barriers.

The platforms we share here provide an invaluable service to the scholarly community, democratising access to knowledge and fostering intellectual growth.

Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a curious student, these websites bridge the gap between you and the vast world of academic literature.

Remember to consider the legal and ethical aspects when using these resources.

free paper download, free paper download, free paper download, free paper download, free paper download,

What platforms provide free research papers?

Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ScienceOpen, DOAJ, and PubMed are great sources for downloading papers without cost.

How can I download papers from ResearchGate?

Use direct download links or request the full text from authors via the “Request full-text” button.

Is Sci-Hub legal to use?

Sci-Hub’s legality varies by country, so you should be cautious about its legal and ethical implications.

How does PubMed help with free access?

PubMed links to open-access articles and integrates with tools like Unpaywall for free paper downloads.

What features make ScienceOpen unique?

ScienceOpen offers open-access articles with direct PDF downloads and advanced search by keywords, DOI, or journals.

Dr Andrew Stapleton has a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from the UK and Australia. He has many years of research experience and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate at a number of Universities. Although having secured funding for his own research, he left academia to help others with his YouTube channel all about the inner workings of academia and how to make it work for you.

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• Writing Tips

10 Free Research and Journal Databases

• 3-minute read
• 6th April 2019

Finding good research can be tough, especially when so much of it is locked behind paywalls . But there are free resources out there if you know where to look. So to help out, we’ve compiled a list of ten free academic search engines and databases that you should check out.

1. Google Scholar

Even if you’ve not used Google Scholar before, you’ll know Google. And, thus, you can probably guess that Google Scholar is a search engine dedicated to academic work. Not everything listed on Google Scholar will be freely available in full. But it is a good place to start if you’re looking for a specific paper, and many papers can be downloaded for free.

CORE is an open research aggregator. This means it works as a search engine for open access research published by organizations from around the world, all of which is available for free. It is also the world’s largest open access aggregator , so it is a very useful resource for researchers!

3. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

Another dedicated academic search engine, BASE offers access to more than 140 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. Around 60% of these documents are open access, and you can filter results to see only research that is available for free online.

4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database that lists around 12,000 open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science, and the humanities.

PubMed is a search engine maintained by the NCBI, part of the United States National Library of Medicine. It provides access to more than 29 million citations of biomedical research from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. The NCBI runs a similar search engine for research in the chemical sciences called PubChem , too, which is also free to use.

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6. E-Theses Online Service (EThOS)

Run by the British Library, EThOS is a database of over 500,000 doctoral theses. More than half of these are available for free, either directly via EThOS or via a link to a university website.

7. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN is a database for research from the social sciences and humanities, including 846,589 research papers from 426,107 researchers across 30 disciplines. Most of these are available for free, although you may need to sign up as a member (also free) to access some services.

8. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience is a global academic search engine, providing access to national and international scientific databases from across the globe. One interesting feature is that it offers automatic translation, so users can have search results translated into their preferred language.

9. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an “intelligent” academic search engine. It uses machine learning to prioritize the most important research, which can make it easier to find relevant literature. Or, in Semantic Scholar’s own words, it uses influential citations, images, and key phrases to “cut through the clutter.”

10. Public Library of Science (PLOS)

PLOS is an open-access research organization that publishes several journals. But as well as publishing its own research, PLOS is a dedicated advocate for open-access learning. So if you appreciate the search engines and databases we’ve listed here, check out the rest of the PLOS site to find out more about their campaign to enable access to knowledge.

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15 Best Websites to Download Research Papers for Free

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Is your thirst for knowledge limited by expensive subscriptions? Explore the best websites to download research papers for free and expand your academic reach.

Today, navigating through the academic terrain often feels like being stuck in an intellectual desert, parched for knowledge.

With paywalls acting like impenetrable fortresses, accessing scholarly articles becomes a herculean task. However, a beacon of hope exists in the form of free-access platforms, quenching our thirst for intellectual wisdom. Let’s set sail on this scholarly journey.

Table of Contents

Do you recall the Z Library, a once-prominent source of free academic resources? While its seizure by the FBI was a stark reminder of copyright considerations, it also marked a transformative phase in the digital academic landscape. 

