The ISS Library provides access to publications, research output, research papers, databases and scholarly resources related to Development Studies. This page helps ISS students, researchers, staff get an overview of the subscription-based and freely available resources we recommend. We also provide information for practitioners, librarians, alumni and the wider community on free (scholarly) resources for Development Studies.
- Go to the EUR & Erasmus MC Research Information Portal– ISS Research output for research outputs by ISS faculty (including PhD candidates). Much of this content freely available to everyone.
- Go to the ISS MA research papers repository for the research papers of our graduates. Every year a selection is also bundled in the Best Student Essays book.
- Go to the ISS Libary's recommended sources for Development Studies for subject specific academic databases, reference works, and more.
- Go to the Library guide on newspapers, magazines & articles on current affairs for databases with current and old news, and information about our subscriptions to print and digital news sources.
Find a selection of free scholarly resources below, which is useful for ISS staff and students to complement our subscription databases, and for other researchers and practitioners in Development Studies.
- Scilit is a multidisciplinary, free scholarly database that indexes scientific material by extracting the latest data from CrossRef, PubMed and other sources on a daily basis. A good alternative for non-EUR students and scholars and others unable to access subscription-resources. Includes pre-prints.
- Google Scholar provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles. However, not all content found in Scholar is free. When you find a non-free article, click the All x versions option, you might find free pre-published versions of the article.
- Scielo.org is the free scholarly database that indexes a large number of Open Access journals, mainly from Latin America but also from Portugal, South Africa, and Spain. Mostly covers articles in Portuguese and Spanish, but also some in English. The same organization also has a database for books and pre-prints.
- Sylvia is a book database focusing on gender and feminism. It identifies recent books for researchers, scholarly editions, selected memoirs, and notable works for a general audience. Records include citations that can be copied and inclusive subject categories linked to related material.
- Directory of Open Access Journals - DOAJ covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. They cover all subjects and languages. There are over 6000 free, full-text available journals in the directory.
- African Journals Online (AJOL) is a collection of over 380 peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals. AJOL provides access to citations, and where available to abstracts and/or full-text. There is also an option to show all the (free) Open Access journals that are part of AJOL.
- Bangladesh Journals Online (BanglaJOL) is a database of journals published in Bangladesh, covering the full range of academic disciplines. All the material on BanglaJOL is free to view, search and browse, however copyright of all content is retained by the journals or authors.
- Nepal Journals Online (NepJOL) is a database of journals published in Nepal, covering the full range of academic disciplines. All the material on NepJOL is free to view, search and browse, however copyright of all content is retained by the journals or authors.
- Many publishers have Open Access journals in their portfolio, or provide free access to articles published in older editions of journals. Among them are JSTOR, Cambridge University Press, Springer, and Oxford University Press. Elsevier (which can be searched through Science Direct), Taylor & Francis, and Wiley all have Open Access filter options for their search results.
- PubMed Central is a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. The full text of all PubMed Central articles is available for free.
- Directory of Open Access Books - DOAB covers free, full text, peer reviewed books published under an Open Access license. Books can be searched (simple or advanced search) or browsed by title, subject or publisher.
- OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initiative to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the humanities and social sciences.
- Many publishers have Open Access books or book chapters in their portfolio. Among them are Bloomsbury, JSTOR, Cambridge University Press, Springer, and Oxford University Press. Taylor & Francis, and Wiley have Open Access filter options for their search results.
- National Academies Press offers hundreds of books which can be downloaded as pdf for free by the chapter or the entire book. Topics include: Agriculture, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Conflict and Security Issues, Education, Energy, Environmental Studies, Food & Nutrition, Industry and Labor.
- The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada has made available some 1200-plus free e-books from the last 25 years. Topics include: Development, Economics, Environment, Evaluation, Food and Agriculture, Gender, Governance, Health, Information and Communication, Natural resources, Science and Technology, Social Policy. More publications from the 1970s - 1990s are available through the IDRC Digital Library.
- Indices of Social Development is an innovative World Bank/ISS database, brings together 184 indicators, synthesising them into a usable set of measures to track how different societies perform along six dimensions of social development.
- UNdata provides free data access to UN statistical databases through a single entry point. Users can search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system. Useful features include Country Profiles, Advanced Search and Glossaries. The numerous databases, tables and glossaries containing over 60 million data points cover a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.
- The World Bank's Data 360 Initiative is comprehensive, integrated set of curated development data on living standards around the globe - some 2,000 indicators, including hundreds that go back 50 years. Data comes from the World Bank Group and partners. Data 360 opens up to 300 million data points in one place with new search and analytics functions. Datasets include: World Development Indicators (WDI), Global Development Finance (GDF) and African Development Indicators (ADI).
- Research4Life provides lower income countries with free or low cost access to academic and professional peer-reviewed content online. Content can be accessed through five programmes: Research for Health (HINARI), Research in Agriculture (AGORA), Research in the Environment (OARE), Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) and Research for Global Justice (GOALI).
- eIFL is an international not-for-profit organisation based in Europe with a global network of partners. It runs a wide range of programmes and events designed to increase access to knowledge. By negotiating with vendors on behalf of library consortia and libraries in partner countries, eIFL achieves free or highly discounted access to a wide range of commercial e‑resources, plus fair terms of use.
See: eIFL Licencing. - HINARI (Access to Research in Health) provides free or very low cost online access to the major journals in biomedical and related social sciences to local, not-for-profit institutions in developing countries.
- AGORA ( Access to Global Online Resources in Agriculture) set up by the FAO together with major publishers, enables low- and middle-income countries to gain access to an outstanding digital library collection in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA provides a collection of 1900 journals to institutions in 107 countries.
- The ARDI (Access to Research for Development and Innovation) programme, coordinated by WIPO together with its partners in the publishing industry, aims to increase the availability of scientific and technical information in developing countries.
- GOALI (Global Online Access to Legal Information) is a new programme providing free or low-cost online access to legal research and training in the developing world.
- OARE provides access to information resources in a wide range of disciplines contributing to our understanding of the natural environment, including environmental toxicology and pollution, ecology, geography, environmental economics, environmental law, conservation policy, environmental engineering, energy and many others.
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Bliss
the blog of ISS on global development and social justice
Recommended sources for Development Studies.
