Environment Counts | Online access to environmental journals
Author: Graham Yapp – Published At: 2012-04-25 02:57 – (1760 Reads)
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Some users of this Environment Counts website may find it useful to know that an increasing number of scientific papers and review articles is available free from the internet. Below is a list of URLs for relevant and available journals from the Directory of Open Access Journals.
Further below is a list of specialised Open Access journals in relevant disciplines that are available from publishers of environmental science journals. Some of these were not included in the Directory at time of writing. Dates from which these journals were first published, or first published as Open Access, are included. Earlier content of some older journals may become available in the future. Readers should also note that some journals that are not fully Open Access do have individual articles that are free online. In most cases, these articles are freely available because the author or a supporting institution has paid a fee for its publication (the amount varies). Relevant journals with some free open access content (individual papers or a single issue of the journal) are also listed under the headings for individual publishers. |
The primary source for identification of online publications is the Directory of Open Access Journals which lists journals under 17 major headings including the four outlined below, with their most relevant sub-headings. Figures in brackets are the number of Journals under each subject area. Some journals are more relevant than others and some are listed in more than one category.
url’s for general subject areas include :
Earth and Environmental Sciences including Earth Sciences (99); Ecology (53); Environmental Sciences (114); Geography (106); Geology (103); Meteorology and Climatology (30); Oceanography(32).
Agriculture and Food Sciences including General Agriculture (140); Animal Sciences (105); Aquaculture and Fisheries (19); Forestry (37); Nutrition and Food Sciences (38); Plant Sciences (50).
Biology including, inter alia, Botany (82); Microbiology (55); Physiology (36); Zoology (93).
Technology and Engineering including, inter alia, Electrical and Nuclear Engineering (63); Environmental Engineering (9); Environmental Technology (10); Transportation (30).
OTHER GATEWAYS TO OPEN ACCESS ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALS
SpringerOpen
SpringerOpen journals are fully open access and publish articles under the Creative Commons Attribution license. Relevant journals are:
Agricultural and Food Economics
(new in 2012)
Applied Water Science (from 2011)
Decision Analytics (new in 2012)
Ecological Processes (from February 2012)
Energy, Sustainability and Society (from November 2011)
Environmental Sciences Europe (from February 2011)
Environmental Systems Research (new in 2012)
Fire Science Reviews (new in 2012)
International Aquatic Research (from 2009)
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science (from 2011)
International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering (2012)
International Journal Of Recycling of Organic Waste in Agriculture (2012)
Natural Products and Bioprospecting (from 2011)
Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice (from 2011)
Rice (from November 2011)
Springer journals with some open access articles (optional)
Landscape Ecology
Landscape and Ecological Engineering
Biodiversity and Conservation
AMBIO is another important Springer journal that has selected articles which may be freely accessed online.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Hindawi publishes in excess of 300 Open Access journals. Some journals most relevant to environment are:
International Journal of Ecology (from 2007)
Applied and Environmental Soil Science (from 2009)
Journal of Botany (from 2009)
Journal of Marine Biology (from 2009)
International Journal of Oceanography (from 2009)
International Journal of Forestry Research (from 2009)
Advances in Meteorology (from 2009)
International Journal of Photoenergy (from 1999)
Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations (from 2007)
International Journal of Microwave Science and Technology (from 2007)
International Journal of Population Research (from 2011)
Urban Studies Research (from 2011)
Wiley Open Access
Wiley states that its Open Access journals are freely available to read, download and share.
Ecology and Evolution (from December 2011)
Evolutionary Applications (from February 2008)
Food and Energy Security (new in 2012)
Ecological Society of America
The extent to which content of these publications is freely available to read and download varies.
Ecosphere (from July 2010)
Ecology (some papers only from early 2011)
Ecological Monographs (some content only from 2010)
Ecological Applications (limited content only)
Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America (from 1999)
Resilience Alliance
This publication provides free online access to special features and to editorials of regular issues. Other contributions can be purchased.
Ecology and Society
AOSIS OpenJournals
Koedoe – African Protected Area Conservation and Science (from1958)
palgrave macmillan
BioSocieties is an interdisciplinary journal for social studies of the life sciences. It is a palgraveopen journal. Some articles may have interest for readers of Environment Counts.
