AgEcon Search: Bringing the World to the Classroom

AgEcon Search (AES), the digital library for agricultural and applied economics, promotes diversity and equity in scholarly communication by bringing socioeconomically and geographically diverse perspectives into classrooms around the world. Freely available materials in AES can be used in place of textbooks or expensive journals from commercial publishers that are inaccessible in many classrooms due to cost barriers. AES promotes diversity in scholarly communications (bibliodiversity) as demonstrated by content such as theses from Africa providing diverse geographic perspectives, and journal articles reflecting gender perspectives or discussing rural issues in lower-income countries. AES also promotes equity in publishing, hosting papers from 88 organizations and publishers (including 33 journals) in the Global South, elevating and disseminating their content via indexes like Google Scholar and RePEc. These publications expose research by authors who may find it difficult to publish in commercial journals, but whose ideas can enrich the experience for students by introducing perspectives from and about regions outside the Global North. AES content promotes diversity and equity by offering agricultural and applied economics instructors and students free, open access (OA) to over 170,000 current and historical working papers, conference papers, journal articles, theses, and government documents from 71 countries on six continents.