By Dawn C. Stricklin
Breaking through the scholarly divide: open access for family historians “...American colleges and universities today offer the greatest potential, of these two liaisons, for merging the disciplines of history and genealogy...”1
W
hen Elizabeth Shown Mills first penned her treatise on reconciliation and progress between university scholars and genealogists nearly thirty years ago, it was difficult, though not impossible, for genealogists without a university affiliation to access scholarly publications outside the field of genealogy. Even as late as 2003, prior to my return to the university environment, obtaining access to scholarly materials was not an easy task. However, since that time, the “Open Access Movement” was born, creating room for both reconciliation and progress to proceed. For about the past five years, there has been a social movement brewing among scholars and university librarians. The focal point of this development is the creation and maintenance of open access databases with the mission of Page 22
sharing scholarly publications across multiple disciplines and with the general public. Prior to this advancement, people who had no affiliation with a university were often confronted with the difficulties of accessing scholarly publications, and particularly theses and dissertations, not to mention articles in expensive peer-reviewed journals. Likewise, scholars also struggled if they were affiliated with a university but its library could not afford staggering journal subscription rates. Even today, many scholarly articles are not only a challenge to retrieve via interlibrary loan but often require the payment of small fortunes before being electronically delivered to the recipient. However, the Open Access Movement has removed many of these hurdles. This shift from scholarly exclusivity to public inclusiveness is now being accelerated by university libraries that are finally becoming “... agents of liaison...” between genealogists and scholars.2 What is most poignant is that this movement is also being supported en masse by university scholars who are eager to share their ngs magazine
own research with the public. Many have created personal web pages or are using their university web pages where they upload their published manuscripts as PDFs.3 Other scholars are relying on databases to store their published materials. These databases house not only peer-reviewed journals, but also bachelor and master theses and doctoral dissertations that can be downloaded free of charge. Still other scholars are submitting their manuscripts to open access journals for publication and access by anyone with an Internet connection. These databases are a goldmine of information for genealogists, especially when writing narrative genealogies.
Locating resources One of the first places to start looking for published material is through special search engines. For example, Google Scholar is an effective way to locate published manuscripts of interest. Unlike other search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing, Google Scholar specifically searches through peer-reviewed journals, books, theses, and dissertations. You can search by author, title, or keywords. Many of the sources that appear will be available as downloadable PDFs or Microsoft Word documents, available through Google Books, or will appear as citations only. If the article, thesis, or dissertation you are interested in does not provide free access online or you cannot order the journal via interlibrary loan, then you still have the option of contacting the authors. Many scholars welcome public interest in their research and, if asked, might even send you an electronic copy of their published paper. After writing down a complete citation of the article, conduct a regular Google search for the author. You may find links to a personal or university website that will provide an e-mail address. Another method that can be used to find contact information for scholars at universities is through Academia.edu http://www.academia .edu. This website allows graduate students and faculty members to create personal profiles. Unlike other similar sites, Academia.edu enables participants to list their areas of specialty, assistjuly—september 2011 · volume 37, number 3
ing the Open Access Movement by allowing those with profiles to upload both published and unpublished papers. However, unlike the field of genealogy, most authors will not place a copyright symbol and/or warning on their papers. This does not mean that their material is not copyrighted. Among scholars in academia, it is understood that once a scholar writes something, the written material is automatically copyrighted by the author. So if an article is found on a scholar’s website at Academia.edu, the unpublished manuscript or published article should be cited according to the field of genealogy’s citation style. Open access databases are organized into two different, though broad, categories: national and international databases, such as the Directory of Open Access Journals; and local databases, such as websites dedicated to open access that are hosted by university libraries.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) DOAJ http://www.doaj.org is an electronic storeroom for hundreds of peer- and non-peerreviewed journals that are freely accessible to the public. There are currently several different online journals available through DOAJ that may be of particular interest to genealogists.4 However, the true value of the Open Access Movement is the opportunity it offers in conducting interdisciplinary research and collaboration. Though professional genealogy has its own peer-reviewed publications, much of the research being conducted could benefit tremendously from the infusion of, or supplemented with, other related fields outside the discipline of genealogy, such as history, anthropology (which includes the four subfields of cultural, biological, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology), and sociology. The inclusion of material from the fields of medicine, social work, demography, and genetics could also benefit genealogical research, particularly when writing narrative genealogies and compiled lineages.
Theses and dissertations databases In order to facilitate the distribution of research, many university libraries are now providing free Page 23
Specialty search engines Google Scholar http://www.scholar.google .com This online search engine searches the Internet for published peer-reviewed journals, some online dissertations and theses, and Google Books. OAIster http://www.oclc.org/oaister/ ?c=oaister%3bpage=simple With this site you can search more than 1,150 databases from one point. Search Pigeon http://www.searchpigeon .org/ A search engine that searches through peerreviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences. Open J-Gate http://www.openj-gate.com/ Search/QuickSearch.aspx Contains a search engine for more than 8,407 open access journals.
