UAE firm launches OA tool to coincide with Open Access Week

A free scholarly search engine for browsing open access academic content has been launched to coincide with International Open Access Week. 

Zendy Open features more than 30 million open access publications from reputable sources and journals on hundreds of subjects, from sociology and political science to atomic and molecular physics, in more than 75 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, German, Indonesian, Russian, and Swedish. It also allows the user to search for academic resources according to the date issued, material type, publisher, language, and subject.  

Kamran Kardan, founder and CEO of Knowledge E said the launch of Zendy Open reflects Knowledge E’s deep-rooted belief in barrier-free scholarly discovery. 

He said: 'We are incredibly thrilled to be launching Zendy Open globally because it reflects our ethos as an organisation. Since the inception of Zendy in 2018, the team has been working tirelessly to uncover ways that could facilitate access to credible research. We view today’s launch as an invaluable milestone on the journey towards liberating high quality scientific research and literature.'

By automatically filtering out any open access content with a non-commercial licence, the search engine provides a way to browse free open access literature and research and brings the prospect of professional and personal development closer to everyone, especially those who are unable to afford the traditionally costly subscription to publications.  

Kardan added: 'As more open access scholarly content is regularly added, Zendy Open will continue to ease access to the most recent, influential academic content, placing it at the fingertips of individuals, researchers, and professionals around the world.'

Zendy was first launched in the Middle East in 2020 as a subscription-based digital library, the first of it's kind in the region. While ‘Zendy Plus’ is still available in in Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, Zendy Open is now freely available everywhere else in the world.