Open Access Week: Archives/Repositories

(revised)

Open access archives or repositories normally house preprints, conference papers, theses, and other research publications that may or may not be peer-reviewed. Forced Migration Online (FMO) recently received funding to develop an Open Access Repository System (OARS) and migrate its information resources to an open source platform. This has made its grey literature digital library more interoperable with other open systems, including the Oxford University Research Archive. The Refugee Research Network is part of York University's YorkSpace Institutional Repository, which "enables York community members to post, organize and preserve their research online in an institutional context."

Other examples of open access repositories are listed in the Open Access Directory (OAD) and openDOAR. The latter resource also allows users to search the contents of repositories listed in the openDOAR directory.

What other OA repositories exist in the forced migration field? While there are plenty of collections that provide access to full-text materials at no cost, most retain permission barriers of some kind or at least do not explicitly indicate what uses are allowed.

Here is a listing of various full-text collections for which no price barriers exist ("gratis OA"); where available, a link is included to copyright notices or terms & conditions for using the resource. In addition, all of these collections are open in the sense that they house materials that can be found via web search engines ("closed" collections house materials that can only be retrieved by searching the individual source database).

Child Trafficking Digital Library [access]
- Research studies and other materials relating to the human trafficking of children.
- See disclaimer.

ecoi.net [access]
- Country of origin information.
- See copyright notice.

Evaluative Reports Database [access]
- Humanitarian action evaluations and lessons-learned reports.

New Issues in Refugee Research [access]
- Working paper series that publishes preliminary research results.

Refworld [access]
- Country of origin information, policy documents, legal texts.
- See copyright notice.

ReliefWeb [access]
- Humanitarian-related situation and field reports, manuals, policy papers, and research studies.
- See terms and conditions.

Researching Asylum in London [access]
- Research reports on issues relating to the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in London.

Finally, while Google Scholar is not an OA repository, it is doing its part to more clearly identify OA research articles that appear in its search results by including a green arrow ( ► ) next to a title. For more information, check out "Now We Know What's Open."

Tagged Web Sites/Tools.