Today’s champions of academia aren’t just about offering free access, they uphold ethics and copyright respectability. Let’s delve into these repositories that are reshaping the academia world. You can download free research papers from any of the following websites.

Best Websites to Download Research Papers

#1. sci-hub – best for accessing paywalled academic papers.

Sci-Hub is the defiant maverick of the academic sphere. Often termed the “Pirate Bay of Science,” it presents an unconventional solution to the paywall barrier, freely providing access to a vast range of scholarly literature.

Despite its contentious standing, Sci-Hub offers an invaluable service to knowledge-seekers. While navigating the tightrope between access and legality, it represents a game-changing force in the world of academic research.

#2. Library Genesis (Libgen) – Best for a Wide Range of Books and Articles

It’s not just a repository, but a vibrant confluence of multiple disciplines and interests, catering to the unique intellectual appetite of each knowledge seeker.

Source: https://libgen.is

#3. Unpaywall – Best for Legal Open Access Versions of Scholarly Articles

Unpaywall doesn’t just give you a key; it gives you a legal, ethically sound key to the treasure chest of academic wisdom. This website is not merely a tool; it’s a testament to the idea that knowledge should be accessible to all, without compromising on legality and respect for authorship.

What are the benefits of Unpaywall?

#4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – Best for Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journals

The DOAJ, in its essence, manifests the democratic spirit of academic research. It’s an indispensable platform for researchers seeking high-quality, peer-reviewed, open-access resources across a wide range of subjects.

Source: https://doaj.org

#5. Open Access Button – Best for Free Versions of Paywalled Articles

What are the benefits of Open Access Button?

Open Access Button serves as the ethical bridge between knowledge seekers and the scholarly content they need. Its commitment to providing free, legal access upholds the values of respect and fairness in academia.

#6. Science Open – Best for a Wide Variety of Open Access Scientific Research

Consider Science Open as a bustling town square in the city of scientific knowledge, where scholars from all walks of life gather, discuss, and dissect over 60 million articles. 

Science Open is more than a tool; it’s a community fostering open scientific discourse. Its vast resources and collaborative platform make it a vital player in modern scientific research.

You might also like:

#7. CORE – Best for Open Access Content Across Disciplines

With its unparalleled aggregation and comprehensive access, CORE embodies the grand orchestra of global research. It stands as an essential tool in the modern researcher’s toolkit.

#8. ERIC – Best for Education Research

What are the benefits of ERIC?

#9. PaperPanda – Best for Free Access to Research Papers

PaperPanda is always there to assist you in your quest for knowledge. With its vast collection of research papers spanning various disciplines, PaperPanda ensures that you have the resources you need right at your fingertips. 

It’s like having a personal research assistant, guiding you through the maze of scholarly literature.

#10. Citationsy Archives – Best for Research Papers from Numerous Fields

As you navigate through the vast corridors of this digital library, you’ll discover a wealth of academic resources from diverse fields. 

Source: https://citationsy.com

#11. OA.mg – Best for Direct Download Links to Open Access Papers

OA.mg presents a no-nonsense approach to providing direct download links to scholarly articles, ensuring that you have immediate access to the knowledge you seek. With its simplicity and efficiency, OA.mg streamlines the process of finding and accessing open access papers.

Source: https://oa.mg

#12. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) – Best for Social Sciences and Humanities Research

SSRN fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing, creating a vibrant community at the forefront of social sciences and humanities research.

SSRN serves as an invaluable resource for researchers in the social sciences and humanities, fostering a community that drives innovation and advancements in these fields.

#13. Project Gutenberg – Best for Free Access to eBooks

Project Gutenberg opens the doors to a world of literary exploration, providing access to timeless wisdom and captivating stories that shape our intellectual landscape.

Project Gutenberg serves as a testament to the power of literature and the accessibility of knowledge. It enables readers worldwide to embark on intellectual journeys through its extensive collection of free eBooks.

#14. PLOS (Public Library of Science) – Best for Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research

As a leading publisher of open access research, PLOS fosters the dissemination of cutting-edge scientific discoveries to a global audience. 

With a commitment to quality and peer-reviewed excellence, PLOS supports the collaborative spirit of scientific advancement, empowering researchers and scientists to share their findings freely.

