HighBeam Research

Another fee-based access online library is HighBeam Research. They provide a similar service to Questia. The advantage of HighBeam is that it has a larger base of materials to look through. They boast of over 35 million articles from 3,000 highly respected publishers. In addition to a large selection of reference materials they also offer online digital tools designed to aid research and drafting research papers such as the Columbia Encyclopedia, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an almanac. Other tools that are available to subscribers include: simple and advance search options, sorting options, My Research Center, you can save articles for future reference, you can request email alerts when new articles or material becomes available that match your research needs, and you can export your research to Microsoft Office or PowerPoint.

HighBeam Research offers two different levels of membership. The first option is Basic Membership, which is free with registration. This option allows users to:

1. Search the entire library;
2. Preview articles;
3. Advance search options;
4. Use of HighBeam Blog Enhancer;
5. Use of HighBeam RSS;
6. Search using HighBeam Web (5 sources only);
7. Create and save research groups (only up to 3);
8. Use of HighBeam Reference;
9. View Free Reference Articles;
10. Configure display preferences; and
11. Save search queries.

If you need more research options you can enroll in High Beam’s Full Membership program for $19.95 per month or $99.95 per year, which is comparable with Questia.com service charges. With paid membership you get all of the options above plus:

1. View of full text of your selected articles;
2. You can export articles to Microsoft Office;
3. You can save your articles online for future reference;
4. You can sign up for email alerts for new material;
5. You can use HighBeam Blog Enhancer;
6. Get up to 10 sources using the HighBeam Web;
7. Create and save up to 100 research groups; and
8. Access the premium reference and library articles.

If you aren’t sure if you want to pay for research services then you can sign up for a free trial of the full membership package.