BioSocieties
Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP)
SCIRP has about 200 journals that provide Open Access content in science, technology and medicine. Relevant journals in Earth and Environmental Sciences include :
Open Journal of Ecology (from 2011)
Open Journal of Soil Science (from 2011)
Open Journal of Forestry (from 2011)
Open Journal of Marine Sciences (from 2011)
Open Journal of Air Pollution (coming soon)
Open Journal of Modern Hydrology (from 2011)
Open Journal of Geology (from 2011)
Journal of Environmental Protection (from 2010)
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (from 2011)
American Journal of Climate Change (coming soon)
Low Carbon Economy (from 2010)
Natural Resources (from 2010)
Journal of Water Resource and Protection (from 2009)
Natural Science (from 2009)
Agricultural Sciences (from 2010)
International Journal of Geosciences (from 2010)
GlobalSkope
The GlobalSkope Publishing Society intends to “bring out open access journals in all major areas of engineering, science and research”. It currently provides access to one journal of particular interest for its environmental information.
International Journal of Environmental Sciences and Research (from late 2011 –to access its content click on Current Issue or Archives or Special Issues in IJESR – Menu)
Cambridge
Cambridge has an open access option by which (at a cost) authors may make articles freely available. Otherwise, individual articles can be purchased and downloaded for about $30 or rented for 24 hours for about $6. Environment Counts is not able to provide details of open access articles but the following relevant journals offer this option to authors:
Australian Journal of Environmental Education (from 2011)
Environment and Development Economics *
Environmental Conservation *
Journal of Agricultural Science
Journal of Tropical Ecology
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems *
Journals marked * have no open access articles as at May 2012, and Journal of Tropical Ecology has only a single open access article.
Oxford Journals
AoB Plants is an Oxford plant biology journal with open access.
Other Oxford journals that offer free online read access to selected articles include :
Bioinformatics
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
Environmental History
Journal of Environmental Law
Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research
Review of Environmental Economics and Policy
Scientific and Academic Publishing
SAP journals cover a wide range of disciplines (some with unusual spelling — also a feature of their homepage). Three open access journals may have particular interest to our readers:
World Environment (from 2011 – go to archives or current issue)
International Journal of Ecosystem (from 2011 – go to archives or current issue)
Marine Science (from 2011- go to archives or current issue. Note: cover title is Marine Sciences)
BioMed Central
BioMed Central publishes 220 open access, online journals covering science, technology and medicine. Relevant examples (other than Springer journals that are also hosted by BioMed Central) are:
Agriculture and Food Security (from 2012)
Aquatic Biosystems (from 2005)
Carbon Balance and Management (from 2006)
Environmental Health (from 2002)
Globalization and Health (from 2005)
Bentham Open
While we list several journals below, readers are advised that there has been a certain amount of agitation about methods used by some publishers to solicit contributions from authors. This was particularly (but not exclusively) focused on Bentham. For an example of the issues, follow this link to Open Access News but note that four years have passed since it was written. Readers interested in following developments in this and other Open Access issues are referred to the Open Access Directory which has an extensive Table of Contents.
Environment journals in the Bentham stable include :
The Open Agriculture Journal (from 2010)
The Open Atmospheric Science Journal (from 2007)
The Open Biology Journal (from 2008)
The Open Conservation Biology Journal (from 2007)
The Open Ecology Journal (from 2008)
The Open Environmental & Biological Monitoring Journal (from 2008)
Open Environmental Sciences (from 2007)
The Open Fish Science Journal (from 2008)
The Open Forest Science Journal (from 2008)
The Open Geography Journal (from 2008)
The Open Marine Biology Journal (from 2007)
The Open Oceanography Journal (from 2007)
The Open Ornithology Journal (from 2008)
The Open Waste Management Journal (from 2008)
VersitaOpen
VersitaOpen co-publishes journals with Springer (see above) and de Gruyter.
De Gruyter is compiling a journal archive for the period 1826-2010. For information see the de Gruyter web page or for details of arrangements for digital preservation of content see the Portico webpage.
Relevant journals in the VersitaOpen catalogue include :
Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology (from 2009 – with Springer Open)
Ecological Questions (from 2006)
European Countryside (from 2009)
Journal of Water and Land Development (from 2006)
Elsevier
Elsevier publishes a number of so-called “Open Access journals†but downloads of papers from these journals does not seem to be a real option for the “general publicâ€. On the other hand, a large number of Elsevier journals can be accessed by subscribers to Science Direct – usually through licensed institutions and libraries. Otherwise it is generally necessary to buy any selected article or buy a subscription to a particular journal. It is extremely difficult to identify open access (i.e. free-to-all) journals on the Elsevier website. Authors have an option to sponsor open access to submitted papers for 1200 Elsevier journals but good luck if you are trying to identify what is available and where.
One Elsevier journal forthcoming in 2012 that may afford at least some free open access is:
Methods in Oceanography
Other limited sources of free access for selected users
There is, in fact, a much larger number of publications to which there now is open access under special conditions.
