Open access scholarly resources

Scholarly research is increasingly becoming more openly accessible than ever before.

Whether you're an RRU alumnus, a prospective doctoral student preparing a dissertation proposal, or simply a member of the public with a yen for research, there are many avenues available to access scholarly content online without a library subscription. The best way to find openly available scholarly articles is to use an open access browser  extension in combination with a Google Scholar search. Learn more about how to do that below.

For help finding other types of open access resources, consult the left-hand menu.

"Open Access cookie" by biblioteekje is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Lean Library Open is a free browser extension (add-on) that enables you to access millions of peer-reviewed journal articles. It's fast and legal.

How does it work?

1. Download the Lean Library browser extension.
2. Select ‘Lean Library Open’ to get the free browser extension, which does not need a library subscription.
   
3. Use Google Scholar to search for articles on your topic of interest.
4. Click on the article you're interested in. Your browser extension will check across a vast database of open-access articles (over 33 million and counting) to see if there's a legal, openly available version available.
5. If there is, a pop-up window will appear providing a link to the open version.

For further information, see this animated video from Lean Library.