From: Dan Scott <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:34:10 +0100 Dear group members *Apologies for cross posting* I am writing to you with information that can help your faculty, researchers, students and librarians to increase the reach and speed of your university’s output. On September 24th, the first issue of Social Sciences Directory was published. This is a new multi-disciplinary publication, which aims to revolutionise scholarly publishing by providing quality, affordable content without the barrier of subscription paywalls. Our approach is modern and progressive, whilst adhering to recognised publishing standards. We use OJS software, which means we can be indexed by WorldCat, and use a Creative Commons CC-BY licence. We aim to: * capture the best of international research across the disciplines of social sciences and arts & humanities * conduct peer-review and publish papers in online formats * facilitate discussion and information sharing through discussion platforms * augment research content with valuable additional reading materials such as dissertations, reviews, presentations and reports Our first issue contains papers on * Successful transition to retirement in Australia * Knowledge, attitude and belief of pregnant women towards safe motherhood in a rural Indian setting * Gender equality in the workplace: the perceptive reality Our philosophy is that research in one field can also have applications in areas of research beyond that intended and the inter-disciplinary nature of a large collection of work – spanning the boundaries of subject and state - will help to cross-fertilise ideas. Open access publishing provides significant benefits for authors and readers alike in speeding up the time to publication and dissemination, author copyright retention and providing value-for-money for taxpayers. We hope to publish a regular schedule of research going forwards, as well as launching a sister website Humanities Directory in the next few weeks. Social Sciences Directory and Humanities Directory are funded by author contributions or through a low cost institutional membership fee. For GBP2,000/USD3,000, a university’s faculty and researchers would be able to submit unlimited numbers of articles for peer review and publication until the end of 2013. Again, I would be grateful if this information could be passed on with a request to contact us if there is interest. We recognise the difficulty in moving from traditional journal publishing to new forms. You want to be able to trust that the publication maintains quality standards and maximises dissemination of your department’s work. We also firmly believe that Social Sciences Directory and Humanities Directory address many of the flaws within the scholarly publishing industry and can provide better levels of service. Submissions have been received from the UK, Australia, France, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Kenya, whilst editors and reviewers from all over the world have offered their services, demonstrating an appetite and widespread support for the initiative. We hope that you will support our cause, will encourage your departments to consider us when choosing where to publish and, importantly, will include Social Sciences Directory and Humanities Directory in your library catalogue. Yours sincerely Dan Scott MA, BA (Hons) Director Social Sciences Directory Limited www.socialsciencesdirectory.com www.humanitiesdirectory.com