Where to get research papers for free

Last update  April, 8th, 2018

After the post about ebooks, I have thought you may be interested on academic papers too and here I am! :) THANKS for your contributions to this post!
On the subject education, there is also a new post about the free university courses you can attend online, for free!!!

Anyway, if you are a PhD student or a researcher you need to download and study other people's scientific works. For most journals (the most important ones) your institution should have already a subscription.
However you'll probably have already experienced that sometimes, you need a paper you cannot download through your institution, pretty annoying eh?

So... how can you solve this problem?
Where can you download research papers for free?
Where to find free scientific journal articles?
How to get that f*ck*ng full-text pdf?
Are there alternatives to sci-hub?
Yes, just read below!


By the way, is sci-hub down? NO, once again, just read below!


I will list you several options to address this problem. At least one of them will be suitable for you. I'm 99.9999% sure! ;)

1) Ask to the librarian of your university. He/She knows for sure whom ask the paper you are looking for.

2) Look for the draft version of the published paper.
A good starting point is the Cornell University Library http://arxiv.org/ where many researchers put their papers before they are accepted on some journal.
Very often the authors update the file on arxiv.org even after the acceptance.

3) Search NOT on google.com but on https://scholar.google.com instead.
Insert the reference of your paper (Author(s), journal, volume, page), perform the search and when you find it, click "show all versions".
In this way you can check if the pdf of the paper you are intersted in is available somewhere over the web.

4) Check if your Journal is listed here http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl

5) Ask the authors and/or visit their homepages. Or simply ask the "Boss", usually the last author.
Clearly it doesn't work if the paper is too old...

6) https://sci-hub.tw/ and its mirrors
So if sci-hub.org is down, try the mirrors! And if the mirrors are also down... well there are still the other options!

This is the most powerful option, the only one that NEVER fails but it is also completely illegal.
I mean, it simply doesn't look like something legal, but I could be wrong...  anyway you are warned!
NOTE: Sometimes its servers are down.
This should be temporary and anyway you can still refer to http://libgen.org/scimag/



*** UPDATE #3 on sci-hub from another reader below ***
Apparently, Russian proxies are no-longer required to use sci-hub.org
or sci-hub.io  or   sci-hub.cc

*** UPDATE #2 on sci-hub from another reader below ***
It works with the Russian proxies, but sometimes you'll have to keep trying, which means refreshing your browser or trying again a few minutes later until it works. 

*** UPDATE #1 on sci-hub from a reader below  ***
Sci-hub is not down, actually. It's just restricted to users inside Russia, which means that you'll be able to access it if you use a Russian proxy. A list of russian proxys: http://www.proxynova.com/proxy-server-list/country-ru/
alternatively you can setup a vpn (for example with Astrill) with access to russian proxies. 


7) http://jxplore.com/ this seems to be the best sci-hub.org alternative.


8) http://booksc.org/
Similar to sci-hub but it works only with "popular" scientific papers. And it's illegal.. probably.

9) http://www.freefullpdf.com/
Similar to sci-hub, it could take some time to load.


10) Already known from the ebook post on this blog:
bookzz.org
bookfi.org

Free, free subscription, daily limit


11)  https://www.reddit.com/r/Scholar/
At the column at the left of the above page there are listed sites with open access journals

12) Directory of Open Access Journals
 https://doaj.org/


13) PLOS one

http://www.plosone.org/home.action


14) Alphabetical List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies
 http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com.cy/2012/07/alphabetical-list-of-open-access.html


15) I almost forgot! Ask a friend who works at a University, better if he/she is Finnish! This is not a joke! Finnish people working at Universities have access to many on-line journals!

16) As pointed by a reader below... Facebook can also be a valuable resource!


To use it you have simply to copy the link of the paper, just the link you find on the official page of the journal. YES, the one that, if clicked, prompt you immediately on the page where you are asked for the login and/or the money!

