Benutzer:Globalzoo/Online Scientific Research in Afghanistan
This article provides information of how a Online Scientifc Research could be conducted in Afghanistan's public universities. Online Scienetific Research is crucial for scholars in Afghanistan due to the fact that most domestic libraries are not well equipped and good international scientific literature is not available in big amounts throughout the country. Online Scientific Research is more than having a short look on articles in Wikipedia and making a short search on Google or Bing for some seconds. The copy-pasting of links from articles from Wikipedia is also no Scientific Online Research. In contrast to this, Scientific Online Research is a project itself which takes time, patience and a minimum amount of organizational skills.
Online Research as a Basic Step to overview a Topic
But a regular Online Research can be used to create an overview about a topic of interest and/or research. Suitable search engines are:
If there are problems with the translation of words and sentences the following dictionaries (Persian-English and vice versa) can be used:
Beneath Wikipedia there are also other online encyclopedias which could help in gaining an overview about a topic:
- encyclopedia.com
- britannica.com (7 days free trial)
The following websites with scientific content can also give an overview about scientific topics:
In addition to this there are also social networks (like Facebook) for scientists:
Some high-standard universities also offer class material and whole courses online:
There are even courses in Persian offered:
Online Scientific Research
Talking about Online Scientific Research means to search for scientific literature and quotations in the internet. Scientific means in this context literature based on international research standards being reviewed by an Academic institution or other scholars. With other words: literature with hard facts and academically-recognized evidence.
These criterias are met by Academic journals and monographs, Government publications, Government authorities and scientific content, provided by recognized research engines.
The scientific content can be found directly in the online versions of Academic journals or online libraries and by using academic databases.
Academic Databases and Search Engines
A list of academic databases and search engines can be found here: Wikipedia: List of academic databases and search enginges
The list also includes academic search engines which are only by subscription or where at least the content is mostly by subscription. Only the American University of Afghanistan has got subscriptions to the databases JSTOR, AGORA and EBSCO Host. So, only free academic search engines can be used at public Afghan universities until now. The best choice to start a scientific research is to use Google Scholar), Microsoft’s Academic Research or Scirus. Those databases do also include content which is only available by subscription.
For this reason academic research databases with only open-access content are an additional good choice for Online Scientific Research in Afghanistan. The best choices are Open University's database, BASE, OpenDOAR, WorldCat, NARCIS, a Dutch project and an overview in German with free databases for Balkh University provided by DBIS.
For more information about the idea of open-access in Science, please read: Wikipedia: Open access
Academic Journals and Monographs
It is also possible to search directly for specific Academic journals and monographs. There are Academic journals and monographs freely available in the internet as well as only by payment.
Academic Journals
Articles from Academic journals can also be found in all scientific databases as mentioned above. But it is also possible to search directly for a Academic journal in the internet. The following links include both types of journals, free and by payment. Those overviews help to get familiar with the extent and choice of Academic journals:
- rzblx1.uni-regensburg.de (with direct links to the Academic journals)
- Wikipedia: List of academic journals
Academic open-access journals are the best option for Afghan scholars due to the fact that all the content is available free of charge. A list of all open-access journals can be found at
- doaj.org
- jurn.org some journals only offer a substantial big amount of free articles)
- Wikipedia: List of Open Access Journals
Academic Books (Monographs)
Scientific books can be found in all scientific databases as mentioned above. But there are also special databases for books. The American University of Afghanistan is the only university or Academic institution in Afghanistan with a broad variety of international scientific literature. Its catalog can be found online at librarycat.auaf.edu.af/cgi-bin/koha/opac-main.pl.
The biggest catalogs for books are from the Library of Congress (catalog.loc.gov) and WorldCat (worldcat.org/). Most of the books included in these catalogs are not available for free in the internet. Therefore catalogs with open-access content are a better choice in Afghanistan. Those books can be found at the following websites:
Additional information
For additional information about citation please read Wikipedia: Citation, about Academic Writing please read owl.english.purdue.edu/owl.
