Library Guides: Freely Available Resources for Research: Social Sciences

Freely Available Resources - Find Articles

EconBiz This link opens in a new window
A search portal for economics and business studies published in multiple languages from global sources. (2002 - present)
A database resources in business and economics cataloged by the German National Library for Economics and the University and City Library of Cologne. Useful for locating economic statistics and working papers.
Eldis This link opens in a new window
Policy, practice, and research on international development issues.
Eldis is an online information service providing free access to relevant, up-to-date and diverse research on international development issues. The database includes thousands of summaries and provides free links to full-text research and policy documents from thousands of publishers. Each document is selected by members of the Eldis editorial team. See also their Custom Search Engine for information from other development web sites.

ERIC
Topics covered include all levels of education and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. [1966 - present]

IDEAS: Economics and Finance Research This link opens in a new window
Citations and full-text access to thousands of working papers, books and book chapters, and articles from peer-reviewed journals in economics. (REPEC - Research Papers in Economics) [1995 - present]
A free bibliographic database on economics. Offering citations to thousands of full-text working papers, books and book chapters, and articles from peer-reviewed journals.
NCJRS (National Criminal Justice Reference Service) Abstracts Database This link opens in a new window
Summaries of more than 200,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources housed in the National Criminal Justice Reference Service Library collection. [1970 - present]
Indexes over 170,000 criminal justice books, journal articles, and reports published by the US Department of Justice, other local, state, and Federal government agencies, international organizations, and the private sector are indexed. Access is also provided to more than 7,000 full text documents through the NCJRS Virtual Library linked to the database.

Pew Research Center
Public opinion polling, demographic research, and other social science research.

Preprint and Postprint Servers

Preprint servers allow researchers to make their findings available to the public prior to publication in a peer reviewed journal. This allows researchers to receive feedback from their research community prior to publication, to "test the waters," and to "stake their claim" on a topic prior to publication. Listed below are notable preprint servers in the social sciences but there are many other preprint servers in other fields, including medicine and biological sciences.

PsyArXiv: Maintained by the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Sciences (SIPS) and the Center for Open Science. Established in 2016.
SocArXiv; Papers: open access platform for social scientist to upload working papers, preprints, and published papers, with the option to link data and code. Established in 2016.

Postprint Servers: Another way that the public has free access to previously published works in an online postprint repository. eScholarship is the University of California's open access publishing platform that allows UC researchers to post the final author version of their articles. For more information see UC Open Access Policies.

Freely Available Resources - Statistics and Numeric Data

Data.census.gov This link opens in a new window
Data.census.gov is the official repository for U.S. Census data on population and housing. This site replaces American FactFinder at the end of March 2020. See more link for additional information.
"Data.census.gov contains U.S. Census information such as the American Community Survey going back to 2011 and will house the 2020 Decennial Census data. Click on "advanced search" to search by table number, browse by filters, search by keyword, or scroll down the page to view additional access points. Users can download tables into excel or other formats. The site also provides access to census microdata, APIs, etc.

This site is still being developed. Users experiencing problems or site malfunctions should report these issues directly via email to cedsci.feedback@census.gov

Current and historical census and mapping data is also available in an easy-to-use format via the commercial database Social Explorer

For information on transitioning from American FactFinder to Data.Census.gov, please see What is Data.census.gov
Bureau of Economic Analysis This link opens in a new window
Time series data for US national and state income accounts as well as international trade and investment.
Also includes U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by industry and input-output tables for select years.
Bureau of Labor Statistics This link opens in a new window
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor produces some of the nation's most widely followed measures of the economy, including the latest numbers for the Consumer Price Index, unemployment rate, and the Producer Price.
Presents up-to-date U.S. economic statistical information in areas such as 'Inflation and Spending' and 'International Statistics.' Also available are the latest numbers for the Consumer Price Index, unemployment rate, and the Producer Price. Provides past and current statistics for the U.S. economy as a whole; regional economic data can be obtained by clicking the state on a color-coded map.
California Department of Education DataQuest This link opens in a new window
Find facts (API reports, enrollments, etc.) about California schools and districts.
Find facts (API reports, enrollments, etc.) about California schools and districts.
ChildStats.gov This link opens in a new window
Provides access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. Includes the annual Federal monitoring report "America's Children."
Provides access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. Includes the annual Federal monitoring report on the status of the American children.
The World Factbook This link opens in a new window
data and other facts countries including current economic statistics and indicators by country including population, GDP, external debt and birth and death rates. I
Provides fundamental and factual reference material on a country or issue including current economic statistics and indicators by country including population, GDP, external debt and birth and death rates. Includes maps.
QuickFacts This link opens in a new window
From the U.S. Census Bureau. Quick, easy access to facts about people, business and geography.
From the U.S. Census Bureau. Quick, easy access to facts about people, business and geography.
World Development Indicators (WDI) This link opens in a new window
An extensive collection of data about global development
Provides time series development indicators data (1960-present) for 210 countries. Includes tables for population, labor and employment, education, health, energy, urbanization, national accounts, purchasing power, trade, government finance, monetary, balance of payments, external debt, investment risk, taxes, prices and exchange rates, transport and communication, and information and technology. To access, click "Online Tables" under Formats Available.

Freely Available Resources - History Research and Primary Sources

Historical U.S. Newspapers Online
This guide, created by a librarian at Bowling Green University, attempts to provide links to every publicly accessible digitized historical newspaper in the United States
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Primary source and archival materials covering topics such as art and architecture, performing arts, technology and applied sciences
Making of America (University of Michigan)
digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately 10,000 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.

Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
Access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California including the 10 UC campuses.
A searchable and browseable resource that brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Contains over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections. Images are organized into thematic and institutional collections, such as historical topics, nature, places, and technology.

Freely Available Resources - open access journals

Open access journals are peer-reviewed, scholarly journals that are free, digital, and available to anyone online. Below are some OA journals with a broad, social science emphasis.

SAGE Open: Articles may span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities.
AERA Open: from the American Educational Research Association.
Frontiers in... : Several OA journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences including Frontiers in Communication, Frontiers in Education, Frontiers in Psychology.

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Freely Available Resources for Research: Social Sciences

Freely Available Resources - Find Articles

Preprint and Postprint Servers

Freely Available Resources - Statistics and Numeric Data

Freely Available Resources - History Research and Primary Sources

Freely Available Resources - open access journals