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There are many resources available on the net that are in the public domain, and therefore freely usable without restrictions for Wikipedia content.
This page is intended as a list of only true public domain text resources. For other lists of resources, see below.
CAVEAT: Because there is no concept of public domain in Japan's copyright law, even though the materials are claimed public domain, there can be some restrictions such as about commercial use, which has a conflict with GFDL. Also, unlike the United States, most English speaking commonwealth countries exert Crown copyright. Please make certain that in any particular jurisdiction government agencies will allow you to copy materials without permission. Indian government sites also seem to be copyrighted by default [1] (http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/english/login/userAgreement.htm).
Sources for articles
Please don't data dump! The resources below are valuable, but many are very old, context-dependent, written from biased points of view, and otherwise are not in themselves good encyclopedia articles. They contain some useful information, but also sometimes an antiquated writing style and innumerable errors of fact.
So please, if you copy material from these sources, make sure you take some time to verify the accuracy of the information: edit, update, introduce, or otherwise produce a good article out of it rather than just dumping it here verbatim. But if you can't do that, put it in anyway because somebody else will come by and tweak it. Wikipedia articles are living texts, because everybody has the power to edit them. An entry that starts out incorrect, as a stub or even as something very insane, will eventually be tweaked and evolve into something much more sophisticated.
Please include an appropriate template for the reference in article Please use a template for the reference in an article that you create (or modify), if it exists. For example, if you include {{CIA WFB 2000}}, it expands into:
Some information in this article has been taken from the CIA World Factbook, 2000 edition.
This allows us to easily locate articles that use a particular public domain source, by using the "What links here" feature on the template page: Template:CIA WFB 2000, e.g. Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:CIA WFB 2000.
A list of templates for sources (including public domain sources) can be found at: Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles (note this may include templates for non-public domain sources).
Encyclopedic or general resources
US Government - Most publications of the Federal Government of the United States. Under the Federal Copyright Act material that is originated by the Federal government is not subject to copyright. In some cases, material may originate with a private contractor which assigns the copyright to the agency. However, material that is generated by the Federal government which doesn't have a notice can be copied. Entries below marked "(US Federal Govt.)" belong to this category. Note this only applies to the Federal government. United States state governments can copyright materials.
Canadian Government - While the Canadian government claims Crown copyright there are images archives at the National Library of Canada that are in the public domain. They include:
Radios Arte Radio (http://www.arteradio.com/home-en.html) broadcasts audio contents, in English, French and German, in MP3 and Real Audio format, under Creative Commons license.
Dictionaries
Other - Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.net/) See in particular The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia (although only Vol 1 (ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext95/pge0112.txt) of this seems to be available). Note that not all of the Project Gutenberg texts are fully in the public domain. Read the license of the respective texts carefully. "The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia is a reproduction of a 1911 edition of a famous encyclopedia."
- The 1911 version of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
- The Household Cyclopedia (http://www.publicbookshelf.org/public_html/The_Household_Cyclopedia_of_General_Information/)
- The Nuttall Encyclopaedia (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/12342), generally short entries, mostly about people and places; probably the only encyclopedia that does have entries about characters from Dickens' works, but not about fruit.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/)
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906) (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/index.jsp)
- This website contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906. The Jewish Encyclopedia, which recently entered the public domain, contains over 15,000 articles and illustrations. This online version contains the unedited contents of the original encyclopedia. Since the original work was completed almost 100 years ago, it does not cover a significant portion of modern Jewish History (e.g., the creation of Israel, the Holocaust, etc.). However, it does contain an incredible amount of information that is remarkably relevant today.
- We are considering inviting the Internet community to help us update the encyclopedia -- if you are interested in volunteering (as a writer, editor, etc.) please join our Mailing List. By putting this important work on the Internet, we hope to improve the quality of Jewish information available online -- and stimulate new discussion. Therefore, we have "Discussion Forums" and "Internet Links" sections which allow our visitors to converse and identify related websites.
- ibiblio.org (http://www.ibiblio.org/) is a major repository of information: "the public's library and digital archive". All collections on ibiblio are assumed to be in the public domain unless otherwise noted. Check for copyright notices on any material you wish to use.
