Oxford LibGuides: Ecology for short courses: Free online resources

Useful web resources for your subject

Guidance on finding free 'open access' scholarly materials
Our guide to finding free open access scholarly materials covering SOLO; Databases A-Z; open access search engines such as CORE and BASE; out of copyright book services and more

Global Invasive Species Database
The Global Invasive Species Database is a free, online searchable source of information about alien and invasive species that negatively impact biodiversity.
The Global Invasive Species Database is a free, online searchable source of information about alien and invasive species that negatively impact biodiversity. The GISD aims to increase public awareness about invasive species and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities by disseminating specialist’s knowledge and experience to a broad global audience. It focuses on invasive alien species that threaten native biodiversity and natural areas and covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants.
The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) is managed by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. It was developed between 1998 and 2000 as part of the global initiative on invasive species led by the erstwhile Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP).
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Provides information about where and when species have been recorded.
GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility—is an international network and data infrastructure funded by the world's governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.
Coordinated through its Secretariat in Copenhagen, the GBIF network of participating countries and organizations, working through participant nodes, provides data-holding institutions around the world with common standards and open-source tools that enable them to share information about where and when species have been recorded. This knowledge derives from many sources, including everything from museum specimens collected in the 18th and 19th century to geotagged smartphone photos shared by amateur naturalists in recent days and weeks.
The GBIF network draws all these sources together through the use of data standards, such as Darwin Core, which forms the basis for the bulk of GBIF.org's index of hundreds of millions of species occurrence records. Publishers provide open access to their datasets using machine-readable Creative Commons licence designations, allowing scientists, researchers and others to apply the data in hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and policy papers each year. Many of these analyses—which cover topics from the impacts of climate change and the spread of invasive and alien pests to priorities for conservation and protected areas, food security and human health— would not be possible without this.
BioMed Central Journals
Open access journal articles on Biology, including collections on topics related to the environment
Alternative names: Bio Med Central ; BMC Journals

BioMed Central is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate free access to peer-reviewed biomedical research.
All the original research articles in journals published by BioMed Central are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is central to rapid and efficient progress in science and that subscription-based access to research is hindering rather than helping scientific communication.
All research articles and most other content in BioMed Central's journals are fully and rapidly peer-reviewed. The precise form of peer review is left to those responsible for editorial control of the journal. In some cases, including all the medical BMC journals, reviewers are asked to sign their reviews and the pre-publication history of each paper (submitted versions, reviewers' reports, authors' responses) is posted on the web with the published article.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of 12 natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.”
Alternative name: BHL

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of 12 natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” The BHL consortium works with the international taxonomic community, rights holders, and other interested parties to ensure that this biodiversity heritage is made available to a global audience through open access principles. Today, In partnership with the Internet Archive and through local digitization efforts, BHL has digitized over 32 million pages of taxonomic literature, representing over 45,000 titles and 87,000 volumes (January 2011).
EnviroLink
EnviroLink is dedicated to providing comprehensive, up-to-date environmental information and news.
Envirolink is claimed to be the most comprehensive collection of environmental resources on the Internet. Internet. Information is categorized by types of resources (organizations, publications, etc.) and environmental topics. Extensive searching tools exist to make finding the resources you want easier.

Environment Agency of England and Wales
A leading public body for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales.
Natural Environment Research Council
NERC commissions new research, infrastructure and training in environmental science.
Plant Diversity Research Team
The plant diversity research team at Oxford Plant Sciences work on taxonomy, phylogenetics, forest ecology, biodiversity and conservation. This website provides an overview of their activities, people and publications as well as digital access to many of their historic and modern botanical specimens, images and illustrations.

Open Access resources

The following key resources provide free access to high quality academic resources.

Open Access materials via SOLO
Guide to access free open access scholary resources on SOLO and beyond
MyJSTOR
If you register for MyJSTOR you will get access to 6 free JSTOR articles per month. This has been extended to 100 per month during the COVID-19 pandemic
BASE
Bielefed Academic Search engine is highly recommended. Use the 'Advanced Search' to exclude disserations and book reviews.
CORE
Another highly recommended open access search engine from the Open University and JISC.
Directory of Open Access Journals
Use the 'Journals' search to discover journals in your field which are fully open access (i.e. all of the articles are free)
OAPEN Open Access Books
You can search OAPEN directly but you'll also find all of the OAPEN books on SOLO. After searching in SOLO refine your search to 'Show only...Open Access'
DOAB Directory of Open Access Books
You can search DOAB directly but you'll also find all of the DOAB books on SOLO. After searching in SOLO refine your search to 'Show only...Open Access'
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg provides access to over 60,000 out of copyright books. These will be mainly older publications.
Scholarly resources at your UK Public Library