Tips on alternative access to articles behind paywalls
Turku University Library is continuously working on providing its customers with easier access to open access publications as well as subscription resources.
If an article you are looking for is not included in the electronic or print resources provided by the university library, there are a number of ways in which you can try to access it anyway.
- On the International articles tab in the library’s Volter database, we have enabled several services which will search for authors’ self-archived versions (e.g. in university repositories) if the article you are looking for is not included in the library-subscribed resources. So if you encounter a paywall, it’s worth checking the Volter database, too. For a better search experience, log in to Volter before conducting your search.
- Google on its own will not find everything available. There are browser extensions that you can download to help you find openly available legal copies of articles on the internet. Check out the library’s guide How to Find Open Access Resources for more information.
- You can also search for open versions of articles directly with the aid of OA search engines or the publication repository of the institution with which the author is affiliated.
If you cannot find an open access version of the article you need, you can turn to the library's interlibrary services. The interlibrary services will find the resources for you, you don't have to find out yourself where to get it!
- You can make a request by using the form for interlibrary requests.
- Please notice that this service is subject to a charge.
There is, of course, also always the option to contact the author and ask them to send you a copy, either through academic networking sites such as Academia.edu and Researchgate.com or using their email address.
Remember to self-archive your own publications in Turku University’s repository in order to make them openly available to others!