FRELIP’s research guides — at guides.frelip.org, built with SubjectsPlus — are librarian-made starting points organised by subject. Each gathers the best databases, key books, and trustworthy websites for a field, so you never have to face a new topic from a blank page. They answer the question “where do I begin?”

Discovery search is perfect when you know roughly what you’re looking for. But when a subject is unfamiliar and you don’t even know which databases exist, a research guide is the better first stop. It’s expert orientation — a librarian’s shortcut, handed to you for free. (There’s a full FRELIP course on using them, too.)

What a research guide gives you

• The best databases for a subject, chosen by someone who knows the field.
• Key books and reference works — the foundations worth knowing.
• Vetted websites and organisations — quality, not quantity.
• Field-specific search tips — the right terms and tricks for that discipline.

Curated for a head start

The whole point of a guide is selection: a librarian has already sorted the good from the noise, so you start from the twenty resources that matter rather than the thousand that don’t. That head start is especially precious when you’re new to a field — which is exactly when most people feel lost.

🔗 Try it on FRELIP: guides.frelip.org — the research guides

To keep up with what’s newly published, rather than search the past, FRELIP gathers fresh research for you. On to OA Journal Feeds.

© FRELIP, released under CC BY 4.0. Linked resources remain under their own licences. Curated by the FRELIP Open Courseware editorial team.