In short, http://sci-hub.org is for scientific papers what library.nu was for books and for this,  it will likely experience the same end.

If you CANNOT access sci-hub in your country, just try to install the Firefox and Chrome add-on proxmate.


Note...
Probably, if your institution doesn't have the subscription for the journal you want, probably that journal (and consequently the paper you are interested in), is not that important in your research field.

Another possibility could be that your library has not so much money and in this case other solutions are (partially) justified...

Good luck!

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If you have read until this point, I want to let you know I am really (really!) proud of you! :D
And in this case, as a gift, I want to suggest you other posts you may be interested in...

About education on this blog...



An important remark 
 If you find this post useful, please consider de-activating your adblocker on this blog and, if interested, have a look at the ads I host. I donate the small income from ads to organizations like UNICEF. Alternatively donate by yourself using at www.unicefusa.org/

 This will help make the world a better place and you will feel less guilty using sci-hub & co.!


Trivia

 If you watch the TV-series How I Met Your Mother, you could find interesting also this post
Ted Mosby, Klaus and the funny use of the German language that, by the way, is the  second most popular post on this blog!

Did you know?

The "did you know" series is a collection of interesting and juicy facts that I post from time to time on the blog. Very useful to entertain or annoy people at parties ;) Check it out!



Comments

Suresh said…
Great blog!!
Anonymous said…
Very interesting article ,
please can you explain me how to use http://sci-hub.org ?
Anonymous said…
Dude, you have to insert in sci-hub the URL link of the PDF you are interested in.
mathew said…
hi can you all help me locate these three articles? i do not know how to get the url for these articles. please help

Czerwik, S: Nonlinear set-valued contraction mappings in b-metric spaces. Atti Sem Mat Fis Univ Modena. 46(2), 263–276 (1998)

Czerwik, S, Dlutek, K, Singh, SL: Round-off stability of iteration procedures for operators in b-metric spaces. J Nature Phys Sci. 11, 87–94 (1997)

Singh, SL, Bhatnagar, C, Mishra, SN: Stability of iterative procedures for multivalued maps in metric spaces. Demonstratio Math. 38(4), 905–916 (2005)

please help. thanks
eddie said…
My suggestion is to contact the authors directly, since these papers are very specific, the authors (my guess) will be probably very happy to send you at least some draft versions :)
Anonymous said…
Try BookSC.org
cris_ivan said…
Sci-hub.org is down :(
Hi, man sci hub sometimes is frezee, i just think its for self security, and functionin between certain hours, yestersay was down, today was fine
Unknown said…
Sci-hub and Booksc both already dead :(
eddie said…
Maybe it's just temporary
Anonymous said…
very very good sir,,,,,,
Anonymous said…
Thanks so much! Was just about to spend my rent money to pay $52 on a 40 year old paper! Open-Source FTW!
Anonymous said…
hey it seems the site is down. is sbdy able to enter?
Anonymous said…
Sci-Hub is probably down for sure. BookSc is still online
Anonymous said…
how to use freefullpdf
Anonymous said…
Sci-hub.org is not working now. how to free download the research papers pl help. is there any links?
Anonymous said…
libgen.org is made by the same guys who maintain scihub.org. I think Sci-hub is down because they are revamping their servers or something. You can search for and get old papers on libgen, very easily, just be sure to enter the exact title and then click the DOI link to get the paper
eddie said…
Thanks for your comment!
I will update the post!
Adela said…
Libgen.org is not working too. Sci-hub.org will not work anymore for us since they have restricted some users to reduce traffic because more than half university proxy accounts got closed.

I am considering the idea of quitting academia, with all those spending cuts it will be easier to be a penguin in the middle of Sahara.
eddie said…
Internet is an ocean of opportunities and probably some other service will appear in the future!
And anyway, with or without sci-hub.org, there is still so much knowledge available for free over there!
ahmed_boy said…
hi i'm looking for this paper and i used all the tricks but couldnt find it unless i have to pay. can anybody help me.thx in advance.

