How to Access Articles in Paid Scientific Journals
Every time you see flashy headlines about a new study, or some marketer says that “studies show” that their diet or product has a specific effect, they are most likely talking about a magazine article that you have a dangerous chance of doing so. what you can access.
Fortunately, there are ways to bring attention to some of these magazine articles without resorting to outright piracy and paying exorbitant fees for each article.
Why magazine articles are so expensive
Articles in scientific journals are not the same as news in magazines or newspapers. These journals are publications that exist to publish scientific articles, and they are usually peer-reviewed: when a journal receives an article from a scientist, they send it to other scientists and ask if it is worth publishing.
Traditionally, money does not change hands between scientists and the magazine. The magazine then charges readers a fee. This model was established in the days when all magazines were printed on paper and you had to buy them. Libraries will of course buy subscriptions. But now that everything is electronic, libraries are paying subscription fees to provide access to their readers. Not in the university library? The website is happy to host a small cart button to collect your money – often around $ 35 per paper. In any case, the money goes to the publisher, not the authors of the newspaper. (Authors work in institutions such as universities and hospitals and are expected to produce articles as part of their work.)
I don’t think I have ever met anyone who pays for each article. If you read articles at work or in class, you will quickly go bankrupt, paying $ 35 for each piece you need to view. I suspect the business model of the magazines here is that the $ 35 fee is a barrier to entry, something that makes you walk away if you’re not serious about finding a university library subscription if so.
Open Access journals work a little differently. Their articles are free to read, but authors have to pay a fee of, say, $ 3,000 for the publisher to get paid anyway. It is sometimes difficult for scientists to find the money to pay these fees. When they plan a series of experiments, they usually receive money by applying for a grant to cover their expenses (supplies, salaries, and a hefty amount of change paid to their institution to cover rent, etc.). Document fees are not always included or may not be sufficient to pay for all documents received.
It sucks for all of us. I read articles all the time as part of my work and access them through a dizzying mosaic of techniques I’ve found over the years. Some of them are available only to journalists, for example, a request from the media about access to databases or an appeal to the press service of a journal or university. But I can share others with you.
Find free versions
The article can be published in a paid journal, and another version is available somewhere for free. For example, research funded by the National Institutes of Health must publish their work through PubMed Central , a repository of scientific articles that can be read for free, although they can also be published in paid journals.
Here are some ways to find free versions:
- Check out the free version of your chosen paper using the open access button available on this website or as a browser extension.
- Find your newspaper through PubMed , which includes articles on health and medicine. If the article is available through PubMed Central, there will be a link. You will also often find a link to the article it is in on the magazine’s website, and some of them are free anyway.
- Search using Google Scholar . If a free full-text version is available, it will be listed in the right column of the search results.
- Try doing a basic Internet search. Sometimes the author posts articles on his personal or laboratory website. If the results page is too cumbersome, try finding the authors directly (their name plus the name of their institution should quickly find the right person) and see if they link to their articles.
- Use this with care: Sci-Hub provides documents for free, and many of them are there illegally. But it also reportedly contains at least several million documents that are legally allowed to access .
Love my library
The magazines work largely on subscription fees. If you are a college or university student, visit your university library website for instructions on how to access the journals they are subscribed to. It is often easy to get paid articles this way, and the larger your institution, the more magazines they can subscribe to.
If you are not in school, remember that other institutions, such as hospitals and community colleges, may also provide access to students or employees. Check to see if you can access alumni from the college you graduated, or contact your nearest university, even if you are not a student, to see if you can pay for a library card and access the journal as a membership privilege.
Just ask
Since scholars who write research papers do not receive a fee reduction, they generally do not care if readers are paid to access their work. In most cases, it is perfectly legal and ethical for them to give out free copies of their documents to anyone they like.
So just ask. When you find an article you want to read but cannot access elsewhere, browse the list of authors. One of them will be marked as a “Corresponding Author” with an email address. (If multiple authors have email addresses, contact the person listed last. This is likely the person who was in charge of the project or directed the laboratory in which it was conducted.)
Send an email politely asking for paper and why you need it. Your own interest is a great reason. It’s nice to let them know if you plan to write about it somewhere or if it’s part of a project you are working on. They may be interested in what you are doing, and at least it will be more friendly than asking without explanation. You take risks when you ask, but many scientists are happy to help you.