Ten ways to find Open Access articles

Some tried and trusted ways to find openly accessible versions of articles. (Last updated: March 15, 2022)

An article you need is behind a paywall on the journal's website? Don't fret – there are still some easy ways to find free, legal versions of the article you don't have access to. 

These tips will allow you to find non-paywalled articles that you can read and download without you or your institution having to pay any fee or subscription.

This image was created by Scriberia for The Turing Way community and is used under a CC-BY licence. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3678226.


The articles you find may be:

  • the publisher's version (the same one you'd find on the journal's website);
  • the accepted version or postprint (the peer-reviewed version of the article that the journal has accepted for publication) – it's just as good as the publisher's version; or
  • the preprint (usually published before peer-review).

The version of the article that you'll be able to find will depend on the publisher's policies and on where you search.

If you are an author and you would like to make your article openly accessible, consult this excellent Guide to Posting and Managing Preprints or browse Sherpa Romeo for summaries of journal's copyright and Open Access archiving policies.

Here are, in no particular order, some tried and trusted ways to find Open Access articles. Good luck!


1. Unpaywall

Use Unpaywall. Install the free Chrome or Firefox extension and then click on it from a paywalled article's page to download its Open Access version.

2. Open Access Helper

Use Open Access Helper. Install the free Chrome or Firefox extension and then click on it from a paywalled article's page to download its Open Access version. You can also get the iOS or macOS app.

3. Open Access Button

Use Open Access Button. Install the free Chrome or Firefox extension and then click on it from a paywalled article's page to download its Open Access version. You can also enter an article's DOI, URL, title or other information directly on the website.

When free access is not found, the OA Button can contact the author to help them make the article available.

Before we continue...

💡 DOI is short for Digital Object Identifier.
DOI is a character string that is unique to an article. Almost every article published online nowadays has a DOI – just look for a string such as "10.1000/xyz123". It's a good idea to use DOI to search for articles. 

💡 OA is a common abbreviation for Open Access!


4. Google Scholar

Search for articles through Google Scholar. To locate the full text of an article, try clicking (a) a link labelled [PDF] to the right of the search result or (b) "All versions" under the search result to explore the alternative sources. More search tips are available here.

You can also install the free Chrome or Firefox Google Scholar Button extension. Select the title of the article on the page you're reading and then click the button to find it.

5. Open repositories & portals

Here are examples of repositories and portals to search directly:

Before we continue...

💡 Repository is "an online archive for the storage of digital objects including research outputs, manuscripts, analysis code and/or data. Examples include preprint servers ... institutional research repositories, as well as data repositories that collect and store datasets including zenodo.org, PsychData, and code repositories such as Github, or more general repositories for all kinds of research data, such as the Open Science Framework (OSF)." Definition via FORRT


6. A simple Web search

Why not try a simple Web search using your favorite browser? 

Using some advanced search strategies can come in handy here. For example, you can try googling: "Exact Article Title" filetype:pdf. Google Advanced Search is automatized here.

7. Sci-Hub, Libgen, ResearchGate, Academia.edu,...

Please be aware that the following sources are of dubious legality and make an informed decision on whether you want to rely on them or not. Their content may be piracy or break copyright law.
  • Sci-Hub is a shadow library website that provides free access to millions of articles by bypassing publishers' paywalls. It was founded by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011. Find out more on the Wikipedia page.
  • Library Genesis (Libgen) is a shadow library website. Find out more on the Wikipedia page.
  • ResearchGate is a for-profit social networking site for scientists to share their papers. You don't have to register – scroll down to the website footer and click on "Publications".
  • Academia.edu is a for-profit social networking site for scientists to share their papers. You don't have to register – scroll down to the website footer and click on "Papers".
Neither I nor the institutions I am affiliated with endorse Sci-Hub and Libgen for article access.

8. Author's website

Authors often post PDFs of their published articles on their institutional or personal websites.

This image was created by Scriberia for The Turing Way community and is used under a CC-BY licence. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4323154

9. Ask the author

You can email the author and ask for a copy of the article. You can also request articles via academic networking sites, such as ResearchGate. Keep it polite and to the point. Most researchers will be happy to send you a copy of their publication or point you to an online copy.

Before we continue...

💡 Corresponding Author handles the manuscript and correspondence during the publication process at the journal. They also act as the contact person for any enquiries so their email is usually shown on the preview page of the article.


10. Connect with online communities

If all else fails, join online communities that are designed to help connect you with people who have institutional access to articles. Follow community guidelines and try to help out when you can.

On Facebook, Ask for PDFs from People with Institutional Access is a group with more than 100,000 members. r/Scholar is a subreddit similar to this group. On Twitter, you can mention the Article Finder Network (@article_finder) in your request.

11. Anything missing?

If you think there's anything missing, let me know! I will list your suggestion, alongside your name or Twitter handle.

James Green @ajamesgreen recommends using Zotero. Thank you, James! (Added on November 5, 2021)
  • Zotero is a free and open-source reference management software to collect, organize, cite, and share research. You can get Zotero for Mac, Windows, or Linux here and install Zotero Connectors for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge here. Zotero can be integrated with Unpaywall (instructions) as well as with Sci-Hub (instructions) to download PDFs automatically as you save items from the web.
Bora Zivkovic @BoraZ recommends the #ICanHazPDF hashtag on Twitter. Thank you, Bora! (Added on November 6, 2021)
  • On Twitter, you can add the #ICanHazPDF hashtag to your request. Once someone who has access to the article has sent it to you, you should delete the original tweet. The hashtag was coined by Andrea Kuszewski in 2011. Find out more on the Wikipedia page. 
Roland Wagner @igeltanne recommends BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine). Thank you, Roland! (Added on November 18, 2021)
  • BASE is a multi-disciplinary search engine for academic web resources (e.g. journal articles, preprints, digital collections, images, videos, research data). The BASE database is free to access and use. At the moment, it provides access to and/or information about more than 270 million documents from about 9,000 sources.
Various browser extensions that integrate Sci-Hub with publishing websites. Hat tip to Twitter. (Added on February 19, 2022)
The University of Surrey Open Research Team @SurreyOR have assembled a list of browser extensions for discovering Open Access resources. More details are available at https://www.surrey.ac.uk/library/open-research/discovering-and-citing-open-access-resources. (Added on March 15, 2022)
  • CORE Discovery is similar to Unpaywall and Open Access Button extensions.
  • EndNote Click (formerly Kopernio) is a web browser plugin that can be used alongside applications like EndNote.


If you reprint this article in full or in part, include the link to the source article and state the author of the article (Aleksandra Lazić).