Has this ever happened to you? While researching an important paper, you come across an online journal database that claims to connect academics to high-quality peer-reviewed research. Intrigued, you search for keywords related to your topic, only to discover that you must pay a hefty subscription fee to access the service.

Subscription fees and paywalls are often the bane of students and academics, especially those at small institutions who don’t have access to many article directories and repositories.

Whether you’re working on an undergraduate paper, a PhD dissertation, or a medical research study, we want to help you find tools to locate and access the information you need to produce well-researched, compelling, and innovative writing.

Check out the top 21 free online journal and research databases in this article, and click the link below to download the full list of 101 databases, completely free!

Subscription fees and paywalls are often the bane of students and academics