Access to SETI research can be difficult for the lay SETI enthusiast because it is often very expensive.

Publications from science publishers such Elsevier and Springer Praxis, carry a premium price which is beyond the range of many.

Below are examples of excellent books ranging between £50 to £150. Individual research papers are commonly priced in the £25 range, and may only be 10 pages in length (including extensive bibliographies).

However, there are worthwhile materials available for free, if you know where to look.

In the UK, the public library system is your friend, offering alternative access opportunities.

Firstly check your library’s stock online using search terms such as SETI, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Astrobiology and Alien Life. Whilst you will probably be confronted by a welter of UFO-themed material there are likely to be some quality SETI publications, both for adult and junior readers. A quick search of my local library service, Essex, showed three useful books: The Contact Paradox, Extraterrrestrial and The Aliens Are Coming.

Books can be ordered from outside of your local library system if it is part of the national inter-loan system. There is usually a fee for this, typically around £6 to £7, but this stacks favourably against book prices in excess of £100.

Another excellent way of accessing a wide range of SETI-related research papers and articles is the Access To Research (A2R) portal, available via public-use PC’s in the large majority of UK public libraries. A great advantage of this portal is that initial research can be conducted from any device, anywhere, and abstracts of the items are available to read. Hence, when you visit the library to access the full item, you don’t have to waste any time searching. At your library you can pay to print any item (or parts thereof) or simply email a copy of it to yourself at no cost.

Using the search term ‘Extraterrestrial Intelligence‘ locates more than 700 SETI-related items on the A2R portal, and some excellent filtering tools to assist your own preferences.

A real online treasure is Archaeology, Anthropology And Interstellar Communication, a 300-page NASA book, edited by Doug Vakoch of the METI Institute. With contributions from John Billingham, Albert Harrison, Steven Dick and Vakoch, this is fascinating reading and demonstrates that SETI is far from the being the sole province of Astrophysics and Astronomy.

Stephane Dumas of the SETI League has provided a useful listing of SETI publications. The catalogue can be accessed or downloaded as a PDF from the ResearchGate website.

This is a brief sampling of useful free research on the Extraterrestrial Intelligence question. Please contact me with alternative suggestions to help build open access resources about the subject.

Meanwhile, happy reading.

John Keeling is a Content Provider & Curator for the EAAROcibo SETI UK Facebook page.