Social Sciences
- General information on Open Access in the social sciences
- Open Access journals
- Subject-based repositories
- Member of the open-access.net Scientific Advisory Board from the field of sociology
In this section we have compiled some information on Open Access (OA) in the social sciences. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to send us an E-mail.
General information on Open Access in the social sciences
In contrast to its standing in the natural sciences, OA has not played an important role in the social sciences up to now. Peter Weingart, director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies (IWT) at Bielefeld University, suspects that this is due in part to the fact that OA publications are not very well known and that they still lack reputation.
However, 2007 saw the launch in Germany of a subject-based full-text server for the social sciences. The Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) is open to all scholars, learned societies and research organisations who conduct research in the social sciences in the broadest sense and who wish to make their results permanently available to a wide academic readership in a simple and cost-free way.
While SSOAR mainly targets postprints of journal articles, its content also includes contributions from collective volumes and conference proceedings as well as peer-reviewed research/working reports. Persistent citability and long-term availability is assured for all documents. Moreover, the entire content is findable in other subject-based and inter-disciplinary repositories and via search engines. SSOAR provides advice on OA self-archiving and develops customised solutions, for example portals for entire research networks and scholarly journals. SSOAR, whose team includes an information specialist, assists depositors in making documents available, for example by means of retrodigitisation.
Open Access journals
Over 60 social sciences journals are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). However, most of these do not yet enjoy a high reputation. Some of the better known journals are:
- The Electronic Journal of Sociology, launched in 1994
- Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS), an inter-disciplinary online journal of qualitative social research. Most of the articles are from the fields of sociology, psychology and education.
- Survey Research Methods (srm), the journal of the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) which was launched in 2007.
- soz:mag, a publication platform for young sociologists
- The Hamburg Review of Social Sciences, launched in 2006
- kommunikation@gesellschaft, a journal on the use of old and new media from a sociological, cultural anthropology and communication science perspective
- Journal of Integrated Social Sciences (JISS), launched in 2009
Sociological Research Online. This journal's focus lies on theoretical, empirical and methodological discussions dealing with current political, cultural and intellectual topics and debates.
- bildungsforschung, an inter-disciplinary journal in the field of education research.
- Water Alternatives (WaA) is an interdisciplinary journal addressing the full range of issues that water raises in contemporary societies.
- Africa Spectrum
- Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
- Journal of Politics in Latin America
- Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs
Subject-based repositories
- Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR), a subject-based document server for the social sciences. In addition to the opportunity to self-archive full texts, the repository provides support services for depositors.
Member of the open-access.net Scientific Advisory Board from the field of sociology
Prof. Dr. Uwe Schimank - University of Hagen, Member of the Board of the German Sociological Society (DGS)
