Open resources to support research and teaching

Are you looking for resources for your research or teaching, but the libraries are closed and all digital copies of e-books have been taken? During the coronavirus pandemic, open resources are more important than ever. This is a list of open access services, particularly those focusing on the humanities and social sciences, to support research and teaching in these fields. These resources are available regardless of time, place or your organisation. The list is not exhaustive, but it is a good place to start.

Open academic publication services

• Services and publishers of open monographs and compilations
  • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
  • OAPEN Library
  • OpenEdition
  • Open Book Publishers
  • Open Humanities Press
  • The Finnish Literature Society: SKS Open Access Publications, digitised books
  • The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
  • University presses in Finland: Tampere University Press OA Books, Helsinki University Press, Helda Open Books
  • De Gruyter Open Access Book Library
  • Brill: Open Access Portal
  • Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem
• Open journal services
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  • EZB Electronic Journals Library
  • Journal.fi – Finnish scholarly journals online
• Open publication archives
  Publication archives contain open access theses, books, academic articles and much more.
  • List of Finnish publication archives. For example, the publication archive of Statistics Finland has more than 16,000 digitised statistical publications from the 19th century onwards and the publication archive of the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare has articles from the journal Yhteiskuntapolitiikka.
  • The most comprehensive search engines for international publication archives include BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine), COREand Google Scholar.

Did we miss an important service? Please let us know!

Open publications in the National Library’s search service and Finna.fi

Openly available articles from books and journals can also be accessed through the search tab for international e-materials in the search service of the National Library. This search will yield both open articles and ones that require a university login, but you can use the Source filtering menu to select sources that focus on open access articles, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

The main search service of the National Library has a large selection of  open access books. You can filter your search results by language, for example.

Finnish open access publications and theses can be found through the Finna.fi service, which compiles resources from Finnish libraries, archives and museums. By filtering the search results first by their online availability and then by material type, you will be able to find articles or doctoral theses, for example.

Digitised collections

The Digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi service has a great deal of open resources. For example, the service includes historical newspapers and periodicals from 1771–1929, digitised by the National Library. The Book history collection, consisting of non-fiction books and textbooks, features a comprehensive collection of ABC books up until 1972. The Swedish Era Literature collection comprises the oldest section of Finnish national literature, digitised versions of publications printed between 1488 and 1809/1827. See more featured digitised collections here!

Open due to exceptional circumstances

Many academic publishers have opened their resources temporarily because of the exceptional circumstances. The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) maintains a list of resources that have been opened due to the exceptional circumstances.

For example, the Finnish Literature Society has made the National Biography freely accessible until 26 May 2020.

Feedback: [email protected]

Contacts:

Academic publications: Information Specialist Emilia Pyykönen, Research Services

Digitised material: Information Systems Specialist Juha Rautiainen, digital humanities