- A Pronouncing dictionary of Biography and Mythology (http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?sid=ea572df9991f9af0379d042a95658221&idno=ajk6207.0001.001&xc=1&c=moa&cc=moa&g=moagrp&seq=23) contains a large number (10000+) short NPOV biographical entries, many of which could be copied and pasted to form stubs (due to its focus it contains information on many 19th and 18th century figures not yet covered in Wikipedia).
Philosophy, mathematics and natural science
Astronomy and astrophysics
Biology
Chemistry Note: PIHKAL and TIHKAL, formerly listed here, are not in the public domain, and should therefore not be listed here. Some parts may be non-public domain -- can anyone check this in detail with the webmasters, please? According to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/copyright.html, specific NLM Web sites containing protected information provide additional notification of conditions associated with its use. It's in PD by default.
Climate
Geology and Earth science
Mathematics
Philosophy
Physics - Physics for Free (http://www.physicsforfree.com) has two public domain physics books by former Yale professor Frank Firk: one about basic physics, one about groups and particles
Statistics
Social sciences
Anthropology
Archaeology
Biography
Economics
Geography and maps - (US Federal Govt.) CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/) Contains basic facts on all the countries of the world
- (US Federal Govt.) U.S. State Dept.: Background notes on the countries of the world (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/). Also see their copyright notice (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/dos/3797.htm), which, as you'll see, places material that is not explicitly copyrighted in the public domain
- (US Federal Govt.) [2] (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html) - Library of Congress area country studies. It explicitly states that it is not copyrighted
- (US Federal Govt.) CIA World DataBank II (http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/data/WDB/) - global outline map data (coastlines, rivers, national boundaries) in vector format, hosted by Dave Pape at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (but note that this dates back to 1972, so many national boundaries are out of date)
- (US Federal Govt.) ETOPO2 (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html) - a whole-planet digial elevation map dataset with sample points a 2 arc minute intervals
- (US Federal Govt.) GTOPO30 (http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/gtopo30.asp) - a whole-planet digital elevation map dataset with sample points at 30 arc second intervals - the data files can be found at ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/gtopo30/global/
- (US Federal Govt.) Blue Marble (http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?11612), a set of high-resolution cylindrical-projection raster images of the Earth derived from satellite data
- (US Federal Govt.) the NIMA www.nima.mil GEOnet Names Server contains approximately 3.88 million named geographical features outside the United States, with 5.34 million names [3] (http://earth-info.nima.mil/gns/html/)
- (US Federal Govt.) the USGS Geographic Names Information System claims to have almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features within the United States
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html) at the University of Texas (check Usage statement (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/usage_statement.html) and verify public domain status)
See also: Wikipedia:Map
History - British History Historical Public Domain Documents (http://britishhistory.about.com/cs/publicdomaindocs/)
- (US Federal Govt.) United States National Archives and Records Administration (http://www.archives.gov/welcome/index.html), the U.S. federal government's official archive site
- Historical Maps (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/index.html) of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas (public domain usage statement (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/usage_statement.html) - "Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin")
- (US Federal Govt.) Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch1.asp) - biographical information on everyone who ever served in Congress, including a good number of presidents. Articles that use info from this source should use {{bioguide}} at the bottom, for a simple citation.
- http://www.abive.org : présente certains scans de documents anciens, pouvant servir de source historique. Il n'y a qu'à copier (tout retaper à la main)
Ancient History
History of science and technology
Language and Linguistics
Political science
Psychology - Classics in the History of Psychology (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/index.htm) is a collection of classic public domain works in psychology collected by Christopher D. Green: see here (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/copyright.htm) for a note about the copyright status of the individual documents in the collection
Applied arts and sciences
Agriculture
Architecture
Business and industry - (US Federal Govt.) US Energy Information Agency (http://www.eia.doe.gov) - statistics and info on energy industry (mostly US but some stuff for the world) - they appreciate but do not require acknowledgement (copyright info here (http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/aboutEIA/copy_right.htm))
Communication - (US Federal Govt.) Federal Standard 1037C, a telecommunications glossary, appears to be mostly in the public domain based on these principles, and is a source of a large number of bits of useful material. A few items are derived from copyrighted sources: where this is the case, there is an attribution to the source. Note: most non-trivial 1037C articles are now incorporated into Wikipedia -- please also note that only those articles that have substantial content and are from 100% public domain sources are suitable for inclusion in the Wikipedia
- (US Federal Govt.) DISA site about commercial telecommunications standards (http://www-comm.itsi.disa.mil/) From the site: "This site is maintained by the Commercial Standards Division of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide information about the current status of commercial telecommunications standards."
