Research Guides: Open Educational Resources: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Search OER Collections

The B.C. Open Textbook Project provides textbooks including Analytical chemistry, Organic Chemistry With a Biological Emphasis, and Chemistry - Atoms First.

ChemWiki Core

UC Davis's ChemWiki includes modules on the core information in the fields of organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry, and analytical chemistry.

LibreTexts Chemistry

The LibreText Project offers campus courses, a list of books, and ancillary materials.

Lumen Learning

Lumen Learning provides a Chemistry textbook that covers chapters on Organic Chemistry, Nuclear Chemistry, Mass Relationships/Chemical Equations, and Basic Concepts of Chemical Bonding.

MERLOT

MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.

The National Academies Press (NAP)

This is a great resource that provides textbooks on chemistry studies.

OER Commons

OER Commons provides a curated collection of textbooks and resources for Chemistry students.

OpenStax CNX - Chemistry

Close to fifty open textbooks on topics related to chemistry.

Open Textbook Library

Browse a wide selection of chemistry textbooks.

National Science Digital Library

Provides a robust search to limit by activity type, media format, and age level. (Actually a pre-defined subset of the OER Commons)

PLoS One

More advanced, specific science resources that are open and could be used in a classroom setting.

AMSER: Applied Math and Science Educational Repository

Funded by the NSF and organized by Library of Congress subject headings. Aimed at Community and Technical Colleges, but free for all.

The Chem Collective

Created by a group of faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon to help those teaching/learning chemistry.

Chemistry Resources

LibreTexts Download Library
A collection of Chemistry books from the LibreTexts library that are ready to download, print, or remix online. LibreTexts is a multi-institutional collaborative venture to develop the next generation of open-access texts to improve postsecondary education at all levels of higher learning.
OpenStax Chemistry

Chemistry is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the two-semester general chemistry course. The textbook provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of chemistry and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. The book also includes a number of innovative features, including interactive exercises and real-world applications, designed to enhance student learning.
OpenStax Chemistry: Atoms First
Chemistry: Atoms First is a peer-reviewed, openly licensed introductory textbook produced through a collaborative publishing partnership between OpenStax and the University of Connecticut.
CLUE: Chemistry, Life, the Universe, and Everything

You might well ask, does the world really need another introductory chemistry textbook? The answer is, of course not—not if that book is just a variation on those currently available. This book takes an experimental approach to general chemistry, to present concepts and skills in various ways, ask students to talk about and work with their understanding, and then ask questions about what students actually mean when they use specific words and ideas. Critical to the success of this approach is time: the time required to understand what students think; the time required for students to recognize and talk about their assumptions; and the time required to listen to them explain their ideas.
Analytical Chemistry 2.0
Analytical chemistry is more than a collection of analytical methods and an understanding of equilibrium chemistry; it is an approach to solving chemical problems. Although equilibrium chemistry and analytical methods are important, their coverage should not come at the expense of other equally important topics.
The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry by David W. Ball, John W. Hill, and Rhonda J. Scott is for the one-semester General, Organic and Biological Chemistry course. The authors designed this textbook from the ground up to meet the needs of a one-semester course. It is 20 chapters in length and approximately 350-400 pages; just the right breadth and depth for instructors to teach and students to grasp.
Organic Chemistry With a Biological Emphasis: Volumes I & II
A free, open-access organic chemistry textbook (volumes I and II) in which the main focus is on relevance to biology and medicine. This is a PDF version of a wiki project called Chemwiki at the University of California, Davis. There are also supplementary materials, such as PowerPoint slides and a solutions manual available for this textbook at the Chemwiki website.
How to be a Successful Organic Chemist

How to be a successful organic chemist is meant as an introductory text for undergraduates taking organic chemistry teaching labs. The text is a clear and practical introduction to safety, chemical handling, organic chemistry techniques, and lab reports.
General Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and Applications
Although much of first-year chemistry is taught as a service course, there is no reason that the intrinsic excitement and potential of chemistry cannot be the focal point of the text and the course. We emphasize the positive aspects of chemistry and its relationship to students’ lives, which requires bringing in applications early and often.