International theses and dissertations databases Africa Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations http://www.ndltd.org/ You can search through online resources, containing theses and dissertations, among other items, from Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. There are several highlighted links on the pages. In order to search the databases for theses and dissertations, you will need to click on the http address below the university’s names.
Australia Australasian Digital Theses Program http:// adt.caul.edu.au/ MA theses and doctoral dissertations from forty-two Australian and New Zealand universities.
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access to bachelor and master theses and doctoral dissertations published by their respective institutions. An example of a local database that includes theses and dissertations at the university level is OpenSIUC http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/. Through the OpenSIUC portal, you can search by keywords through the entire SIUC repository or you can extend that search to all other repositories. Researchers should keep in mind that not all published theses and dissertations are represented in these online repositories. Authors have to sign a permission slip or upload the material themselves before their theses or dissertations can be included in the database. Despite the incompleteness of these databases, they remain a valuable tool for genealogists. University libraries use a variety of different programs in order to create and maintain their open access databases. Some universities limit how that data can be accessed. For example, while the University of Kansas http:// kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/1260 relies on the ScholarWorks system to house more than 550 dissertations and 492 theses, the University of Arizona http://etd.library.arizona .edu/etd/index.jsp has its own system, and both allow site visitors to download and print theses and publications in PDF. On the other hand, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 relies on a program created there called DSpace, which currently stores more than twenty-five thousand theses and dissertations. Although researchers can download the PDF files to their personal computer for later reading, printing is disabled for all non-MIT site visitors. One of the best ways to find out if a particular university is providing free online access to its theses and dissertations is to visit the university library website directly or to perform a simple Google search using keywords like “open access” and the university’s name, or to type in the program name, such as ScholarWorks. Once you locate a publication that you’re interested in, you should save the PDF for future use. You can either save it to your desktop, flash drive, or external hard drive, or you can use a free ngs magazine
electronic system, such as the Mendeley Reference Manager and Social Network http://www .mendeley.com/, to store and manage your collection of theses, dissertations, and articles.
4. These open access journals include the Annals of Genealogical Research http://www.genlit.org and the Journal of Genetic Genealogy http://www.jogg.info/.
Notes 1. Elizabeth Shown Mills, “Academia vs. Genealogy: Prospects for Reconciliation and Progress,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 71 (June 1983): 105. 2. Ibid., 103. 3. One of the finest examples of scholarly support for open access can be found on the website of Dr. Jerome S. Handler http://jeromehandler.org/, whose research focuses on slave populations on the island of Barbados. Handler has listed seventy-two of his publications that include journal articles and books, with publication dates ranging from 1963 to 2010. All are available to site visitors as downloadable PDFs.
Canada Theses Canada http://www.collections canada.gc.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html MA theses and doctoral dissertations from Canadian universities.
Europe EThOS Electronic Theses Online Service (United Kingdom) http://ethos.bl.uk/About .do This database includes doctoral dissertations (called theses in the United Kingdom) from 110 British universities. Although some documents cost money, many are available free of charge. Theses from a variety of fields are represented and available as downloadable PDFs. Though a British institution, this database provides theses on a variety of topics and regions around the world, including the United States. In order to download theses, you must register first, even if you do not plan on purchasing any. Once you do, you can click on a title after searching, then on the tab “Choose Pricing and Delivery.” When a new screen appears, you will see whether or not the thesis is free. If it is cost-free, add it to your cart and confirm. Once you agree to the copyright statement, an order history screen will appear. Click on “Download” and you will be redirected to the download manager where you can immediately download the thesis. july—september 2011 · volume 37, number 3
Dawn C. Stricklin, is an anthropologist and genealogist specializing in rural African American and Northern Plains (Native North American) genealogy, mortality, and healthcare. She is currently a doctoral student in anthropology at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and the director of Popular Anthropology Magazine. She can be reached at
[email protected]. DART-Europe E-Theses Portal http://www .dart-europe.eu/basic-search.php This database contains doctoral dissertations (called theses) from 306 different universities throughout Europe, available in PDFs. Theses are available in a variety of languages including English. Österreichische Dissertationsdatenbank (Austria) http://media.obvsg.at/dissdb Includes some full text theses and dissertations. DiVA: Academic Archive Online (Sweden) http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/ searchadthe.jsf Many of the theses are available as downloadable PDFs in a variety of languages including English.
International OpenThesis http://www.openthesis.org/ This online database is continuing to grow. The full text of theses and dissertations are not always included. Popular Anthropology Magazine Database http://www.popanthro.com This online database is small, though it is continuing to grow. Full text of bachelor and master theses and doctoral dissertations from around the world are included. Page 25
