Open access online Journals for Libraries

Title of the article: Open access for librarians in developing countries

Author: Heather Morrison

Publisher: Heather Morrison

URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/7757

Abstract of the article:

   Open access literature is free online for anyone, anywhere, for reading, downloading and scholarly research. These literature are free and available for use as soon as published. Most open access materials are peer-reviewed journal articles. Open access materials also include government documents, theses and conference proceedings. Open access has helped in the optimum dissemination for scholarly knowledge. Access to the internet and literacy skills can help in the development of open access use. Open access literature also take advantage in the being cited for scholarly researches thus helps in proliferation of funds for researchers and increased readership for open access sites. Open access are mostly subsidized by non-government societies, government agencies and universities. 

Research funding agencies are leading and paving the way for the development of open access policies. An example of this is the Public Access Policy given by the US National Institute of Health. Individual researchers can help in the development and proliferation of Open Access Literature by (a) promoting open access resources, helping patrons in finding useful open access resources (b) creating open access resources, building an institutional open access repository, and helping researchers create their own and (c) educating researches on the policies on the use of open access journals.

3 things I learned:

1. Open access literature has helped in increased readership of free online journals which in turn requires its researchers of access to the internet and proficient literacy skills.

2. Open access repositories have their policies on sharing open access literature which the researchers must be sensitive to concerning payment for the further development of the open access repository.

3. There are two kinds of open access, these are open access publishing and self-archiving of articles in open access archives.

Application:

Open access repositories are widely used for academic research, it is an important tool to all libraries, and more importantly it can help alleviate problems for low funding. Some examples of popular open access journals:

http://www.doaj.org

http://www.scielo.org

http://www.arvix.org

http://repec.org

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

http://medlineplus.gov

http://eprints.rclis.org

http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/