It’s important for IU East students to gain a global perspective and one of the best ways to do that is to participate in one of IU East’s many study abroad experiences. The IU East Campus Library provides access to many databases that focus on different cultures and places from around the world and at various points in time. However, we also want to contribute to a culture of open learning and research sharing by providing a list of open access resources inspired by the upcoming study abroad courses at IU East.

Open access is an international movement that seeks to grant free and open online access to academic publications, allowing anyone to be able to download, read, and disseminate the information. By highlighting some open access, international focused academic resources, we hope to break down some of the financial or technical barriers to information that students may encounter and provide helpful resources to support their travels and interests in other places.

Those interested in studying abroad or international travel may find the book Intercultural Learning: Critical preparation for international student travel (2019) as a helpful guide to interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds and to understanding your own cultural context and experience. It may also be useful to learn a little about where you plan to travel by using the book World Regional Geography: People, Places, and Globalization.

Check Out These Study Abroad Opportunities

Nursing in Belize (spring 2023, Nursing Seniors only)

Nursing is one of IU East’s biggest programs and the global demand for nurses is high. For nursing students interested in nursing abroad or becoming a traveling nurse, some of the open access books you may find useful are:

• Public Health Ethics: Global Cases, Practice, and Context (2016)
• Educating the Global Workforce for Public Health (2018)
• Critical Medical Anthropology: Perspectives in and from Latin America (2020)

Directly related to the Nursing in Belize program, the open access journal database PLOS One has an interesting article, ”Nursing students’ experiences of service-learning at community and hospital pharmacies in Belize: Pedagogical implications for nursing pharmacology,” published in November, 2022. PLOS One would be an excellent journal for researching current information on health and nursing related topics.

Mediterranean Food in Italy, Spain, and Morocco (spring 2023)

Food studies is a growing multidisciplinary field, especially related to culture, language, health, and economies, and the best way to get to know people from another country is to explore their food. Some good resources to help you explore the importance of food to one’s culture are:

• Multidisciplinary approaches to food and foodways in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean (2020)
• Catalogue of Good Practices of Sustainable Culinary Heritage Experiences in Mediterranean Area (2018)
• Food Studies: Matter, Meaning, Movement (2022)
• The Mediterranean Way of Eating (2014)

Business in South Korea (spring 2023)

Business is a field where things can change quickly for a variety of reasons and by having business related research available as open access, more people can adapt and keep up with the markets more easily. Our global economy is greatly dependent on businesses in Asia and business students at IU East can learn a lot from the Business in South Korea program. Other resources that may help prepare those interested in this experience are:

• Social Enterprise in Asia (2019)
• Resurgent Asia (2019)
• Global Business Strategy: Multinational Corporations Venturing into Emerging Markets (2015)

While open access books are an excellent resource, like nursing, business students would benefit from being able to access timely research related to new technology and business trends. The Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity covers topics on open innovation, open business model, entrepreneurship, complexity, and evolutionary change in the economy.

Ancient Cultures of England and Scotland (summer 2023)

Mixing history, archaeology, and sociology, a trip to the UK to visit places such as Stone Henge, Hadrian’s Wall, Skara Brae, and the city of Bath is an exciting opportunity to see where ancient people lived firsthand and gain insight into the present cultural identities of England and Scotland. There are many open access titles related to the topic of ancient Britain and Viking and Saxon societies, but a few select titles are:

• The Shaping of the English Landscape: An Atlas of Archaeology from the Bronze Age to Domesday Book  (2021)
• The Land of the English Kin  (2020)
• Archaeology and Environment in Northumberland  (2012)
• Roman and Medieval Exeter and their Hinterlands  (2021)
• New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’  (2022)

There is a lot of scholarly, peer-reviewed research available as open access, either as a book or a journal article, in all subject areas. For more subject specific OA databases or repositories, visit the Open Access Databases Libguide. For help locating any resources for your research questions, just Ask Us!  iueref@iue.edu or click this button: