Open Access Week Profile 3: Forced Migration Journals

The focus in yesterday's post was on depositing eprints of subscription journal articles in digital repositories. The other principal open access vehicle for disseminating research is via OA journals. Currently, there is no scholarly OA journal title that encompasses all or even a significant part of the field of forced migration studies - although Forced Migration Review is a practitioner-oriented periodical that is effectively open access.

This situation will change early next year with the launch of the peer-reviewed open access Journal of Internal Displacement. Due out in January 2011, the inaugural issue will feature articles on "Internal Displacement: Definitions, Scope, Theories and Concepts." Authors are actively encouraged to archive their contributions in repositories or on their web sites.

Several other related OA titles that carry articles on forced migration topics include the following (all are peer-reviewed):

• Conflict and Health focuses on "the intricate relationship between conflict and health, and how health interventions in war zones may contribute to peace." One of the editors is with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
• Diversities, formerly the International Journal on Multicultural Societies, is published by UNESCO with the aim of providing a "platform for international, interdisciplinary and policy-related social science research in the fields of migration, multicultural policies, and human rights."
• The Journal of Identity and Migration Studies is edited by the Research Centre for Identity and Migration Issues (RCIMI) in Romania, whose goal is to "explore new directions in understanding the complex phenomenon of migration and its challenge in redefining identity."

You can find other titles listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). You can also search for additional forced migration-related articles via the DOAJ's search feature or by using the Open Access Journals Search Engine.

And if you are inclined to set up your own open access journal - the Journal of Forced Migration Studies, perhaps? - you can find advice for doing so here and here!

Tagged Periodicals and Web Sites/Tools.