A Roadmap for Making Islamic Finance Sources More Accessible The Role of Secondary Services in the Dissemination of Research

Secondary services, particularly electronic databases, have revolutionized research by bringing together more resources for one's disposal. This virtual network has exponentially increased the availability of information, thus making relevancy one of the most important questions in data collection. The Internet may be useful for finding introductory information because the turnover time is short and the resources are practically unlimited. However, the Internet is inherently flawed as a research tool for serious researchers because there is no barrier to entry; hence, regardless of credentials or veracity, anyone can post anything as a "fact." The issue of quality assurance then becomes important. Quality assurance can stem from professional authority (who is writing the article), institutional authority (where is the research being undertaken), or a publisher's authority (by whom is it being published). Therefore, though the Internet is a good source of industry news, market news, and consumer perceptions, established outlets (both print media and electronic) should be preferred.

This raises the issue of the authenticity and value of traditional scholarly sources, which are still being published in printed format and are finding their way to the Internet. In particular, this paper examines how the Islamic economics and finance (IFE) discipline has taken advantage of this wonderful technology while seeking to explore the manner in which primary sources are being indexed and abstracted by the secondary services. Harvard University's Islamic Finance Project (IFP DataBank2) online databank on Islamic finance, which began in 1997, will be presented as an example of a unique secondary service that collects, prepares, organizes, and disseminates information free of charge. While full-text publications are certainly more attractive, copyright laws impose challenges on their easy dissemination. Lately, a few authors of IFE publications have not paid close attention to copyright laws by allowing articles or papers to be published or reprinted by many different sources. This makes the indexing services seem a mockery of affairs. In the absence of full-text services, we are left with the alternate age-old method of going to the library to acquire a publication. In the Internet era, IFE sources need to seek out services like LexisNexis and other data aggregators if they wish to remain competitive and relevant to ongoing research globally. The IFP DataBank project is certainly a step in the right direction.