Services that are only available with UM account
Lean Library browser extension
The Lean Library browser extension will automatically notify you and give you access to the licensed content offered by the library and open-access available publications, even when you are not on campus or not connected to the campus network.
Inter Library Loan (ILL)
You can request copies of articles via the UM Library Interlibrary Loan service.
Services that are also available without a UM-account
Endnote Click (formerly known as Kopernio)
Endnote Click harnesses your library subscriptions to get you the highest-quality PDFs. When your subscriptions do not grant you access, EndNote Click will search for an open-access alternative from its vast database of open-access articles.
Unpaywall
Unpaywall is a free web browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that indexes papers from more than 5,000 repositories worldwide, including preprint servers and institutional databases. Get full-text of more than 10 million legal, Open Access articles while you browse.
Additional information
Google Scholar button
With the Google Scholar button added to your browser, you can easily access Google Scholar from any web page. You can find full text on the web or in your university library. Select the title of the paper on the page you’re reading, and click the Scholar button to find it.
Open Access button
Open Access Button offers free legal research articles and data delivered instantly or automatically when requested by authors. You can access it from the website or install a browser extension.
BASE
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is a multidisciplinary search engine for academic web resources created by Bielefeld University Library in Germany. BASE facilitates effective and targeted searches and retrieves high-quality, academically relevant results. Other than search engines like Google or Bing, BASE searches the deep web as well. The sources which are included in BASE are selected and reviewed.
Additional information
Preprints / Green Open Access
Many (institutional) repositories contain pre-prints or Green Open Access versions of scientific articles. Examples:
- UM Research Information Portal
- NARCIS, the gateway to scholarly information in the Netherlands
- The Directory of Open Access Repositories
- Digital Commons Network
- RePEc, a decentralised bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, etc., in the field of economics
- SSRN encourages the early distribution of Social Sciences research results by reviewing and distributing submitted abstracts and full-text papers from scholars around the world
Request copy via author
You can always request a copy directly from the author (if you can find the e-mail address); often not the fastest way, but traditionally a well-used route to get PDFs.
Many researchers have joined one or more social networks for scientists. And many make their PDFs available inside these networks for download or offer the option to request it. ResearchGate, Academia and Mendeley are social networking sites for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. Please keep in mind the copyright rules of these networks.
Hashtag #icanhazpdf
On X (previously Twitter), use the hashtag #icanhazpdf with a link to the requested publication; if somebody has access, they can send you the PDF.