Environmental Studies spans the science of ecosystems, climate, oceans and the human geography of our planet. This guide gathers genuinely free, open-access (OA) resources and open educational resources (OER) so African researchers, students and librarians can read, learn and reuse without paywalls.
Subdisciplines — jump in
- Environmental Science · OER course
- Ecology & Conservation · OER course
- Climatology & Meteorology · OER course
- Oceanography & Marine · OER course
- Geography & GIS · OER course
New here? start with these courses
- FRELIP Environmental Studies OER course (subject foundations)
- Navigating Research Guides
- Accessing Open Access Journals
- Using VuFind Discovery Search
Search everything
Search across all FRELIP collections at search.frelip.org.
Start here for definitions, terminology, handbooks and quick background reading across Environmental Studies.
General
- Wikipedia Environment Portal (broad encyclopedic entry point)
- Encyclopedia of Earth (peer-reviewed environment articles)
- UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) (standards & terminology)
Environmental Science
- UNEP Resources & Reports (global environmental assessments)
- European Environment Agency Glossary (environmental terms)
Ecology & Conservation
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (conservation status reference)
- Convention on Biological Diversity (biodiversity terms & resources)
Climatology & Meteorology
- IPCC Assessment Reports & Glossary (authoritative climate reference)
- AMS Glossary of Meteorology (definitive meteorology terms)
Oceanography & Marine
- World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) (marine taxonomy reference)
- NOAA Ocean & Coasts Education (ocean reference collection)
Geography & GIS
- GeoNames (geographical names gazetteer)
- GIS Dictionary & Glossary (GIS terminology)
Full open-access books and free open textbooks you can read, download and reuse.
OA book platforms (search the field)
- DOAB — Directory of Open Access Books (environment search)
- OAPEN Library (peer-reviewed OA monographs)
- OpenStax (free, peer-reviewed textbooks)
- Open Textbook Library — Natural Sciences
- OER Commons — Environmental Science
Environmental Science
- OpenStax Biology 2e (ecology & environment chapters)
- LibreTexts Geosciences (geo.libretexts.org) (earth & environmental texts)
Ecology & Conservation
Climatology & Meteorology
Oceanography & Marine
Geography & GIS
- LibreTexts Physical Geography
- Project Gutenberg — Geography (classic texts)
Peer-reviewed OA journals and preprint servers. Browse by subdiscipline and read full text free.
Multidisciplinary OA
- DOAJ — Environmental Science journals
- African Journals OnLine (AJOL) (African-published journals; browse Environment)
- PLOS journals (OA across the sciences)
Environmental Science
- Environmental Research Letters (OA, IOP)
- Earth System Science Data (OA, Copernicus)
Ecology & Conservation
- Conservation Letters (OA conservation science)
- Ecology and Society (OA social-ecological systems)
Climatology & Meteorology
- Climate of the Past (OA, Copernicus)
- Weather and Climate Dynamics (OA, Copernicus)
Oceanography & Marine
- Ocean Science (OA, Copernicus)
- Frontiers in Marine Science (OA)
Geography & GIS
- ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (OA)
- Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (OA)
Preprints
- ESS Open Archive (ESSOAr) (Earth & space science preprints)
- EarthArXiv (geoscience preprints)
- bioRxiv — Ecology (life-science preprints)
Search engines and indexes for finding OA literature, plus citation tools. Pair these with the Citation Databases & Bibliometric Tools course.
Discovery & OA aggregators
- BASE — Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
- CORE (world's largest OA full-text aggregator)
- OpenAIRE Explore
- OpenAlex (open scholarly index)
- Semantic Scholar (AI-powered literature search)
- The Lens (scholarly & patent search)
Citation indexes
- OpenCitations (open citation data)
- Dimensions (free publication search)
Subject-specific
- GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility (biodiversity occurrence records)
- AGRIS (FAO) (agriculture & environment bibliography)
- NASA Earthdata GES DISC (Earth science data discovery)
Open datasets, environmental observations and primary sources you can analyse and cite. See the Data Management for Researchers course.
General repositories
- Zenodo (CERN-hosted, any discipline)
- Dryad (curated research data)
- Figshare
- OSF — Open Science Framework
- re3data (registry of data repositories)
Climate & atmosphere
Ecology & biodiversity
Earth observation, ocean & geography
- USGS EarthExplorer (satellite imagery, including Africa)
- Copernicus Open Access Hub (Sentinel satellite data)
- Natural Earth (free vector & raster map data)
Openly licensed images, lectures, simulations and maps for teaching and learning.
Images
- Wikimedia Commons — Environment (free media)
- NASA Visible Earth (Earth imagery)
- Encyclopedia of Life (species images & info)
Video & courseware
- MIT OpenCourseWare — Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
- Khan Academy — Ecology
- Khan Academy — Earth & Environment
Simulations & interactive maps
- PhET Earth Science Simulations
- earth.nullschool.net (live global wind, weather & ocean map)
- OpenStreetMap (free editable world map)
Free tools for managing references, finding full text and analysing environmental data.
Reference managers
- Zotero (free, open-source reference manager)
- JabRef (open-source, BibTeX)
- ZoteroBib (quick one-off bibliographies)
Identity & find full text
- ORCID (persistent researcher ID)
- Unpaywall (browser extension for legal OA copies)
- CORE Discovery (find free full text)
Analysis & mapping (field-relevant)
- QGIS (free, open-source GIS for mapping & spatial analysis)
- R (statistics & ecology/climate analysis)
- Google Earth Engine (planetary-scale geospatial analysis; free for research)
For citing correctly, see the Citation & Referencing course.
Understand licences, where to deposit, and the open-science policies shaping the field. Pair with Open Science & Responsible Research Assessment.
Creative Commons & licensing
Journal & repository policies
- Sherpa Romeo (publisher self-archiving policies)
- OpenDOAR (directory of OA repositories)
- ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories)
Open-access mandates & assessment
- Plan S / cOAlition S
- DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment)
Metadata & accessibility standards
Connect with the environmental research community and keep building your skills.
Learned societies & associations
- Ecological Society of America
- American Meteorological Society
- IUCN — International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Southern African association (SAAFoST) (regional science network)
- WIOMSA — Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (African marine science)