On the "List of Resources" page in this guide, you will find OA journal titles with tools listed below them to specify how you can search the journal's contents. Below those tools are listed, along with more detail on how you can find OA content when using them. Please note that there are other tools available that search OA materials, just as there are other OA journals than the ones listed on the "List of Resources" page. If you have questions about how to find a particular OA item or about how to use these tools, please ask a TML staff member.
The BC Libraries' website searches the content of many open-access publications, including those in the Directory of Open Access Journals and the Directory of Open Access Books. You can search for this content the way you would for any other items in the library, and often the links in the records will take you directly to the material you are seeking. If the link is not direct, you can navigate to the content in journals by following the same procedure outlined under SeLaDoc below.
The BC Libraries' website also features an open-access search limiter on the article search results interface which you can see in the second screenshot below. Please note that this limiter only appears when you limit your search results to the "article" or "anything" options on the Advanced Search screen (see below) and does not allow you to filter for open-access books.
To search Google Scholar for OA content, you can enter terms as you normally would do on Google, but there is also an Advanced Search feature that enables you to have more control in narrowing your search. Among several options, it allows you to search within publications.
To locate the Advanced Search feature, click on the menu in the far left corner of the screen, and select "Advanced Search."
Library databases may include open-access content, but not link directly to it. SeLaDoc and Index Theologicus are databases that are freely available to search on the open internet, and they both index citations for OA sources. The Atla Religion Database (remote access provided to BC alums) and New Testament Abstracts Online are available through the BC Libraries and they can be searched for OA content as well.
When searching SeLaDoc, there is no way to search specifically for OA content or to know if the items in your search results are available open-access. To determine if content is freely available online, follow the steps below. (Note that the instructions are for the version of the database available through the BC Libraries' website, featuring the "Find It @ BC" buttons. The procedure for using the freely available version begins with step 2.)
Example of a website for an OA journal that is indexed in SeLaDoc:
Index Theologicus allows you to limit your searches to open-access content and provides links that either connect you directly to the article or to the site for the journal. See the screenshots below for where the search limiter and full-text links are located.
The "open access" search limiter appears on the search results page, in the column on the right:
Note that links to full text (see below) may link directly to article or just to the journal's website. In the case of the latter, you will need to locate the article on the website by navigating the site in the manner described in the SeLaDoc instructions above.
Like Index Theologicus, the Atla Religion Database features an open-access search limiter. However, it does not link directly to the resource. If the "Find it @BC" button does not take you to a link to the item you are seeking, you will need to go to the journal's website and navigate to the content following the steps outlined for SeLaDoc. Below is a screenshot showing where you can find the open-access limiter on the Atla interface.
To locate OA content indexed on New Testament Abstracts Online, follow the same procedure as outlined for SeLaDoc above.
