Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Open Access (Free Articles for Life)

The development of open-access journals has been one of the most exciting developments in academic scholarship during the last two decades.  Open-access journals are free publications that are available to everyone without hindrance of subscription fees, logins, legal contracts, or other barriers.  They provide universal access to research and knowledge.

Access to this journal content has been facilitated by the development of open access databases, most notable the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).  Maintained by the Infrastructure Services for Open Access, the database provides access to over 8,000 journals and 900,000 articles.  This is a multidisciplinary database with coverage in the arts, biology, business, environmental sciences, medicine, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and the social sciences.  Unlike many subscription databases, DOAJ does not employ embargos (publication date ranges extend to the present without a month or year delay).  All journals are also peer-review or have editorial quality control, making DOAJ an excellent resource high quality, current research.         

The Directory of Open Access Journals can be accessed using a Google search or from the UI&U Library’s databases by subject page (Library Homepage->Articles & Databases tab->Databases by Subject link).  For assistance using DOAJ, please contact a librarian.

Directory of Open Access Journals. (n.d.). DOJ FAQ. Retrieved from http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=loadTempl&templ=about&uiLanguage=en#aimscope
Geldand, J. (2006, July). DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals [Review of the database Directory of Open Access Journals]. Choice Reviews.
Geldand, J. (2013, March). DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals [Review of the database Directory of Open Access Journals]. Choice Reviews.

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