International Open Access Week 2018 at the Donner Institute
The theme for the International Open Access Week 2018, starting today on October 22, is “designing equitable foundations for open knowledge.” Open Science is one of the core values of the research and publication activities of the institute. To celebrate the OA-week, we present how DI has worked towards the aims of OA-publishing. In addition, the staff at DI has selected one article from our publications for each day to highlight some current research themes in the study of religion.
Two publications are issued continuously by the Donner Institute: Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis and Approaching Religion. During the past years, DI has actively worked to make the institute’s publications freely available online by digitalizing older articles, improving metadata, seeking inclusion into international databases and indexes, and transferring our journals to the publication portal journal.fi maintained by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV).
We believe in Open Science
We believe that the knowledge we are part of creating should be freely available to researchers worldwide. Therefore, our scholarly publications are published as digital open-access publications following the so-called golden model for open-access publishing, which means that our publications are freely available online, in their entirety, without embargo times, costs or demands concerning login or subscription. Authors are not charged any publication fee for publishing with us.
We also encourage researchers funded by us to publish their results openly. By supporting and encouraging the open-science ideals, both in the research we carry out and in the research we fund, we aim to contribute to developing a more responsible, fair and equal academic discussion that enables participation at a global level.
Article of the day
Approaching Religion addresses an international readership and approaches the field of religion from a broad perspective, engaging contributors from different theoretical and methodological traditions. Starting in 2011, Approaching Religion has appeared in two issues a year and consists of articles, book reviews, reflections and discussions.
The Monday article, selected by director Ruth Illman, is:
von Boguslawski, J., & Westerlund, J. (2018). Putting the spiritual into practice. Approaching Religion, 8(1), 48–68. https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.66739
The article examines how Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophical ideas were reflected and put into practice in the lives of the Finnish couple Olly (Olga) Donner (1881–1956, born Sinebrychoff) and Uno Donner (1872–1958). Through their diverse anthroposophical activity, Uno and Olly Donner had a significant influence on the early development of the Anthroposophical Society in Finland and founded the Donner Institute in 1956.
Photos: Uno Donner enjoyed painting wherever the couple stayed. Olly Donner on a trip to Switzerland in 1900. Both photos belong to the Uno and Olly Donner’s picture collection, Åbo Akademi University Library.