Computer science
Education - ERIC Digests (http://www.ericdigests.org/) This site has several thousand education articles. They were all produced by the US Government ERIC Clearinghouse system. All of them are also in the public domain and can be used freely for content at Wikipedia.
Employment
Engineering - Informational pamphlets, engineering manuals, engineering design guides, engineering standards, ...
Law
Medicine - (US Federal Govt.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov) "In general all information presented in these pages and all items available for download are for public use. However, you may encounter some pages that require a login password and id. If this is the case you may assume that information presented and items available for download therein are for your authorized access only and not for redistribution by you unless you are otherwise informed."
- (US Federal Govt.) Medline at the NIH (http://medlineplus.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/disclaimer.html) copyright terms here (http://medlineplus.nlm.nih.gov/) indicating materials are in the public domain unless otherwise indicated
- (US Federal Govt.) NIH public domain publications on urology (http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/urolog/urolog.htm)
- (US Federal Govt.) NIMH Patient education materials (Public Domain) (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/practitioners/patinfo.cfm)
- (US Federal Govt.) Glossary of HIV/AIDS-Related Terms 4th Edition (http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/ed_resources/glossary/): a Department of Health and Human Services project collaboratively sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health Resources and
Services Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - (US Federal Govt.) USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/) Contains nutritional information on a large number of comestibles. From FAQ: "USDA food composition data is in the public domain and there is no copyright. We would appreciate it if you would list us as the source of the data and when possible we would like to see the product which uses the data or be notified of its use."
- (US Federal Govt.) A large collection of public domain information sheets on various neurological disorders (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/)
- Gray's Anatomy (http://www.bartleby.com/107/) - 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (with illustrations).
- (US Federal Govt.) U.S. National Toxicology Program (http://ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/): copyright notice here (http://ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/main_pages/disc_cpy.html), typical U.S. govt terms
- The Bad Bug Book at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html appears to be in the public domain, but please check each section individually for public domain status
- Asthma genetics - Public domain data (http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/asthma/public/)
- (US Federal Govt.) Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/toc.html) (needs positive confirmation before use: some diagrams within the text say "used by permission", which implies that they are copyrighted -- however, the rest appears to be written by U.S. govt. employees)
- (US Federal Govt.) The NCI thesaurus (http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancerinfo/terminologyresources) is a massive public domain repository of definitions of medical terms
- (US Federal Govt.) The Genetics Home Reference http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/ghr/ is a wide resource on human genetics
Military
Public affairs - (US Federal Govt.) Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://www.fema.gov): Not sure how much of this is useful, but anyway it's under the same terms as the U.S. Department of State site: all in the public domain unless it carries an explicit copyright notice.
- (US Federal Govt.) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov): copyright notice here (http://www.epa.gov/region4/home/notice.html), typical U.S. gov't terms. Does have some good information for people patient enough to find it.
- (US Federal Govt.) Voice Of America (http://www.voanews.com/) - All text, audio and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America is public domain. However, some images and graphics are licensed for use and covered by all applicable copyright laws.
- (California State Govt.) California Department Of Corrections (http://www.cdc.state.ca.us/InstitutionsDiv/INSTDIV/facilities) is in the public domain unless otherwise noted. It has information and photos of California prisons such as Pleasant Valley State Prison.
Transport Wikipedia:Porting Vectorsite articles
Culture
Arts and Entertainment
Classics
Cooking
Libraries
Literature - A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology (http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html) (José Ángel García Landa, University of Zaragoza, Spain)
- OVO (http://www.ovo127.com/) New works in the public domain since 1987. Magazine format (PDF and Open Office).
- Brewer's Reader's Handbook (http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/174/frameset.html), published in 1898, states that "the object of this Handbook is to supply readers and speakers with a lucid but very brief account of such names as are used in allusions and references, whether by poets or prose writers". Contains many short articles, some on obscure topics
Music
Recreation
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