8 Ways Journalists Can Access Academic Research for Free

This tip sheet outlining methods journalists can entry tutorial analysis for free, initially revealed in September 2018, has been up to date with new data. This put up was initially revealed by The Journalist’s Resource and is reprinted right here with permission.

At The Journalist’s Resource, we’re massive followers of analysis — particularly the peer-reviewed form. We know tutorial analysis is considered one of journalism’s most dear instruments for protecting public coverage points and fact-checking claims.

Unfortunately, journalists usually have bother accessing research revealed in tutorial journals. Many journals maintain students’ work behind paywalls, and subscriptions will be prohibitively costly for newsrooms and particular person journalists. For instance, a subscription to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a journal of the National Academy of Sciences, is greater than $200 a 12 months for one individual for private use solely. There are hundreds of journals worldwide.

Resourceful journalists discover different methods to get that data. Here are eight of them.

1. Go to the Library

Public libraries usually subscribe to tutorial journals and anybody with a library card can learn them. The excellent news for busy journalists is a few libraries permit their customers to entry on-line databases of peer-reviewed analysis from any location.

US schools and universities present on-line entry to tutorial journals by their tutorial libraries. State college libraries usually are open to the general public. Private establishments usually prolong library privileges to alumni.

2. Ask Academic Journals for a Free Account

Many of the most well-liked journals give journalists complimentary entry, though some restrict free accounts to journalists protecting particular matters or beats. The American Economic Association (AEA), for occasion, affords information media professionals free entry to all eight of its journals, together with the American Economic Review. You can request an account by the affiliation’s press web page.

(*8*) says Chris Fleisher, the AEA’s internet editor. “We want journalists to know they can access our journals if they like.”

It’s price noting that many journals will share embargoed copies of analysis articles with journalists and alert them to new analysis on a subject of curiosity. Contact the journals you’re thinking about to be taught extra.

3. Search Open Access Journals and Platforms

A rising variety of scholarly journals often known as open entry, or OA, journals supply their on-line content material for free to the general public. Be conscious that whereas there are numerous high-quality OA publications, some have interaction in unethical practices. A trusted supply of respected OA journals is the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Examples of prime OA journals embody PLOS One, the world’s first multidisciplinary OA journal, and BMC Biology.

Several on-line platforms additionally permit the general public to entry analysis for gratis. One is Unpaywall.org, a free database of virtually 48 million free-to-read tutorial articles.

4. Check Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an internet search engine that indexes analysis from varied sources. Often, Google Scholar will present PDF paperwork of analysis articles in its search outcomes. However, some PDFs include earlier variations of an article, together with drafts that haven’t been peer reviewed or revealed.

While these earlier variations will be useful, it’s necessary to contact the writer earlier than reporting on their findings. The findings highlighted in working papers are preliminary and will differ considerably from the ultimate model revealed in a journal article. (To higher perceive the variations between a working paper and an educational article, try our explainer.)

5. Install Browser Extensions

Browser extensions might help you verify the net for free variations of educational articles. The Unpaywall browser extension gathers content material from greater than 50,000 journals and open-access repositories worldwide. The Open Access Button searches “millions of articles” from sources that embody “all of the aggregated repositories in the world, hybrid articles, open access journals, and those on authors’ personal pages,” in response to its web site.

If the Open Access Button doesn’t discover free variations of the articles you’re trying for, it would contact the authors and ask them to share their work by placing it into an open entry repository.

6. Reach Out to the People Who Did the Research

If you discover a analysis article you’re thinking about studying however can solely entry the summary on-line, name or electronic mail the authors and ask for an entire copy. Journal abstracts usually embody contact data for the authors or, on the very least, an electronic mail deal with for the corresponding writer.

Researchers normally will share copies of their work with journalists. If a scholar shares a pre-published model of an educational article, you should definitely ask how carefully it resembles the revealed model and whether or not the findings are the identical.

Another possibility: Researchers usually put up hyperlinks to their tutorial analysis on their private web sites. Those who work for schools and universities are likely to checklist their revealed articles on their college pages.

7. Call the Media Relations Office

The media relations workplace of a college or analysis group might help you observe down a replica of an article written by considered one of its researchers. It might help you attain the authors as nicely.

The most important disadvantage: While media relations places of work usually are delicate to newsroom deadlines, they could be busy serving to many journalists on the similar time. It’s usually sooner and simpler to achieve out to authors instantly. If you’ve gotten bother getting researchers to reply, media relations employees members are normally keen to present them a nudge.

Universities additionally ship out press releases selling new tutorial analysis performed by their college and analysis facilities. Ask tips on how to obtain alerts about matters key to your beat.

8. Sign Up for Newsletters and Press Releases from Organizations That Promote Scholarly Work

A fast approach to get details about new analysis from a bunch of various analysis entities is by signing up for emails from organizations comparable to Futurity and EurekAlert!

Futurity is a partnership of 47 universities within the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It highlights the work of students in 4 broad subject areas: tradition, well being, atmosphere, and science.

EurekAlert! is a news-release distribution platform run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It hosts information releases from increased schooling establishments, medical facilities, authorities businesses, tutorial journal publishers, companies, and different teams concerned in analysis throughout all fields.

Additional Resources

5 Tips for Using Academic Research in Investigative Journalism

New Models: How Academics, Nonprofit News and Government are Collaborating

How a Canadian Reporting Lab Is Pioneering Academic-Journalist Collaboration 

Denise-Marie Ordway joined The Journalist’s Resource in 2015 after working as a reporter for newspapers and radio stations within the U.S. and Central America, together with the Orlando Sentinel and Philadelphia Inquirer. Her work additionally has appeared in publications comparable to USA TODAY, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post.