#15. arXiv.org – Best for Preprints in Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science

arXiv.org stands as a catalyst for scientific progress, offering a glimpse into the future of research. By providing early access to preprints, it fuels innovation, collaboration, and the acceleration of knowledge in science, mathematics, and computer science.

In a world where knowledge is king, accessing a research paper shouldn’t feel like an impossible task. Thanks to these free and innovative websites, we can escape the barriers of paywalls and dive into a vast ocean of intellectual wealth. 

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5 Websites to download Research Papers for Free

There are several sources from which researchers can download/ read research papers for free. Researchers can download almost any scientific paper in PDF format through these legitimate websites. In case, you are not able to download any particular research paper, you can reach the authors of the research paper through email. The authors will be more than happy to share their research paper.

Also, read Tips for publishing in high-impact factor journals ,

Difference b/w journal paper, conference paper & Book chapter

Page Contents

Download research papers for free

DOAJ is an extensive index of diverse open-access journals from around the world, committed to ensuring quality content is freely available online for everyone.

All DOAJ services are free of charge including being indexed. All data is freely available.

Articles  are searchable by author or title, ISSN, subject, and journal title.

The official website of DOAJ is: https://doaj.org/

2) Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes scholarly literature’s full text or metadata across multiple disciplines.

The official website of Google Scholar is: https://scholar.google.com/

3) ReserchGate

ResearchGate is a professional network for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. Researchers and scientists post PDFs of their articles on ResearchGate, so it is a source of free scholarly articles. 

The official website is https://www.researchgate.net/

PubMed is a free search engine for searching MEDLINE, the most popular bibliographic database in the health and medical sciences. It contains more than 35 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.

The official website of PubMed is https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

ArXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for 2,205,657 scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics. Researchers can download and read these research articles free of cost.

The official website of Arxiv is https://arxiv.org/

Dr. Sunny is an Assistant Professor in higher education. He has completed his Ph.D. He has a depth of knowledge in the research field and in higher education.

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10 Free Research and Journal Databases

• 3-minute read
• 6th April 2019

Finding good research can be tough, especially when so much of it is locked behind paywalls . But there are plenty of free resources out there if you know where to look. So to help out, we’ve compiled a list of ten free academic search engines and databases that you should check out.

1. Google Scholar

Even if you’ve not used Google Scholar before, you’ll know Google. And, thus, you can probably guess that Google Scholar is a search engine dedicated to academic work. Not everything listed on Google Scholar will be freely available in full. But it is a good place to start if you’re looking for a specific paper, and many papers can be downloaded for free.

CORE is an open research aggregator. This means it works as a search engine for open access research published by organisations from around the world, all of which is available for free. It is also the world’s largest open access aggregator , so it is a very useful resource for researchers!

3. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE)

Another dedicated academic search engine, BASE offers access to more than 140 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. Around 60% of these documents are open access, and you can filter results to see only research that is available for free online.

4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database that lists around 12,000 open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science and the humanities.

PubMed is a search engine maintained by the NCBI, part of the United States National Library of Medicine. It provides access to more than 29 million citations of biomedical research from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. The NCBI runs a similar search engine for research in the chemical sciences called PubChem , too, which is also free to use.

Find this useful?

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6. E-Theses Online Service (EThOS)

Run by the British Library, EThOS is a database of over 500,000 doctoral theses. More than half of these are available for free, either directly via EThOS or via a link to a university website.

7. Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

SSRN is a database for research from the social sciences and humanities, including 846,589 research papers from 426,107 researchers across 30 disciplines. Most of these are available for free, although you may need to sign up as a member (also free) to access some services.

8. WorldWideScience

WorldWideScience is a global academic search engine, providing access to national and international scientific databases from across the globe. One interesting feature is that it offers automatic translation, so users can have search results translated into their preferred language.

9. Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an ‘intelligent’ academic search engine. It uses machine learning to prioritise the most important research, which can make it easier to find relevant literature. Or, in Semantic Scholar’s own words, it uses influential citations, images and key phrases to ‘cut through the clutter’.

10. Public Library of Science (PLOS)

PLOS is an open-access research organisation that publishes several journals. But as well as publishing its own research, PLOS is a dedicated advocate for open-access learning. So if you appreciate the search engines and databases we’ve listed here, check out the rest of the PLOS site to find out more about their campaign to enable access to knowledge.

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