I am being asked to pay for my article

Have you found an article which is behind a paywall? 

Follow these steps to see if you can access it through your Open University login. 

1. Go to Library Search and Login 
2. Check you are logged in correctly, and search for the article. Your name should appear in the top right corner if you are logged in. 
3. If the article is found, follow the links presented.

It may be the article you want is not covered in our subscriptions, in this case you can:

• Try Open Access repositories, such as CORE.

• Check if the article is available for free through Google Scholar.

• Access Library Databases and Journals that have websites and blogs where some content is made freely available. For instance: 

  • the Cambridge Core blog makes journal articles available for a limited time directly after publication.
  • Science Direct database open access

• Try University and Academic Libraries that use blogs to publicise their work and discuss issues of importance to them. This is another way of keeping up to date with current research. You can search for these depending on what your particular topic of interest is. This is also a good way of finding out about conferences and events that relate to research topics relevant to you. For example:

  • The London School of Economics blog
  • Oxford Science blog
  • Oxford Arts blog

• Request articles from the inter-library loan service provided by your local public library. There is often a charge for this service and it may take up to a few weeks to arrive.

• Join the SCONUL Access Scheme and access the collections of local participating academic libraries. You can check whether a library holds the journal you need by looking in other library catalogues.

• Buy a copy of the article using the British Library Document Supply Service.

• OU staff and postgraduate research students can use our Document delivery service.

Do you keep being asked to pay/sign in to access an article you have used before? 

You can use a Library tool we have developed to add a bookmarklet to your browser favourites bar. This will allow OU users to access content directly.