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Getting Started on NAP.edu

Are you new to this site? A website with thousands of publications of scientific research can be intimidating if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. Let us give you a few tips on how to make the most of it before you begin.

Downloading

All titles from the National Academies Press are available to download for free in their entirety as PDFs. You must provide an email address, either by logging in to your MyNAP account or logging in as a guest. 

Find out more about our free PDFs »

Reading

If you don't want to download PDFs, you can also read our publications online in their entirety. On any title's main page, click "Read Online" to get started. From there, you can navigate from one chapter to another or search inside the book. You can share any page or chapter by copying the link. 

Get more info about reading online »

Searching

Our titles are all searchable by the full text of the publication. The search box appears on the home page, on its own page, or in the box at the top of any page on our site. Within the search results, you can filter by the year it was released, the primary topic of the publication, or the division of the National Acadmies that produced it.

See more about searching NAP.edu »

Browsing

If searching doesn't bring up what you're looking for, we have a number of ways to browse our titles.

Researching

Our login section, called MyNAP, allows you to save bookmarks for any publications available to read online, including personal notes for any page you bookmark. You can save any publication into a list for later reference, and you can see your history of downloaded and purchased titles.

Read more about using MyNAP »

Ordering

Many of our publiations, especially the newest ones, are available to purchase in paperback and ebook (epub and Kindle formats), and are often offered at discounts through the NASEM email list. Our customer service department is available to help with any questions you might have. 

Get more information about ordering »