Open Access Scholarship
The Open Access movement aims to promote the use and dissemination of scholarly research by making scholarship freely available. Open Access journals don't charge for use.
Open Access Journal Directories
The Directory of Open Access Journalsis a database that allows you to search over 10,000 free scholarly journals, covering every imaginable academic discipline. This directory is a great dissertation research resource, as it functions as a one-stop shop for free scholarly resources.
Some academic publishers produce open access journals. For instance, Wiley Blackwell and HighLine both provide online directories of their free, open access journals.
BestOnlineColleges.com also has a useful list of 99 academic journals that you can access for free.
Open Access Through Universities
Many universities encourage their faculty and students to make their scholarship available through open access platforms. Research by Duke University faculty, for instance, is available through the Duke Library DukeSpace, while Washington University offers a similar service through their Open Scholarship site. A quick Google search for “university open access” brings up numerous similar university-administered open access directories.
One of the largest university-administered open access services is the University of California's eScholarship. eScholarship provides full-text access to sources that include articles, conference proceedings, dissertations, and research studies by scholars at the University of California and around the world.
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