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RR 2014/082
DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books
OAPEN Foundation
The Hague
2013-
URL: www.doabooks.org
Last visited October
2013
Gratis
Keywords Directories, Electronic books, Electronic media, Open access publishing
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-10-2013-0269
It is easy to get lost in the maze of open access publications. What resources are reliable? Where can I access these resources? Part of the answer to these questions can be found at the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), "a searchable index to peer-reviewed monographs and edited volumes published under an Open Access business model, with links to the full texts of the publications at the publisher's website or repository" (Snijder, 2012a). Launched in beta format April 2012 and officially debuted in July 2013, DOAB is a newer resource for open access resources. In beta format, the site was "launched with just over 20 publishers participating with about 750 Open Access books" (Snijder, 2012b). As of October 2013, "1584 Academic peer-reviewed books from 54 publishers", are available at DOAB, a statistic proudly displayed on the homepage.
DOAB is "a service of OAPEN Foundation. The OAPEN Foundation is an international initiative dedicated to Open Access monograph publishing, based at the National Library in The Hague. DOAB is being developed in close cooperation with Lars Bjørnshauge and Salam Baker Shanawa (director of SemperTool), who were also responsible for the development of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)" (RR 2013/126). "SemperTool develops and maintains DOAB system" (www.doabooks.org/doab?func = about&uiLanguage = en#responsibility). There is an important distinction to be made between the OPAEN Library and the DOAB: "the OAPEN Library contains the description and full text of the books; DOAB contains descriptions of books. That is the reason you can search the complete contents of the books in the OAPEN Library. That is not possible in...