Library Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Biology

Open Resources in Biology

This page provides access to textbook repositories along with other selected open resources.

The purpose of these discipline specific pages is to showcase content that might be of interest to faculty who are considering adopting open educational resources for use in their classes. This list of content is by no means exhaustive, and more resources will be continually added.

The nature of open educational resources is very collaborative and it is in that spirit that we encourage any comments about the content featured on this page or recommendations of content that are not already listed here.

Photo by Nhia Moua on Unsplash

Open Textbooks

Anatomy and Physiology by J. Gordon Betts; Kelly A. Young; Peter Desaix; Eddie Johnson; Jody E. Johnson; Oksana Korol; Dean Kruse; Brandon Poe; James A. Wise; Mark Womble
ISBN: 9781947172043
Publication Date: 2013 (updated 2020)
Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. The book is organized by body system and covers standard scope and sequence requirements. Its lucid text, strategically constructed art, career features, and links to external learning tools address the critical teaching and learning challenges in the course. The web-based version of Anatomy and Physiology also features links to surgical videos, histology, and interactive diagrams.
Biology 2e by Mary Ann Clark; Jung Choi; Matthew Douglas
ISBN: 9781947172517
Publication Date: 2018
Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

BCcampus OpenEd
Openly licensed biology textbooks created or revised by faculty from British Columbia's post-secondary institutions.
Open Textbook Library
Natural & physical science textbooks.
Open SUNY
Textbooks listed by keyword for browsing, including biology and related topics.
OpenStax
Biology and related textbooks, including anatomy and microbiology.
OER Commons
Life science textbooks from early college through graduate levels.
MIT Open Courseware
Biology textbooks from MIT. (Limit to online textbooks)
Open Culture
Open textbooks, listed by subject, including biology.
LibreTexts Biology

Other Resources

National Academies Press
Biology and life science titles from the National Academies of Science, available for PDF download.
OER Commons
Biology and related subject materials for early college through graduate levels. Advanced search feature available.
Phet Science Simulations
Free interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations, written in Java, Flash or HTML5. Can be run online or downloaded to your computer.
InTech
Life science open access books. Subtopics available.
Developmental Biology Film Series
UMass Amherst digitized developmental biology films from the 60s and 70s. CC BY license so they can be used widely.