"On the classification of projective techniques",LINDZEY G.,1959
Anonymous said…
ahmed_boy, you can ask for individual papers at http://www.reddit.com/r/scholar - someone will probably hook you up there.
Anonymous said…
Sci-hub is not down, actually. It's just restricted to users inside Russia, which means that you'll be able to access it if you use a russian proxy. A list of russian proxys: http://www.proxynova.com/proxy-server-list/country-ru/
eddie said…
Thanks a lot for your comment!
I have just updated the post with your tip!
Anonymous said…
Well I have tried it in the last few days with a Russian proxy and it is not allowing me to get papers like it used to without the proxy changes. It keeps telling me that I am signed in as:
National Chung Hsing University (Institutional account) and whenI click for paper (on journal access site like ingentaconnect) I'm told page not found. This is very unfortunate as I am in writing PhD mode and my college has useless access to papers and I could've really done with this. Free education my ass!
CP (sadface)
Anonymous said…
If anyone could confirm for sure that this is working, I'd appreciate it as then I would know it's not just me.
eddie said…
If the Russian proxy solution doesn't work
try asking directly the author or make a friend working in a University Department in Finland (no joke) :)
Anonymous said…
Eddie, why the Uni Dep. of Finland?
Anonymous said…
I don't know if it is still like this, but until several years ago, as researcher in Finland you had access to a lot a resources (i.e. papers) on the internet.
The education system in Finland was/is great! Really!
Anonymous said…
Sci-hub.org will work with russian proxies, indeed. I've just downloaded a paper from Springer using it. I exceptionally got this one in the first try, but sometimes you'll have to keep trying, which means refreshing your browser or trying again a few minutes later until it works. Right now, for example, i'm trying to get a paper from JSTOR and it won't work - that happens. I've noticed that the most "popular" journals are easier to get since, I suppose, most of the university proxies that sci-hub.org uses have subscriptions to those journals.
eddie said…
Thanks for your clarification. I have just updated the post!
Anonymous said…
Breaking news: sci-hub.org is now working without proxies, which means it is not restricted to russia anymore (at least by now).
eddie said…
Thanks for your contribution! Post updated!
Anthony said…
sci-hub is not working again
Bill Gates said…
just use :
http://jxplore.com/
Unknown said…
Thanks so much!! This has made my life so much easier now.
eddie said…
@Oisin
You're welcome! Keep visiting the blog :)
Unknown said…
Thank you very much for done a great job.I am surely hope it helps research.

Unknown said…
Hai

Its really great job and thank you very much for sharing.
I am much suffer yet before i see this now i hope that is i can

Thanks
Anonymous said…
thank you :))) helped immensely
Anonymous said…
great work!! helped A LOT :D
eddie said…
You're welcome!
Keep following the blog! ;)
thank you so much for this tutorial, i found a lot of articles that i was looking for my dissertation. i used libgen. i don't understand how jxplore works... :(

but the problem is: when i try to download from sci-hub, theres a message saying that i'm banned for excessive download!!! what can i do? I need more articles!
eddie said…
@ Little Miss Handicrafter
Thanks for your comment :)
I have no idea how that happened, but I suggest you to visit sci-hub by using http://incloak.com/

If this works.... just let me know :)

Keep following the blog!
Deepak said…
hey ed. please don't close ur blog.
and guys. tiera is worth mentioning.it has loads of books. iam just scared that it wl have same fate of libgen.
I take most help from tiera. I will die if tiera goes off.

Ed ,please tell us if there are chances of tiera going down. they hav already banned access to parent directory
eddie said…
Thanks Deepak!
I will try to put new content and new useful link/resources for people like you :)
Jay said…
nice job ed...thanks a lot.
I also want to know if there is similar website for downloading standards.

