Research

Artcyclopedia – If you’re looking for information on artists or art movements, Artcyclopedia is a great place to begin. The site provides links to museums worldwide where works by over 8,200 artists can be viewed. While most of the artists listed are painters and sculptors, you can also find photographers, decorative artists, and architects. Any art or art history research can benefit from this site.

BioMedCentral – BioMedCentral is an archive of over 170 biology, chemistry and medical journals. The articles published on BioMedCentral are all peer-reviewed to ensure that they are accurate and appropriate for use as reference materials.

CIA World Factbook - The CIA World Factbook is a little different from the other resources on this list in that it is not an online journal directory or repository. It is, however, a highly useful research database for academics in a variety of disciplines. All the information is free to access, and it provides facts about every country in the world, including information about history, geography, transportation, and much more.

CORE - CORE is a multidisciplinary aggregator of open access research. It allows users to search more than 66 million open access articles. While most of these link to the full-text article on the original publisher's site, five million records are hosted directly on CORE.

Digital History – A valuable resource for those who seek information on U.S. history, Digital History offers an up-to-date textbook, as well as essays on film, private life, and science and technology, and visual histories about Lincoln’s America and America’s Reconstruction. The site also makes use of primary sources such as gravestones, historical advertising, and letters to give a more vivid picture of American History.

Directory of Open Access Journals - A multidisciplinary, community-curated directory, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) gives researchers access to high-quality, peer-reviewed journals. It has archived more than two million articles from 9,519 journals, allowing you to either browse by subject or search by keyword.

Encyclopedia Britannica - A general knowledge English-language encyclopedia. It is written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors, who have included 110 Nobel Prize winners and five American presidents.

Intute – Intute provides access to Web-based resources for science, technology, arts, humanities, and social sciences. The database contains well over 100,000 records and continues to grow. Subject experts review old records regularly to ensure that information is as current as possible. A perfect resource for general studies students.

JURN - A multidisciplinary search engine, JURN provides you with links to various scholarly websites, articles, and journals that are all free access or open access. Specifically covering the fields of the arts, humanities, business, law, nature, science, and medicine, JURN has indexed almost 5,000 repositories to help you find exactly what you're looking for.

Library of Congress – Most people have heard of the Library of Congress, but few realize the amount of information it offers online. In addition, the site offers online exhibits, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for there is online resource to ask a librarian. For anyone interested in American history, the Library of Congress is an invaluable resource that can provide you with a wealth of information not available anywhere else.

NASA's Ask An Expert is NASA's source for space and science research help. Search the Archives to see if your question has already been answered, or use the drop-down menus to browse through missions, topics, etc.

Occupational Outlook Handbook - The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations.

Project Gutenberg – Project Gutenberg, aptly named after the inventor of the movable type printer, provides web access to over 20,000 books. It is the largest collection of free books on the internet. Works include everything from “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” to A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard. If you still can’t seem to find a text, the site links up with other free online providers, giving you access to over 100,000 books in total. If you don’t have time to make a trip to the library, Project Gutenberg can be a great way to access books without leaving the house.

Public Library of Science - Public Library of Science (PLOS) is a big player in the world of open access science. Publishing seven open access journals, the nonprofit organization is committed to facilitating openness in academic research. According to the site, "all PLOS content is at the highest possible level of open access, meaning that scientific articles are immediately and freely available to anyone, anywhere."

Refdesk.com bills itself as the internet's fact checker. Includes in-depth research links to breaking news, editorials, This Day in History, Word of the Day, Daily Pictures and other references that make this a fun site with a ton of information.

Reference Desk.org. This is an extremely useful site, and while the Reference Desk does not personally answer questions, you have an excellent chance of finding someone who will be using their searchable subject directory.

Reference.com is extremely simple to use with a basic layout. Just type your question in the search field.

USA.gov is probably the best place to start when looking for specific government information. Make sure you check the All Topics and Services collection to get an idea of what there is at this exhaustive resource.