What are open access databases?
A large number of research institutions, academic institutions, and government agencies around the world create databases that contain articles, documents and datasets on nearly every conceivable academic field. Many of these databases are available free on the World Wide Web through individual portals or websites, or can become part of a library-provided discovery service, such as ours, Summon. Some of these databases are discoverable in Summon, but others are not, or they provide more robust search features outside of Summon.
If you are interested in seeing a classified and categorized collection of linked Open Access Databases which you can access from a single portal, go to Listing of Open Access DataBases (LOADB).
Open Access Databases in Summon
When you conduct a search in Summon, you will be able to discover content that is available from these databases. Do not assume that all of the content contained in these databases is 100% discoverable in Summon, and that sometimes by searching the open access database independently of Summon is the best way to assure that you have made a comprehensive, exhaustive search of the content available in that database (see list of Open Access Databases with robust search parameters to the right of this list).
Open Access Databases Outside of Summon
These Open Access Databases must be searched outside of Summon.
