Unlocking Open Access – Kopernio

Kopernio is an extension for your internet browser that quickly tells you if you have access to a version of the journal article that you are looking at. It detects when you are looking at an article’s page and, if you have access through either the library’s subscriptions or through an Open Access version, it will provide a link to the document.

The extension also keeps a record of articles you downloaded so you can find them again easily and can export a list of references to a .bib file for use with BibTeX.

The video gives a good indication of how the extension works. Why not try it out next time you’re looking for journal articles?

You can find Kopernio at https://kopernio.com/

The extension will work in Chrome or Firefox.

Edit: This extension was previously known as Canary Haz. We have updated the information here to reflect the new name and website.

Unlocking Open Access – Open Access DOIs

You’ve seen DOI numbers before. But did you know that you can use them to link to Open Access versions of articles?

DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier. They are unique identifying numbers for online publications, such as electronic journal articles. A DOI will look something like this: 10.1093/mind/fzr010

You can use a DOI to find a paper by pasting the DOI into the following format: https://doi.org/XXXXXXX.

Using the DOI from above, we’d get https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzr010

But, the above journal article is on a publisher’s website which hides the full text behind a paywall. You may have access thanks to the subscriptions provided by library services. But if not, you can try using Open Access DOIs to find an open access version.

The format for OADOIs is: https://oadoi.org/XXXXXXX

So with our example we would get: https://oadoi.org/10.1093/mind/fzr010

This looks for any Open Access versions and, if it finds any, it links you to one of them, rather than the publisher’s site.

This is a good trick for finding an Open Access version of an article you already know. It can also be a good way to link your readers to an open version of your work, ensuring they can read it.

Unlocking Open Access – Unpaywall

We talk a lot about uploading your articles to Pure so other researchers can benefit from Open Access. But we rarely talk about how you can use Open Access to benefit your own research. In this series of blog posts, we’ll show you some simple ways to find Open Access articles. First up: Unpaywall.

Unpaywall

A screenshot of a paywalled article, with the open padlock logo of Unpaywall on the right hand side of the page
The open padlock icon on the right hand side of the page shows that an open access version is available. Clicking the icon will take you to the article.

You’re searching for useful papers for your research. But the library can’t afford a subscription to all the journals you need. Papers hidden behind paywalls are a constant frustration. You could ask the library to get copies for you, but you’re on a tight schedule. You’d rather get that paper now.

Unpaywall is the solution. This browser extension adds an icon to your screen that lets you know if an Open Access version of the paper you’re trying to view is available. Click that and you’ll be reading the full text in seconds.

You can add the extension to Google Chrome or Firefox, even on university computers. Once you do, it’s always on and checking to see if it can provide a link to an Open Access version. If so, it’ll add an unobtrusive open padlock icon to the right of the screen, which will take you to the full text.

This is the easiest way we’ve seen to add Open Access to your research strategy. You can add Unpaywall to your browser here: http://unpaywall.org/