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Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

3 Options for Alternative Access

3 Options for Alternative Access

Get the articles you need through Interlibrary Loan

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Visit the How to Request page to get started.

Our ILL staff is available and happy to assist you.
Email: ill@ucsc.edu

 

Most articles are delivered via email within 24 hours of your request. 

Find an Open Access copy

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Some authors may have already made articles available/open access (OA).

  • Check to see if the article you’re seeking is already online and free of charge by searching its title in Google or Google Scholar.
    OR
  • Open Access Button (OA Button): From the OA Button’s website, you can enter an article’s URL, DOI, title, or other information to check for free and legal open access versions.
     

Picture of an electrical plugBrowser Plugins for OA ⇩ 

 

  • 1. The OA Button offers Chrome and Firefox extensions. When an open access copy is not found, the OA Button can contact the author directly.
  • 2. Unpaywall: Directly search Unpaywall’s database of millions of open access articles by entering the DOI for an article, or install the Chrome/Firefox browser extension, which will point you to any open access versions of paywalled articles you come across online. Unpaywall is also integrated into UC e-Links.

     

Book and internet imageOnline Repositories ⇩ Find out more about where OA resources are coming from.

 

Use your network

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Contact the author: The author’s name and institution (if available) are usually shown on the preview page of the article.

Some authors are open to receiving requests for articles via social networking sites where researchers share their work, including:

-Academia.edu
-ResearchGate
-​
Mendeley
-​
HumanitiesCommons

Twitter #ICanHazPDF: you can make a request to the author via Twitter using the hashtag #icanhazpdf with a link to the publication you need.

Need Additional Help?

Contact us at: 
research@library.ucsc.edu

UC Open Access Policies

UC open access policies learn more

E-scholarship

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