Finding Open Access Content

What are your options if your requested full-text article is behind a paywall on a publisher’s platform?

We recommend the following:

• Academic search engines
• Open Access browser extensions / plug-ins
• Scholarly Sharing: contact the author

Academic search engines

• HSGswisscovery: shows for articles in academic journals, where available, links to Unpaywall and Google Scholar; these links will check the availability of Open Access versions on these platforms
• HSGswisscovery: search all over Switzerland for the journal title, with search profile swisscovery; if the journal is available in print in one of the participating libraries, you can order a copy directly in HSGswisscovery
• CORE
• BASE Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
• Google Scholar

Browser extensions / plug-ins

Browser extensions / plug-ins will check on publisher’s platforms if an Open Access version of an article is freely available.

• CORE Discovery
• Unpaywall
• Open Access Button

Scholarly Sharing: directly contact the author of an article

Authors generally retain the right of “scholarly sharing” when publishing in a journal. If contacted directly, they can share their content with interested researchers.
Send an inquiry directly to an author, asking if the content can be shared directly with you.

If all of the above should fail: contact the library and we will check if there’s any other option to get to the requested fulltext.