This document provides guidance for accessing a research paper that is behind a paywall. It outlines several potential options, including checking your academic or community library for access, looking for the paper in subject repositories or by contacting the author directly. As an example, it summarizes a specific research paper that is freely available in a subject repository since it was published in a green open access journal that allows author self-archiving. The document stresses the importance of documenting unfulfilled resource requests to help libraries make collection decisions and provides additional resources on open access issues.

1. So You’ve Hit a
Research Paywall…
A research access guide for graduates,
non-students, other academic expatriates.
scholastical.wordpress.com

2. So you’ve hit a paywall…
• Let us imagine that we are attempting to
access the Full Text of an exciting paper
about citizen science astronomy results…
• And let’s imagine it’s this paper…
Robbins, Stuart J., et al. "The variability of crater
identification among expert and community crater
analysts." Icarus 234 (2014): 109-131.

3. But when we click on the article…
…we encounter a problem.

4. So how do we get the full text?
• In order to obtain Full Text access, there
are a couple of approaches open to you.
– Subscription access
– Open access, Archive or other access

5. Subscription Full Text
• Academic or Community Library
– Journal Access?
– Interlibrary Loan? Check WorldCat for availability.
– Check with a Reference Librarian
• Professional Memberships
– Mostly trade publications and industry news, but might be helpful
if the article is published in your field.
• Employer Access
– Use this professionally, ethically and judiciously if your employer
allows access to the journal you need. Do not abuse it.
• Wikipedia Resource Exchange
– If you are using this resource to contribute to Wikipedia, you can
make a request at the Resource Exchange WikiProject.

7. Open Access, Archive or Other Full Text
• Open Access (OA)
– “Gold” open access generally refers to OA journals (not typically if
you’ve encountered a paywall).
– “Green” open access refers to the authors’ ability to self-archive,
generally involves more effort on part of author
• Repositories
– Subject repositories (Cornell’s arXiv, ResearchGate, etc.)
– Institutional repositories (hosted by author’s university or research
institution)
• Google Scholar
– Search the bibliographic citation to determine if an archive copy is
available.
• Contact Author
– Request a copy of the paper
– Better yet, if published in a green open access journal publisher (like
Elsevier), request that they archive the paper in a repository so
everybody can access it.

9. So we are not without options.

10. In our example…
Robbins, Stuart J., et al. "The variability of crater
identification among expert and community
crater analysts." Icarus 234 (2014): 109-131.
• Paper is published by a green
open access journal publisher.
• Authors have already self-
archived using a subject
repository.
• Full Text available.
arXiv:1404.1334 [astro-ph.EP]

11. When all else fails,
document the request.
• Request the resource from your local
library or research institution.
• Unfulfilled resource requests, as well as
fulfilled ones, are documented and used
in collection development decisions.
• Document the paywall’s impact on your
research with the Open Access Button, a
worldwide project to improve access to
scholarly resources.
– After documenting the impact, the OA Button
will automatically attempt to find the Full Text
of your resource, as well as give you the
opportunity to contact the author to request
access.
openaccessbutton.org

12. Additional Information
• More information can be found at
http://scholastical.wordpress.com.
• The example paper used in this
presentation documents results
from CosmoQuest’s MoonMappers
project. They’re pretty cool, and
enable average citizens like you
and I to engage in science. You
should check them out at
http://cosmoquest.org.