Taylor and Francis
Online access to journal content is available via Taylor & Francis Online; this is a new live platform that replaces access to journals previously on “informaworld”.
However, as with some other publishers, T & F online journals are not fully open access. T&F appear to have stepped into open access by mounting a single issue of several of their journals as free to download. These are easily identified by a blue square but readers will see that these are rare compared to the red squares denoting issues (and articles) for which download is only available for a fee. Relevant journals that have at least one issue -usually from 2010 – that contains free downloadable articles are listed below.
The T&F Group includes Routledge, CRC Press and Garland Science and Haworth Press. Most T&F journals of interest are published under the Routledge banner.
Routledge Environment and Sustainability is the portal to Earthscan publications on sustainability and related environmental issues. (Note: In 2009, Earthscan took over the publication activities of Resources for the Future – a valuable source of information for EC readers). RFF’s quarterly Resources Magazine is free online. It covers a range of environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, and provides news about ongoing research.
Haworth Press publishes journals that include some limited) free content. Two that are most relevant and for which one issue has been made free online are:
Journal of Agriculture and Food InformationJournal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition
The following is a list of other Taylor and Francis Online journals for which some articles (often the content of a single issue) are freely accessible. Readers usually will need to search the archives to find issues and/or articles marked by a blue square.
Journal of Sustainable Agriculture
Journal of Sustainable Forestry
Ethology Ecology & Evolution rare articles
Polar Geography
Australian Geographer
Irish Geography
Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of Geography
South African Geographical Journal
Australasian Journal of Environmental Management
Biodiversity
International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management (this is the current name. It was formerly known as International Journal of Biodiversity Science & Management from 2005 – 2009 and some pre2009 content is free online.
International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology
Journal of Freshwater Ecology
Journal of Land Use Science (some interesting articles available but unfortunately not its Special Issue: Agent-based modelling of land use effects on ecosystem processes and services: Volume 2-3, 2011 pages 75-230)
Plant Ecology & Diversity (Journal of the Botanical Scocity of Scotland)
Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment
Environmental Hazards
Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Management
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (very few)
Journal of Ecotourism (few)
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences
Coastal Management
International Journal of River Basin Management
Applied Environmental Education & Communication
Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture
Social and Environmental Accountability Journal
International Journal of Environmental Studies
Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning
Environmental Education Research
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
The Journal of Environmental Education
Dove Press
Dove Press publishes mainly Open Access medical journals but the following has general environmental interest:
Research and Reports in Biodiversity Studies
RSC Publishing
The Royal Society of Chemistry permits users to register to obtain access to free content. One useful resource is:
Journal of Environmental Monitoring
Nature Publishing Group
Free Open Access content is sometimes available from NPG journals and, when it is, is invariably of high standard and real interest. Users can make a general search for NPG content about: evolution and ecology or about earth sciences or (otherwise) either search specifically by journal (see below) or sign up for alerts.
Scientific Reports is a valuable primary research publication with wide coverage of natural sciences. Some of its Open Access articles will have interest for Environment Counts readers.
Other publications occasionally have free content. These include :
Nature
Nature Climate Change
Nature Geoscience
Nature Communications and
EMBO Reports
SAGE
We are not able to provide any information on free online access to SAGE publications although this publisher has a number of journal titles of interest. SAGE does offer an option for authors to pay for Open Access.
DIRECTORIES OF OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS AND DATA REPOSITORIES
One of the most important directories for access to electronic journals is the Open Science Directory). Specifically developed to support scientific work in developing countries, this site will eventually provide access for registered institutes and researchers to some 20,000 titles covering a very wide range of scientific disciplines and applications. This site has great general interest — and is highly significant given the critical importance of knowledge and programs to deal with environmental issues in these developing countries.
Obviously, some of these publications are available from sources given above and others from national and international organisations, especially UN organisations such as FAO and UNEP. For example:
The AGORA program (by FAO with some major publishers) enables institutions in developing countries to access digital collections (from about 1900 journals) covering environmental science, food and agriculture and related social sciences.
An international consortium including UNEP, Yale University and science and technology publishers has developed Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) to enable developing countries to access research information in the environmental sciences.
Other online sources of interest
OpenDOAR is a directory of academic open access repositories.
A consortium of natural history and botanical museum libraries and research institutions has developed the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections and make it available through a global “biodiversity commons.â€
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an international partnership of countries and organisations established to provide free and open access to information about biodiversity. See also the GBIF Online Resource Centre for information on contents and tools to access biodiversity data. The Atlas of Living Australia aggregates information from a wide range of sources to provide online data and information about Australian biodiversity collections and open source tools and other resources and provides support to “citizen science†projects.
