What are Open Access resources?

Open Access refers to resources that are freely available for viewing and/or use. Open Access is part of a continuum ranging from completely closed, subscription/purchase only access to completely open, no barrier publishing. Open Access is not related to the quality of materials or the peer-review/non-peer-review status of the publications.
Open Access materials can be excellent resources to supplement online library materials. Many scholarly and peer-review journals have opened their back issues as open access, and others have converted partially or totally to open access for all issues.
While Open Access materials are, for the most part, still under copyright by their creators, most academic and educational use is permitted without permission.

Selected Open Access Resources
Open Access Journals Databases

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Elsevier A-Z Directory of open access Journals
• Hindawi
• Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
• SpringerOpen
• Wiley Open Access

Open Access Books Databases

• Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
• E-Books Directory
• InTech Books

UZ Open Access Resources

• University of Zimbabwe Institutional Repository
• E-Theses and Dissertations

The Library offers free training for all registered University of Zimbabwe students and staff. The main purpose of these training sessions is to equip users with skills necessary for them to be able to access and use library services and information resources, foster the independent use of the library and support learning and research.
Training sessions can be arranged for groups or individuals for the following topics:
•    Access to library e-resources
•    Literature searching
•    Mendeley Reference manager
•    Research data management
•    Management of academic information

Arrange a training session
You can get in touch with an information specialist to book a training session.
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Give us time to prepare a training session for you.

A thesis is a detailed report documenting the research work completed by a student for completion of a higher degree.  The Library holds all University of Zimbabwe masters and doctoral theses. Undergraduate theses are kept by the academic departments to which they were submitted. All University of Zimbabwe theses are available online through the University of Zimbabwe Library institutional repository (UZ eScholar).
You can also use the direct link to the University of Zimbabwe e-Theses.

Find e-theses and dissertations outside UZ
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations
Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 5,218,230 theses and dissertations.

Academic writing requires that you acknowledge ideas and thoughts from other scholars by citing and referencing your sources of information. Citing is the involves quoting from, or referring to, other writers’ works and ideas in the text of your work; whilst referencing is the listing of the full details of the publications that you have cited so that the reader can find the original sources.

You should always acknowledge the sources that you consulted when preparing your academic work. Failing to acknowledge your sources is called plagiarism.

If you do not know which referencing style to use, ask your lecturer or supervisor or librarian, who will assist you in this regard.

Mendeley Reference Management Tool

Mendeley Reference Manager is a free web and desktop reference management application which lets you collect and organize citations, and then easily insert them into documents and format bibliographies.

You can use Mendeley Cite to:

• Search for references in your Mendeley library and insert them into the document you're working on.
•     Select and insert individual or multiple references at once.
•     Create a bibliography of all the references you've cited.
•     Change to any of your preferred citation styles in just a few clicks.
•     Collaborate with others by sharing references and ideas.

Visit the following link for a guide on how to use Mendeley: https://www.mendeley.com/guides/mendeley-cite

A Getting started with Mendeley video tutorial is also available on YouTube for your assistance.

You can also get in touch with the Faculty Librarian for any assistance with Mendeley.