Monthly Archives: June 2017

Directory of Free Arab Journals (DFAJ)

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The Directory of Free Arab Journals (DFAJ) is an initiative of Middle Eastern Open Access activists aiming at producing a directory of all open access (OA) scientific journals produced in Arab countries. DFAJ currently includes 250 journals  from 172 publishers in 17 Arab countries. The directory is published under a CC-BY-NC license. Initially launched in 2013, a new version was released in March 2017.

Currently, DFAJ offers the following features:

  • a listing of all Arab scholarly journals that are openly available on the internet
  • hyperlinks to the listed journals and their publishing organizations
  • standard information such as ISSN, publisherp, country of publication, frequency, keywords, etc.
  • a journals’ browsing by field/discipline capability, as well as an advanced search feature
  • a form to suggest new journals
  • information about the peer-review process as well as indexing in international databases (Scopus & Directory of Open Access Journals)
  • the ability to create a personal account to save favorite journals

According to the directory’s owners, future developments include:

  • making the interface bilingual Arabic-English (it is only in Arabic)
  • transforming the current website in a portal steering discussion about, and advocating for open access in the Arab Middle East
  • providing guidance for editors and publishers on how to create and maintain OA journals
  • suggesting repository management software.

Koç University Manuscript Collection

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Some 299 manuscripts in Ottoman Turkish, Turkish, English, French, Latin, Arabic and Persian on a variety of topics from Koç University Collection are now available online. Stored on Koç University institutional repository, the scans are accompanied by extremely detailed and lengthy descriptions.

Navigation features include two menus located on the right-hand side of the book viewer: a thumbnails menu, and a content menu. Digitized manuscripts only open in the book reader with the possibility to enlarge full screen, fit to window, or rotate pages. Unfortunately it is not possible to download or save the digitized manuscripts. The resolution of images is however high enough to allow a thorough examination of items on-screen.

koc-university-manuscript-collection

An open archive of Etchmiadzin/Էջմիածին

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Etchmiadzin (Էջմիածին) magazine has been published since 1944 by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Including records of the Armenian Church, as well as Armenian studies articles, it is considered to be the continuation of another monthly journal entitled “Ararat” which was founded in 1868 by the Catholicos Gevorg IV.

All issues of Etchmiadzin have been digitized and are accessible on the journal’s website. Users can browse either by year, subject (English search terms) or author. They can also search the entire archive using the search box at the top right of the pages or the advanced search feature.

Documents are available as high definition color PDFs, and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence permitting download, printing, reuse, modification, distribution, copy as long as the original authors and source are properly cited.

Arabic-Islamic Textual Practices in the Early Modern World, 13-15 July 2017, الفيلولوجيا العربية الإسلامية بعد حقبة التأسيس

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Dahlem International Network Research Group “Arabic Philology and Textual Practices in the Early Modern Period” will be holding an international conference in Berlin (Freie Universitat) from July 13 to 15  2017.

Entitled “What was Philology in Arabic? Arabic-Islamic Textual Practices in the Early Modern World”, this conference will bring together scholars from Europe, North America and the Middle East. The full program, and practical information can be found on the Conference’s website.