The 7 Best Online Resources for Researchers

Need help tracking down a protocol, creating citations, or finding scientific illustrations for your projects? Check out the following list of resources to aid your research.

1. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

   Started in 2006, Cold Spring Harbor Protocols has published hundreds of free, easy-to-use laboratory protocols ranging from antibody purification to live-cell imaging of GFP in plants. Additionally, the journal is currently offering a free, full-access trial subscription for scientists interested in accessing the full breadth of resources available.

2. BLAST

   The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is no stranger to most researchers, but the site's BLAST tool is more than just an alignment tool. Need to design primers? Check out Primer-BLAST. Having trouble discerning your sequence of interest from your vector? VecScreen can remove any nucleic acid sequences of vector origin before analyzing.

3. iBiology

   If you need to brush up on a technique or concept in biology you're unfamiliar with, iBiology is a collaboration of leading biologists bringing free, open-access videos to researchers worldwide. Teaching a course? iBiology also has resources for educators to incorporate into their curriculum. With over 275 videos (and counting), you're sure to find content relevant to your research.

4. EasyBib

   Offered by Chegg, EasyBib provides students and researchers with a free citation generator for several common citation styles. If you're interested in testing EasyBib's plagiarism checker, you can check out their Easybib Plus free trial while getting help with 7,000+ citation styles and advanced grammatical errors.

5. Benchling

   The era of electronic lab notebooks is here and Benchling offers a free resource for academic researchers. With a wealth of molecular biology tools, inventory capabilities, and access to the cloud-based software from any internet connection, researchers can save paper while maintaining version control of their protocols.

6. Science Source Images

   Looking for high-quality science images for your presentations or lectures? Science Source offers both royalty-free and rights-managed images and videos for your use. Types of content available include 3D images, 3D animations, historical etchings/drawings, medical illustrations, and more.

7. BioRender

   The days of illustrating cells and proteins in PowerPoint are now behind us with the ever-growing BioRender icon library. With over 20,000 icons, you can simply drag and drop to create publication-ready figures in minutes. BioRender offers different subscription levels with varying licensing options, so check out their pricing structure here for the most suitable package.