Academic publishing

Research results can be communicated in several different ways. Usually, research is published in, for example, journal articles, research books and anthologies, dissertations, conference proceedings, and reports.

What publication type is most commonly used differs between disciplines. In humanities and social sciences researchers by tradition often publish their results in books or anthologies, while in medicine, natural sciences, and engineering sciences it is more common to publish in academic journals. 

Peer review

Constant in all academic publishing is that it has been reviewed before being published. This process is called peer review. Before the material is published, experts in the field reviews and critiques the text, after which the researcher has to adapt the text based on these comments before it can be published. 

Open access

Open access is a term used to describe freely published research. This means that the research can be found openly by searching the internet, and can be read by anyone free of charge. The material is also free to use. Open access means that the author/publisher gives anyone the right to read, download, copy, and spread the work in digital format. The author still always has to be credited, and you are not allowed to corrupt the content. 

Diva and SwePub

As we have already discussed, one good place to begin your search is in a search engine, such as Onesearch, where you can find a lot of different publication types. But there are also databases for different types of research material. Two such databases are Diva (Links to an external site.) and SwePub (Links to an external site.). Diva is a publication database where researchers, lecturers, and students from different Swedish universities register their work. Note that you can't always access everything in full text. 

In SwePub you can find research from all universities in Sweden. You might not find everything in full text here either. 

Both Diva and SwePub are Swedish databases, but both have the option to change the language to English, and you can find plenty of material in English through both.