Open Access Button - mapping paywalls

A new tool has been launched this week to raise awareness of open access and provide evidence for 'paywalls'. Now if you are asked for payment in exchange for access to a scholarly article you want to read, you can record your frustration, and potentially find a version of the article you were seeking.

The Open Access Button was created by students David Carroll and Joseph McArthur, and is a very simple browser-based tool. It takes seconds to download and install, and is very intuitive to use. In a few easy steps:

• Sign up for the button at https://www.openaccessbutton.org/ 
• Drag the button into your bookmarks
• When you hit a paywall, click the button
• Details of the article load automatically - just add your location and a note of why you need access
• Use the tools to search Google Scholar or CORE (an aggregation of repositories) for the article 

In this example, the search took me straight to the article in Research@StAndrews:FullText

How to use the Open Access Button

Guardian article: Push button for open access 

Mapping the paywalls: https://www.openaccessbutton.org/