Thanks again
eddie said…
Thanks Jay!
What do you mean by "downloading standards"? Could you be more specific?
Anonymous said…
Hi!, in Chile we have a facebook group:
_Grupo BPPF (bájame este paper por favor) (in Spanish)

Here, we exchange the papers using different institution subscription of anyone in the group.
So, you can receive help from an anonymous and you can help to anyone too.
Anonymous said…
"libgen.org" downloads are slow and at times not work. "tiera"'s "Server is down until autumn." (maybe security measure?) HTTPS for both sites FTW
Unknown said…
I can not use any of the option for nature review papers. Any idea?
eddie said…
When everything fails... contact the author(s) ;)
Anonymous said…
What you mean, when say about Finland's guys? Are "Suomen ihmiset" more useful than another?)
Sergei said…
What you mean, when say about Finnish friends? Are "Suomien ihmiset" more useful?)
eddie said…
Moi Sergei,
I clarified the point about exploiting Finnish people ;)
Unknown said…
Any where i can find INGENTA CONNECT articles..pls help..i couldnt access them in sci hub..any alternative you can suggest..thankyou for this wonerfull blog you are maintaining..really informative and completely usefull...i appreciate your dedicated work.
ADMIN said…
This video shows how to download IEEE and other research papers for free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-i1o86guP0
Anonymous said…
Need your help. I Can't access sci-hub.org today( June 30, 2015) but before I can access it. What's the problem. the error goes like this, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN. Please help
eddie said…
maybe the site is only temporary unavailable ;)
Anonymous said…
Thank you so much!! I was lost after I stopped being able to access sci-hub.org for whatever reason. I can continue writing my paper now.
Generic Chemist said…
THANKS !! The proxy trick works very nicely ! A good example of Russian-American friendship, at the non-governmental level!
Unknown said…
Hi. Sci-hub is now not working for WILEY, isn't it? Do anyone have any idea?
Unknown said…
Thanks a dozen for sharing the info.
eddie said…
You're welcome!
Anonymous said…
k so libgen is not working for me today. is it down in my country(india) or like similar with all u guys out there. lemme know if there is a similar easy to use substitute. thanks
Lavanya said…
i need e book freshwater fishes of indian region, if anybody can download means please send me
Many, many thanks!! :) :) :) :)
I discovered many new sites with your post and the comments.
And also..., the article I was looking!!

lib.gen
working fine, but slow. Try one of the alternative links that are given for every download.

bookzz.org
Free, free subscription, daily limit

bookfi.org

sci-hub
working fine

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scholar/
seems wonderful, and rich!!
didn' known it!!

At the column at the left of the above page there are listed sites with open access journals

Directory of Open Access Journals
https://doaj.org/

PLOS one
http://www.plosone.org/home.action

Alphabetical List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies
http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com.cy/2012/07/alphabetical-list-of-open-access.html

New free online sources, related to studies of the ancient world, are listed in the above blog almost daily.

Be carefull when looking for book links using google. Many sites come up that say they have it, then ask for subscription, often paid, then a VIRUS!!

If you are looking for books, install an anti-virus.
AVG Free is good, but not 100%, some enemies are clever. No problem if you mostly visit scholarly sites.

-.
eddie said…
Thanks Konstantás for your contributions! Keep following the blog ;)
ahtishamwani said…
Great work. Keep it up
Unknown said…
I just downloade the proxmate add on. And it works like magic.. I almost cried.. when i just downloaded the add on and tried to open the sci-hub, it didnt work. So i almost gave up, but I tried one more time. Gave it some time after I downloaded the add on, and then tried to open the sci-hub. And it worked! The website is all in russian btw
Unknown said…
Use the proxmate. It worked like magic. Trust me. But the website is in russian or something
Anonymous said…
I installed the proxmate, but I still can't access to sci-hub.org? What do I need to do? Do I need to install some package? Thanks!
nini said…
I cant access Sci-Hub.org...I think its blocked
Sci-hub.org is available at sci-hub.io and sci-hub.cc
Pajomusa said…
Anyone knows how to access wiley's online library journals? Such as Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavia?
Thanks a lot!!

