Tip to students: If you run into a paywall trying to read an article, ask a librarian for help! Many public and school libraries have newspaper and magazine access, and some university libraries even have free subscriptions or app access for students.
I love Mastodon because all the replies to this post are tips to bypass paywalls. As a lawyer and law professor, I will not endorse any of these ways, of course…
@roastinghouse @tiffanycli Adding on to that, news website paywalls can be circumvented with various archiving websites, for academic papers scihub often works, and many books can be found in the library genesis.
@jaseg @roastinghouse @tiffanycli I heard a whole podcast about this recently. Unless I’m mistaken, nothing new is being added to scihub, but everything that was already uploaded to it is still available.
@batyalee @jaseg @tiffanycli most researchers will gladly send your a copy of their work via email when asked.
Did some work HRA (Health Research Authority (NHS)) late last decade, there was a push to make sure research is publicly available. Big phrama got around this by having a link buried in a tech document somewhere on a webpage no one reads - fits the brief but arguably not accessible.
It’s often out there but not easy to find.
@tiffanycli If you run into a paywall trying to read an academic article, another option is to either google the title of the paper (sometimes people will have posted a PDF) or email the researchers directly.
Most researchers have no stake in research journals' paywalls.
@JoeUchill @tiffanycli, there are several methodes, depending on how the paywall is made.
Sometimes work visiting the page in a private window, often using a services like https://12ft.io or https://demo.thisischip.com. also using the reader mode in https://andisearch.com, if the page admit it. Pushing the ESC Button and hold, before the page finish to load. Also open the Dev Tool in the browser to see it's code, searching the script of the paywall window and delete it.
@tiffanycli also use a javascript blocker ;)
@tiffanycli first try if you can reach it using the VPN connection of your institution.
@tiffanycli Of course. But as librarians we could tell people that they exist. Depends on the librarian, but I really try hard to find ways, any ways, to get people access to the information that they want or need.
@jessamyn @tiffanycli You're a legend for doing so.
@tiffanycli http://68k.news/
and http://frogfind.com/ are not only good tips for paywall bypass, but they also allow you to access the internet on devices that wouldn't otherwise be able to parse the modern web.
@tiffanycli Lots o' libraries pay $$$$$ for electronic access subscriptions for their community!
@tiffanycli my reply was not a tip to bypass paywalls. Shall I repeat it?
@tiffanycli and if you want to read a scientific article to read, don't hesitate to ask the writers. A lot of them do understand that students can't pay for it.
@tiffanycli at some universities you can even get a special link though the university library website search that grants access to otherwise paid articles. even in situations where trying to "login with your institution" doesn't seem to be provided for that school.
@tiffanycli Many paywalls offer the content for free when Javascript isn't supported by the web browser, or turned off within the browser. This isn't a circumvention, because it's up to the website developer under what circumstances to block, restrict or deliver content, and there are many reasons for a web browser not to download or execute Javascript.
@tiffanycli complementary tip for instructors: assign open access readings, and/or include links in the syllabus that take students straight to the assigned article via your library's website, so they don't have to ask a librarian for help.
If it's an academic paper, email the corresponding author. I happily send pdfs of my papers to anyone who asks. I'd rather I give it for free than have a multinational billion-dollar company make money from my work.
@tiffanycli also consider adding one of the open access extensions to a browser. The university where I work created an open access archive (and the copyright agreements negotiated by the library allow us to upload everything we write there) and any search with them enabled should take someone there directly, no waiting.
@tiffanycli Or you can just plug the link into
https://archive.ph/
which works for many sites.
I usually google search the article title. More often than not, the same article is available to read for free.
@tiffanycli i work for a university and the librarians are amazing