California University Libraries

Public & Open-Access Resources

A curated shelf of free databases, journals, digital libraries, and research guides for students of the Master of Applied Psychology and Master of Communication & Media Studies programs — no institutional login required.

98 resources 4 subject areas Compiled by GGU Libraries

Master of Applied Psychology

29 resources

Open access to the full text of articles, books, and more for students of Applied Psychology.

Databases

Database

CogPrints

This database collects scholarly articles in the fields of psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience that are free to review.

Database

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

This database collects thousands of journals that are open access. Do a keyword search or narrow down by journals or articles. You can also filter by the topic of Philosophy, Psychology, Religion.

Database

Free APA Journals Articles

Here you’ll find free scholarly articles from the American Psychological Association (APA).

Database

Google Scholar

Starting with Google Scholar is a great way to begin your research. This database indexes millions of articles, books, and more and will link you to a full text when available.

Database

JAMA Open Network

This database compiles free full-text articles on matters related to psychiatry, psychology, and behavioral health.

Database

JSTOR Open Access

The paid resource JSTOR offers open access to journals and ebooks online, as well as primary sources and open images and media.

Database

OA.MG

Here you can quickly look up open access journals in a variety of fields.

Database

OAPEN

The resource offers free access to nearly 3,000 scholarly books. You can search by keyword or browse by subject, including Psychology, which returns more than 300 books.

Database

Open Textbook Library

Access scholarly textbooks about Psychology and related topics for free.

Database

Public Library of Science

In this fully free database, you’ll find articles from journals devoted to global public health, medicine, and mental health.

Database

PubMed

This database from the National Library of Medicine allows you to filter for full-text documents on psychology topics.

Database

Research Gate

This database connects researchers with those looking to source the full text of an article or resource. Many researchers have published their articles available free to read, or you could reach out to them individually for the article for which you’re hoping to access.

Database

Taylor & Francis Online

In this database, you’ll find thousands of free full-text journal articles and journals, including on topics related to psychology.

Journals

See also the “Gratis List” — over 120 full-text psychology journals compiled by the PsychReg Journal of Psychology. Below are some of the most popular and well-respected open access journals in the field.

Journal

Collabora: Psychology

This is the official journal of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science offered free as open access.

Journal

Frontiers in Psychology

A wildly respected open access journal about a variety of topics in the field of psychology.

Journal

Mindfulness Journal

A journal that explores mindfulness meditation and related topics. Search for full text articles.

Miscellaneous Resources

Digital Library

HathiTrust Digital Library

A digital library of more than 19 million digital objects, like images, books, and journal articles.

Courses

Psychology.org

This website links to free online university courses on psychology on topics like “Introduction to Psychology” and “Abnormal Psychology” from universities like Yale, Carnegie Mellon, and Wesleyan. Also includes open courses on doing research in the field of psychology.

Transpersonal Psychology

25 resources

An interdisciplinary field exploring the intersection of psychology and spirituality. Most resources below are free and open access; a few paid databases are marked accordingly.

Databases

Database

ATLA Religion Database (ATLA RDB)

This EBSCO resource is the premier resource for students of religion. With more than a million full-text articles on all topics related to religion, ATLA RDB is a great tool to use when you’re beginning to research.

Database

CogPrints

This database collects scholarly articles in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics that the authors have posted free for anyone to review.

Database

Google Scholar

Starting with Google Scholar is a great way to begin your research. This database indexes millions of articles, books, and more and will link you to full text when available.

Database

JAMA Open Network

This database compiles free full-text articles on matters related to psychiatry, psychology, and behavioral health.

Database

JSTOR

This database includes key research resources for psychology students, like the full text of more than 500 e-books from the American Psychological Association (APA). JSTOR covers humanities topics relevant for Transpersonal Psychology students, including journals related to Religion and Philosophy.

Database

Mindfulness Journal

A journal that explores mindfulness meditation and related topics. Search for full-text articles.

Database

Philosopher’s Index

From ProQuest, this database with close to 700,000 articles includes the full text of scholarly journals on topics of interest to Transpersonal Psychology, like Metaphysics and Philosophy of Religion.

