Decolonisation: Decolonising Library Resources
This page explores decolonising resources and suggests different ways to decolonise resources by using alternative publishers, using grey literature, examples of decolonised databases and open access.
Why decolonise resources?
Academic publishing is dominated by Western Europe and North America or the Global North, leading to a disparity in representation and access to research from other regions, particularly low-income and middle-income countries or the Global South.
(How to address the geographical bias in academic publishing | BMJ Global Health)
Our focus in this guide is to provide signposting to sources of literature published or generated in the Global South.
Below are links to publishers, bookstores & databases resources which will enable you to discover material authored by researchers and academics from the Global South:
Publishers / book stores
Here are some links to publishers and book shops for you to explore to discover books which could be purchased by the library:
Either use the Suggest a Purchase form (students) or add the resource to a module Resource List (lecturers) to trigger a purchase.
Grey Literature
Grey literature is a term used to describe a range of different information that is produced outside of traditional publishing and distribution sources and is not always indexed in library databases.
For more information and links to sources of grey literature, visit this page:
Open Access
Open Access is scholarly publications such as journals, articles, books and theses that are free for all to access.
Some regions in the world have a strong tradition of publishing academic output as open access and it is an important way to search for decolonised resources.
For more information on open access go to:
Databases with global majority coverage
Below we have started to collate a list of databases, some we subscribe to and some are open access, to help you discover literature from diverse global voices. (With recognition and thanks to Sally Dalton, University of Leeds Library, for collating and sharing many of these resources).
If you are unable to access full text in any of the resources below, ask a BCU librarian via the 24/7 live Chat.
-
Africabib.orgAn open access database covering a wide range of topics. It consists of the following 7 databases: Africana Periodical Literature, African Women, Women Travellers to Africa, Islam in Africa, Kenya Coast, Water and Africa and Education in Africa.
-
African Digital Research RepositoriesLists of repositories and datasets from African countries. Open access resources and an interactive map
-
African Journals OnlineAJOL, the indexing platform of quality African-published scholarly journals, is a Non-Profit Organisation that (since 1998) works to increase global and continental online access, awareness, quality & use of African-published, peer-reviewed research.
-
Africa PortalThe Africa Portal is a research repository and an expert analysis hub on African affairs. Dedicated to publishing and promoting research and analysis from think tanks and thought leaders (academics, researchers, journalists and industry experts) on policy issues across a variety of fields.
-
AfricArXivAfricArXiv is a digital repository platform for the archiving, preservation, and dissemination of scholarly works and accomplishments in African scholarship.
-
Bangladesh Journals OnlineBanglaJOL is a service to provide access to Bangladesh published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.
-
Central American Journals OnlineCAMJOL is a database of journals published in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador, covering the full range of academic disciplines. CAMJOL's objective is to give greater visibility to participating journals and the research they present. This database is part of the The Journals Online (JOLs) project, which aims to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries.
-
Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ is an independent index and contains almost 17 500 peer-reviewed, open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities. Open access journals from all countries and in all languages are accepted for indexing.
-
EldisEldis provides free access to relevant, up-to-date and diverse research on international development issues. Including over 50,000 summaries and provides free links to full-text research and policy documents from over 8,000 publishers.
-
Global Electronic Thesis and Dissertation SearchNDLTD is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Supporting electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide.
-
INASPAn international development organization working with a global network of partners in Africa, Latin, America and Asia. INASP is working towards a research and knowledge system that includes every voice and fosters every talent. You can browse for publications by themes, countries and types of publication.
-
IndiaRxivA preprints repository for Indian researchers who would like to share their research outputs publicly for public peer review and to seek collaborations.
-
LILACSLatin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature
-
Mongolia Journals OnlineMongoliaJOL is a database of journals published in Mongolia, covering the full range of academic disciplines. The objective of MongoliaJOL is to give greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey. This database is part of the The Journals Online (JOLs) project, which aims to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries.
-
Nepal Journals OnlineNepJOL is a database of journals published in Nepal, covering the full range of academic disciplines. The objective of NepJOL is to give greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey. This database is part of the The Journals Online (JOLs) project, which aims to provide increased the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries.
-
Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)OATD.org is a resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
-
OSF PreprintsOSF Preprints aggregates search results from a wide range of preprint providers from across the world, including AfricaArXiv, and IndiaRxiv. A preprint is a version of a research article prior to it going through the peer review process.
-
SabinetSabinet African Journals encompasses the breadth and depth of African research content by offering a searchable collection of full-text African electronic journals available on one platform. This is a growing service — over 600 journal titles in 10 collections are available for individuals, corporates, universities, government departments, research institutions and law firms.
-
SciELOSciElo is a database that provides access to multidisciplinary research from Latin America and the Caribbean. Its aim is to promote and increase the visibility of research from Latin America.
-
Sri Lanka Journals OnlineSLJOL is a database of journals published in Sri Lanka, covering the full range of academic disciplines. The objective of SLJOL is to give greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey.
-
World Bank Open Knowledge RepositoryThe World Bank is the largest single source of knowledge relating to developments across the world. The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
More databases
Library and Learning Resources has subscriptions to a number of different subject databases or e-resources that BCU students and staff can access for searching information.
For our full list of databases go to the A-Z of Databases page.