Free and Open Access Links: Social Sciences

Information about social science specific online resources that are open access so available to all researchers and social science specific online resources that are freely available to researchers in developing and emerging countries.

African Journal Archive
The African Journal Archive is a retrospective digitisation project of full-text journal articles published in Africa. Journal articles hosted on the Archive extend back to the first issue (if available) and end with the last pre-current issue (determined by the publisher). The website comprises over 700 issues and 150,000 pages of journal archives of academic, scholarly, institutional, museums, and professional research organizations in Africa. Online access to the archive is free of charge to Africa and the world.

Behavioural and Brain Sciences
Totally open archive journal where users can submit papers, commentaries, responses and search the archive for papers in all fields of the Brain/Behavioural Sciences. Access to all articles is free to all users.

Biblioteca Virtual de Ciencias Sociales de América Latina y el Caribe
An initiative of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales, CLACSO) providing free access to 1,800 full-text books, periodical articles, conference proceeding and also to databases with information about publications, research projects and researchers working in its network of 130 social science research institutions in 19 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The main portal is in Spanish and there are separate portals available in English, French  and Portuguese.

Cogprints
Leading electronic archive for self-archive papers in any area of psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics, and areas of computer science, philosophy, biology, the physical, social and mathematical sciences that are pertinent to the study of cognition.

Economists Online
Economists Online showcases some of the world's leading institutions, their scholars and their academic publications and datasets; contains over 900,000 bibliographic references, many with links to open access full text; and combines content with RePEc archives to provide a new information service to the economist.

Educause Quarterly  
Educause (formerly Cause/Effect) is a freely accessible practitioner's journal containing articles that relate to planning, developing, using, and evaluating information resources in higher education, covering aspects such as information systems development, user services, telecommunications and networking, database administration, and instructional technology development and co-ordination.

Electronic Development and Environment Information System (ELDIS) (hosted with Devline)
The British Library of Development Studies's electronic information service for development professionals, including resources directory, Email discussions, links to databases, library catalogues, bibliographies, etc

GDNet's Free Journals Access Portal For Social Sciences 
Global Development Network-North America's new Free Journal Access Portal enables social science researchers based in developing or transitional countries to access a searchable, full-text, online database of more than 120 well-known social-science journals, free of charge. It is made available to GDNet Profile holders by the Center for Global Development and the Global Development Network-North America (GDN-NA), in cooperation with Project MUSE of the John Hopkins University Press.

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Access to the collection of online reports and magazines from the IDRC, Canada. The resource is also available in French.

Intute: Social Sciences
Excellent on-line catalogue of thousands of high-quality Internet resources relevant to social science education and research. Every resource has been selected and described by a librarian or subject specialist; search or browse the catalogue.

Social Sciences Virtual Library 
Part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library, this is a major gateway for social science resources on the Internet, covering directories and databases, electronic journals, societies and professional associations, and an extensive section of social science resources grouped by over a hundred subjects, including regional studies.

World Development Sources (World Bank)
World Development Sources (WDS) is a web based text search and retrieval system which contains a collection of over 14,000 World Bank reports most of which are scanned and are available in imaged format, which you can access via a web browser and search through a multi-field search engine. These include Project appraisal reports, Economic and Sector Works, Evaluation reports, studies and working papers.

WWW Library: Women's History 
Maintained by the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands, this is an extensive links collection of Web resources on women's history, including women's history institutions and organizations, libraries and archives, journals for women's studies, upcoming conferences, discussion lists, together with subject or region specific listings (e.g. African History, Asian History, Women Artists, Women in Media, Women in Medicine and Nursing, Women in Music, Women in Science and Engineering, Women Writers).