Alternative routes to open access articles

Many scholarly and peer-reviewed articles can be read open access today on the web: through installing a browser extension or plug-in, by using academic search engines and archives or by contacting the author directly.

Alternative routes to scholarly articles and research outputs

Plugins, browser extentions and interlibrary loans

You can download and use browser extensions or plug-ins, or search directly in your favourite repository in order to find open access articles. Below we list examples of plug-ins, open archives and search services. Many libraries also integrate these services in their link resolvers for seamless access via their discovery services.

Researchers may share articles between themselves if this is permitted by agreements with their publishers, the so-called ‘scholarly sharing.’ Please refer to Sherpa/Romeo to check current terms for the journal in question. When using the plug-in Open Access Button and hitting paywalled articles, requests to authors are sent asking them to deposit their articles in an open institutional or subject repository. There are also a number of social platforms for researchers, e.g. ResearchGate and Academia.edu.

There are a number of browser extensions or plug-ins for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari which can be installed to facilitate finding articles which are open access:

Unpaywall

Unpaywall external link makes finding OA-articles easy for the individual user by installing a plug-in on Chrome or Firefox. Content from Unpaywall is also integrated into other services such as databases and link-resolvers.

Open Access Button

You can search Open Access Button directly on their website or download an extension for Chrome which makes finding open access articles easy. They also offer integrated services for libraries external link , as interlibrary loans (ILL/DDS). When OA Button hits a paywall, the service also sends off requests to authors asking them to deposit their articles in a subject or institutional repository in order to make their research open. Open Access Button is a non-profit organisation.

Google Scholar Button

Google Scholar Button external link is a browser extension available for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. The extension makes finding full-text open access articles in Google Scholar easier and allows access to closed articles which a user has access to via their own institution’s subscriptions, by configuring Google Scholar with your library’s URL.

Lazy Scholar

The Lazy Scholar external link extension finds open access articles and provides metrics and citations. Additionally, it can include articles behind paywalls via a user’s own institution’s subscriptions.

Kopernio

Kopernio external link is an extension finding both open access versions of articles and articles which users have access to via institutional subscriptions. The service is free but belongs to Clarivate Analytics and you need to register in order to use the extension.

General

1findr free edition

1findr is a commercial platform for searching articles in peer-reviewed journals which also offers a free version. This version allows no advanced search option apart from narrowing results to include open access articles only.

BASE – Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

Bielefeld Academic Search Engine and index for academic resources contains about 120 million documents. Around 60 % of its indexed content is open access.

CORE

CORE’s search engine and index for aggregated research publications from repositories and journals globally. Developed by JISC and the Open University it offers access to around 133 million articles.

Dimensions

Apart from searching for publications and the possibility to search for cited and citing articles, Dimensions also indexes grants, patents, and clinical trials. The free version offers limited possibilities.

DOAJ

DOAJ is a list of open access journals and a search service finding peer-reviewed and scholarly journals and articles.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an index and search engine for academic content on the web.

OpenDOAR

OpenDOAR is a searchable global directory of open access repositories and their policies.

OSF Preprints

OSF Preprints is a platform with openly accessible preprints, or submitted manuscripts which are publically distributed before acceptance and peer-review in a traditional scientific journal. An advantage of publishing preprints is the speeding up of scientific communication and of sharing research results earlier, as it can take a long time between submission of an article till publication.

OSF Preprints is developed by Centre for Open Science (COS), a non-profit organisation with the goal of greater openness and reproducible research.

Zenodo

Zenodo is an open archive developed by CERN where researchers can deposit publications, preprints, software, and research data.

Medicine, Biology

bioRxiv

bioRxiv external link is an archive for open access preprints in the life sciences operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

PubMed Central

PMC external link is a subject repository with open access articles in medicine and biology run by the National Library of Medicine.

Physics, Matchematics, Computer Sciences

arXiv

arXiv external link is a preprint archive mainly for physics, mathematics, computer sciences and related sciences. Run by Cornell University.

Humanities

Humanities Commons

The Humanities Commons CORE repository external link is intended for open access articles, monographs and other publications and resources in the humanities. Humanities Commons is a nonprofit operation run by the MLA.

Social Sciences

SocArXiv

SocArXiv external link is an open archive of the social sciences for preprints, working papers and other outputs. It is operated by the University of Maryland and developed by the Center of Open Science (COS).