Free Access To Academic Journals
Knowledge should be free for all
This article is mainly meant for people who need access to academic journals and articles for whatever reason. As those people surely know, many articles and journals you search over the internet are often locked behind paywalls, asking you to pay $20 or more to gain access to a single academic journal.
Academic journals are (according to Wikipedia):
Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. They are usually peer-reviewed or refereed.[1] Content typically takes the form of articles presenting original research, review articles, and book reviews. The purpose of an academic journal, according to Henry Oldenburg (the first editor of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society), is to give researchers a venue to “impart their knowledge to one another, and contribute what they can to the Grand design of improving natural knowledge, and perfecting all Philosophical Arts, and Sciences.”[2]
So academic journals are a means to share knowledge between academics, in order to help humanity pursue knowledge, learn from one another, and in unity, advance our civilization. Correct?
Unfortunately, it has become a capitalist business all on its own, with many publishers locking academic journals behind paywalls, asking you to pay for that knowledge. The worst of it all? In most — if not all — cases, the original authors of these papers don’t receive a single cent from the payment you make. They don’t get any royalties off the money you pay for access to their research papers. All the money goes exclusively into the pockets of their publishers.
This stands directly in contrast to the philosophy of offering free knowledge to all. In this article, I will show some ways on how to find the papers you are looking for, avoiding paywalls. Often, the original authors of these articles have received a free copy of their work, which they managed to freely upload themselves somewhere for people to read and enjoy freely. But sourcing academic journals via Google and co. can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Luckily, there are some tools that make it a lot easier.
Means to find academic papers for free
The following tools can assist you in quickly finding any research papers you need for free.
Unpaywall (legal)
Unpaywall is a legal tool (meaning it does not infringe on copyright or the likes) which you can download as an extension for your Chrome browser.
Unpaywall harvests the contents from multiple sources and repositories, such as the DOAJ, offering a database of more than 50,000 journals and research papers. If you have the PMID or other identification for the journal you need, Unpaywall might be able to source you the academic journal. Free of charge.
It’s often hit or miss and can’t get you everything. But it’s often worth a try before you pay a greedy publisher for something that has been written for free.
Sci-Hub (questionable / illegal)
Sci-Hub openly calls itself
“the first pirate website in the world to provide mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers” — Sci-hub.tw
Disclaimer: I do not advocate the use of this website in any way. I merely state the source and explain what it does. If you source research papers for your own cause, keep in mind that the act of doing so might infringe on copyright. I do not take any responsibility.
Sci-Hub offers to source over 81,907,869 academic journals and research papers in their database. All you need to find the one you’re looking for is its PMID, OID, or a string for the search. It operates like Google or any other search engine.
Sci-Hub makes three distinct statements on its website:
Knowledge to all
We fight inequality in knowledge access across the world. The scientific knowledge should be available for every person regardless of their income, social status, geographical location and etc.
Our mission is to remove any barrier which impeding the widest possible distribution of knowledge in human society!
No copyright
We advocate for cancellation of intellectual property, or copyright laws, for scientific and educational resources.
Copyright laws render the operation of most online libraries illegal. Hence many people are deprived from knowledge, while at the same time allowing rightholders to have a huge benefits from this. The copyright fosters increase of both informational and economical inequality.
Open access
The Sci-Hub project supports Open Access movement in science. Research should be published in open access, i.e. be free to read.
The Open Access is a new and advanced form of scientific communication, which is going to replace outdated subscription models. We stand against unfair gain that publishers collect by creating limits to knowledge distribution.
Most databases do not give access to academic journals because of copyright law. Sci-Hub ignores copyright law and harvests all materials. This makes it the most extensive library to find whatever research paper you might need, but this also means that you might act illegally by doing so.
I do not advocate copyright violations, nor do I actively and purposely engage in such behavior. Sci-Hub in an on itself is not illegal either. It does also show open-source materials. It’s only when you search for an academic journal which is protected by copyright, that you cross that legal line. But that is not my decision nor responsibility.
With these tools, you should be able to find any academic journal you’re looking for, without being stuck at a paywall. I do agree that knowledge and scientific benefits should be accessible to all. Access to knowledge should not be limited to the few. Anyone who shows the will and endurance to pursue a doctorate or other academic profession should have all means to do so.
I also agree with copyright and the protection of creative works. I am a writer myself. Below, you find an article regarding copyright violation and plagiarism:
However, I find it morally questionable if someone were to capitalize on knowledge that could save lives or advance humanity as a whole.
I hope this article helps you in your pursuit of knowledge and progress.
Kevin is an editor and writer for the ILLUMINATION and Polyglot Poetry publications. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.