Database

Public Library of Science

In this fully free database, you’ll find articles from journals devoted to global public health, medicine, and mental health.

Database

PubMed

From the National Library of Medicine, PubMed is the premier index of medical-related articles, with more than 37 million articles included about every topic imaginable.

Database

Religion & Philosophy Collection from EBSCO

This database collects 129 active full-text journals and magazines and 105 active full-text peer-reviewed journals on topics related to religion and philosophy, including world religions, religious history, and philosophy of language.

Database

Spiritual Care Association

This resource is geared towards helping health care professionals who incorporate spirituality in their care. The SCA’s Caring for the Human Spirit (CFHS) journal is free online.

Database

Taylor & Francis Online

In this database, you’ll find thousands of free full-text journal articles, including on topics related to Transpersonal Psychology, like the periodical The Humanistic Psychologist and The International Journal of Jungian Studies.

Key Articles & Texts

Foundational and contemporary readings — journal articles, book chapters, and full texts — all freely accessible online.

Master of Communication & Media Studies

35 resources

Open access to the full text of articles, books, and more for students of Communication & Media Studies.

Databases

Database

ACLS Humanities Ebook

Collects more than 100 scholarly ebooks free to use on topics related to the Humanities.

Database

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

This database collects thousands of journals that are open access. Do a keyword search or narrow down by journals or articles. You can also filter by the topic of Philosophy, Psychology, Religion.

Database

Google Scholar

Starting with Google Scholar is a great way to begin your research. This database indexes millions of articles, books, and more and will link you to a full text when available.

Database

JSTOR Open Access

The paid resource JSTOR offers open access to journals and ebooks online as well as primary sources and open images and media.

Database

List of Open Access Journals in the Field of Communications

Compiled by the International Association for Media and Communications Research, this list of open access journals about Communications and Media contains many global journals, which might be a benefit for students who speak languages other than English.

Database

OA.MG

Here you can quickly look up open access journals in a variety of fields.

Database

OAPEN

The resource offers free access to nearly 3,000 scholarly books. You can search by keyword or browse by subject, including Media Studies, which includes more than 1,250 books.

Database

Open Library of Humanities

This free database collects open source scholarly journals on topics related to the humanities, including Media Studies.

Database

Open Textbook Library

Access free scholarly textbooks about Journalism, Media Studies & Communications.

Database

Taylor & Francis Online

In this database, you’ll find thousands of free full-text journal articles and journals, including on topics related to psychology.

Digital Libraries

Digital Library

HathiTrust Digital Library

A digital library of more than 19 million digital objects, like images, books, and journal articles.

Digital Library

The Internet Archive

Preserves millions of free texts, movies, websites, music, and more.

Digital Library

Library of Congress Catalog

Free access to the Library of Congress’ catalog, including more than 20 million books, serials, manuscripts, images, and more.

Digital Library

Media History Digital Library

This free online library is devoted to digitizing books and magazines from the history of cinema, recorded sound, and broadcasting.

Journals

Journal

Journalism and Media

An open access journal that looks at how journalism and media intersect.

Journal

Media Theory

An open access journal focused on media theory and covering a variety of topics, such as film and communications.

Images & Other Digital Objects

Image Collection

Ad* Access

More than 7,000 advertisements from American and Canadian periodicals between 1911 and 1955.

Image Collection

JSTOR Images

From JSTOR, a database of images available to access if you have a free registered account.

Image Collection

Wikimedia Commons

More than 145 million images, videos, and sound free to use.

Miscellaneous

Guide

ACRL/EBSS Library Resources for Communication Studies (LRCS)

Organized by the Association of College & Research Libraries, this comprehensive guide collects resources for students of Media and Communications. If you want to drill down into a specific niche in the field, this guide is a great place to start your research as it includes topics like Advertising, Health Communications, Media Ethics, and more.

Other Library Resources

9 resources

General open catalogs and national libraries worth knowing about, beyond the two program lists above.

Adapted from “Public/Open Resources for Golden Gate College,” compiled by GGU Libraries. Links point to third-party sites — availability and access terms are set by each publisher and may change.