[Foundation-l] Access to academic journals (was Re: Remarks on Wikimedia's fundraiser)

[Melissa Hagemann]

--- On Tue, Mar 8, 2011, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> --- On Tue, 8/3/11, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
> > From: Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
> > Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
> > I guess I would like editors to have access to archives and
> > databases
> > such as those ProQuest sells. Not sure how that would fit
> > into our
> > budget.
> 
> I would like to second that as well -- this is a very important way in
> which
> the Foundation could support high-volume content contributors, and
which
> would make a significant difference to article quality.
> 
> This should be a part of university outreach as well. Many university
> students have log-in IDs enabling them to log into academic databases
from
> their homes. Please tell universities who would like to support
Wikipedia
> that this is a really important way in which they can support the
project,
> by allowing established content contributors access to these
databases.


In general, access to academic journals is extremely expensive and
usually only possible for those affiliated with universities.  However
there is an alternative.  There are now over 6,000 peer-reviewed open
access journals which are freely available online (www.doaj.org) and
over 1,800 academic repositories where authors deposit copies of their
research articles (www.opendoar.org).  This is the result of the open
access movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_(publishing)
which advocates for public access to publicly funded research. 

Hopefully the research which is being made available through open access
can help to support the work of the community. 

Melissa