P.S.- sci-hub.io is working perfectly.
eddie said…
Thanks a lot Ravi!!!
Aulia said…
Thank you so much :)
Anonymous said…
For free research papers Try these 3 websites works with me smoothly
http://sci-hub.cc/ , http://sci-hub.io/ ,http://sci-hub.org/
Thank you so much for every thing , really i got it more benefit
Anonymous said…
Hi , sci-hub.oi is not work with me ..help plz
Anonymous said…
wow Thank you for suggestions... really helped O:) GOD Bless you, sir!
Anonymous said…
thankssssssssss
prabin said…
is not opening
Need your help. I Can't access http//scholar.google.com, What's the problem. the error goes like this, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN. Please help!!
eddie said…
There was a problem with the link, the correct one is : https://scholar.google.com Thanks for pointing it out.
Have a nice Christmas ;)
Anonymous said…
Thank you so much! that was really useful :)
eddie said…
You're welcome!
Anonymous said…
sci-hub.io is blocked/ it is showing file not found any information
shavel said…
sci-hub.io & sci-hub.cc is blocked & showing file not found any information... what is the solution... where do i get research papers ??? please reply
Anonymous said…
Yeah. Sci hub only shows "File not found.". It need it SO MUCH. I haven't found the article that I need in any other option. I don't know what i'm going to do if Sci-hub ends.
eddie said…
If sci-hub is down... well just wait or try the other methods.
Especially asking the Author/Authors directly, the Finnish option and reddit.
Reverie said…
You've saved my life! Thanks!
I was worried about the sci-hub, but now, with the mirrors, I'm saved.
eddie said…
You're welcome! Keep visiting the blog ;)
Niks said…

How to find this chinese paper

Dimensionless study on outlet torque characteristics of an air powered engine

Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering 2002-09

As i not getting any chinese paper from Sci-hub
can anybody suggest any sites
eddie said…
@Nikhil
why don't you email the author(s)? Maybe they will send you a copy ;)
Unknown said…
Does anyone know how to get journal articles from Wileys? They don't seem to work.
Mitenm said…
I have the same problem! Whats happen?
Naturescreation said…
Going back all contributions Here I put a list:

http://libgen.org/
http://www.freefullpdf.com/#gsc.tab=0
http://scholar.google.es/
http://sci-hub.org/
http://www.elsevier.es/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
http://bookzz.org/
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/
http://arxiv.org/
http://www.oalib.com/
http://essay.se/
http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/
http://rutracker.org./forum/index.php
https://github.com/SciTorrent
http://www.redalyc.org/
http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/CHEM/chem.html
http://www.niscair.res.in/
http://avaxhm.com/ebooks
http://www.hrpub.org/journals/journal_subject.php
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojpc/
http://odajournal.com/
http://www.niscair.res.in/
http://www.oalib.com/
https://doaj.org/
http://en.bookfi.org/
http://bookinist.net/
http://www.scielo.org/php/index.php?lang=es
http://www.ommegaonline.com/
http://www.plosone.org/
http://elifesciences.org/
http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/devecon.dtl
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/
http://avxhome.se/ebooks
http://www.journalhome.org/
http://www.mdpi.com/
http://openaccess.mpg.de/2365/en
http://www.intechopen.com/
https://ideas.repec.org/
http://www.abcdfree.com/

If you have some other links comment.
Thank you everyone for all contributions !!
Anonymous said…
tqvm...it help me today!!

i use the sci-hub.bz
Unknown said…
guys lease tell how download these papers http://standards.sae.org/j1713_201411/
http://standards.sae.org/j661a_197109/
http://standards.sae.org/j661a_196704/
http://standards.sae.org/wip/j2923/
http://standards.sae.org/j2707_201210/
i tried with sci-hub but its not working
Anonymous said…
Thank you, used the sci-hub options and it worked :)
skan said…
Where can I download the magazine Scientific American, please?

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