LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Open Textbooks

What is an open textbook?

An open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook offered online by its author(s). The open license sets open textbooks apart from traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost.

For a textbook to be considered open, it must be licensed in a way that grants a baseline set of rights to users that are less restrictive than its standard copyright. A license or list of permissions must be clearly stated by the author.

Generally, the minimum baseline rights allow users at least the following:

to use the textbook without compensating the author
to copy the textbook, with appropriate credit to the author
to distribute the textbook non-commercially
to shift the textbook into another format (such as digital or print)

Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
This is a five-step guide for faculty, and those who support faculty, who want to modify an open textbook. Step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types are included.

OER Textbooks

The repositories below host numerous open textbooks:

B.C. Open Collection
A curated selection of OER that can be accessed by educators. All materials are openly licensed. This means they are free to use, customize, and share.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Contains thousands of open access academic peer-reviewed books and chapters from hundreds of publishers.
InTechOpen
Open Access book publisher for science, medicine and pharmacy. Provides free online access to research since 2004. Built by scientists, for scientists.
LibreTexts Medicine Library
Supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot
Merlot Open Textbooks
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching) is a program of the California State University System. MERLOT Open textbooks include thousands of peer-reviewed titles on a broad range of subjects.
National Academies Press
Many of the books published by the National Academies Press can be downloaded for free in PDF format. Search the Health and Medicine collection.
NCBI Bookshelf
Provides free online access to books and documents in life science and healthcare. Search, read, and discover.
OER Commons: Open Textbooks
Catalog containing hundreds of open textbooks from higher education institutions around the world.
openstax
A nonprofit initiative of Rice University whose mission is to minimize the most common barriers to education. OpenStax publishes peer reviewed textbooks that meet standard scope and sequence requirements, but can be customized to meet the needs of particular classes.
Open Textbook Library
Provides a growing catalog of free, peer-reviewed, and openly-licensed textbooks.
Teaching Commons U.S.
High-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities. Curated by librarians and their institutions, it includes open access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, and more.

Individual Books

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Medical Writing

Chromosomes, Genes, and Traits: An Introduction to Genetics
Intended for an introductory or intermediate-level college genetics course. It begins with an exploration of DNA and genome structure and continues with a study of the molecular mechanisms that drive gene expression.
Fundamentals of Human Anatomy Laboratory Manual
Meant to be used in a lab course that accompanies a college-level introductory human anatomy course. It covers the language of anatomy, cells and tissues, and the organ systems that comprise the human body.
Hands-on Anatomy
Targets undergraduate or graduate students who have completed an introductory anatomy course and are beginning to apply their anatomical knowledge to the human body, as well as healthcare professionals engaged in patient assessment and treatment.
Culinary Medicine
Aimed at individuals and communities seeking to implement food-based disease prevention programs. The target audience is students taking a higher level nutrition class. Includes recipes, case studies, kitchen skills, food safety, popular diets, dietary supplements, and more.

Find the right Open Textbook

The Mason OER Metafinder (below) searches across 18 different sources of open educational materials.

Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 88 different sources and contains 352,755 records.