15 Best Websites to Download Research Papers for Free

Best Websites to Download Research Papers for Free

Is your thirst for knowledge limited by expensive subscriptions? Explore the best websites to download research papers for free and expand your academic reach.

With paywalls acting like impenetrable fortresses, accessing scholarly articles becomes a herculean task. However, a beacon of hope exists in the form of free-access platforms, quenching our thirst for intellectual wisdom. Let’s set sail on this scholarly journey.

Table of Contents

Today’s champions of academia aren’t just about offering free access, they uphold ethics and copyright respectability. Let’s delve into these repositories that are reshaping the academia world. You can download free research papers from any of the following websites.

Best Websites to Download Research Papers

#1. sci-hub – best for accessing paywalled academic papers.

Despite its contentious standing, Sci-Hub offers an invaluable service to knowledge-seekers. While navigating the tightrope between access and legality, it represents a game-changing force in the world of academic research.

#2. Library Genesis (Libgen) – Best for a Wide Range of Books and Articles

It’s not just a repository, but a vibrant confluence of multiple disciplines and interests, catering to the unique intellectual appetite of each knowledge seeker.

Source: https://libgen.is

#3. Unpaywall – Best for Legal Open Access Versions of Scholarly Articles

What are the benefits of Unpaywall?

#4. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – Best for Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journals

Source: https://doaj.org

#5. Open Access Button – Best for Free Versions of Paywalled Articles

What are the benefits of Open Access Button?

#6. Science Open – Best for a Wide Variety of Open Access Scientific Research

Consider Science Open as a bustling town square in the city of scientific knowledge, where scholars from all walks of life gather, discuss, and dissect over 60 million articles. 

You might also like:

#7. CORE – Best for Open Access Content Across Disciplines

With its unparalleled aggregation and comprehensive access, CORE embodies the grand orchestra of global research. It stands as an essential tool in the modern researcher’s toolkit.

#8. ERIC – Best for Education Research

What are the benefits of ERIC?

#9. PaperPanda – Best for Free Access to Research Papers

It’s like having a personal research assistant, guiding you through the maze of scholarly literature.

#10. Citationsy Archives – Best for Research Papers from Numerous Fields

Source: https://citationsy.com

#11. OA.mg – Best for Direct Download Links to Open Access Papers

Source: https://oa.mg

#12. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) – Best for Social Sciences and Humanities Research

SSRN serves as an invaluable resource for researchers in the social sciences and humanities, fostering a community that drives innovation and advancements in these fields.

#13. Project Gutenberg – Best for Free Access to eBooks

Project Gutenberg serves as a testament to the power of literature and the accessibility of knowledge. It enables readers worldwide to embark on intellectual journeys through its extensive collection of free eBooks.

#14. PLOS (Public Library of Science) – Best for Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research

As a leading publisher of open access research, PLOS fosters the dissemination of cutting-edge scientific discoveries to a global audience. 

#15. arXiv.org – Best for Preprints in Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science

In a world where knowledge is king, accessing a research paper shouldn’t feel like an impossible task. Thanks to these free and innovative websites, we can escape the barriers of paywalls and dive into a vast ocean of intellectual wealth. 

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Download Research Papers for Free: Legal and Ethical Methods

14 Legal Ways to Download Research Papers for Free: The Ultimate Guide

Dr. Somasundaram R

Are you a student, researcher, or curious individual looking to access scholarly articles without breaking the bank? You’re in luck! This comprehensive guide will walk you through various legal and ethical methods to Download Research Papers for Free. We’ll cover everything from open-access databases to contacting authors directly, ensuring you have all the tools to fuel your academic pursuits.

Why Access to Research Papers Matters

Before we dive into the methods, let’s quickly address why free access to research papers is so crucial:

  • Advancing knowledge: Open access to research promotes the spread of ideas and accelerates scientific progress.
  • Equalizing opportunities: Free access levels the playing field for researchers and students worldwide, regardless of their financial resources.
  • Encouraging collaboration: When research is freely available, it’s easier for scientists to build upon each other’s work and collaborate across institutions.

Now, let’s explore the various ways you can legally and ethically obtain research papers without spending a dime.

10 Legal Ways to Download Research Papers for Free: The Ultimate Guide

1. leverage open access databases.

Open-access databases are treasure troves of freely available scholarly articles. Here are some of the best options:

  • PubMed Central (PMC): A free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
  • Directory of Open Access Journals ( DOAJ ): A community-curated online directory that indexes high-quality, open-access, peer-reviewed journals.
  • arXiv: A repository of electronic preprints for physics, mathematics, computer science, and related fields.
  • CORE: The world’s largest collection of open-access research papers.

Pro tip: Many of these databases offer email alerts for new papers in your area of interest, helping you stay up-to-date with the latest research.

2. Utilize Academic Search Engines

Specialized academic search engines can help you find both open-access and potentially accessible papers:

  • Google Scholar: The most popular academic search engine, with features like cited by and related articles.
  • Microsoft Academic: A free public web search engine for academic publications and literature.
  • Semantic Scholar: An AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.

These search engines often provide direct links to free full-text versions when available or point you towards institutional repositories.

3. Explore Institutional Repositories

Many universities and research institutions maintain their own repositories of scholarly work produced by their faculty and students. These repositories often make papers freely available to the public. Try searching for “[University Name] repository” to find these goldmines of information.

4. Check Author’s Websites and Social Media

Many researchers maintain personal websites or profiles on academic social networks where they share their work. Try searching for the author’s name followed by their institution or area of expertise. Platforms to check include:

  • ResearchGate
  • Academia.edu

5. Contact the Authors Directly

If you can’t find a free version of a paper, don’t hesitate to reach out to the authors. Most researchers are happy to share their work and may send you a copy of their paper. Look for the corresponding author’s email address in the paper’s abstract or contact information.

6. Use Browser Extensions

Several browser extensions can help you find free versions of paywalled articles:

  • Unpaywall: A legal and simple tool that searches for free versions of scholarly articles.
  • Open Access Button: Searches for free, legal copies of research papers.
  • Kopernio: Helps you access PDF versions of scientific articles.

7. Take Advantage of Preprint Servers

Preprint servers host early versions of research papers before they undergo peer review. While these papers should be approached with caution, they can be valuable sources of cutting-edge research:

  • bioRxiv: For life sciences
  • chemRxiv: For chemistry and related fields
  • SocArXiv: For social sciences

8. Utilize Your Library’s Resources

Don’t forget about your local library! Many public and university libraries offer:

  • Access to academic databases
  • Interlibrary loan services
  • Remote access to digital resources

Even if you’re not currently a student, some libraries offer cards to community members that include database access.

9. Explore Sci-Hub Alternatives

While Sci-Hub is popular, it operates in a legal grey area. Instead, consider these alternatives:

  • Open Access Button: A legal tool that helps you request access to research papers.
  • Lazy Scholar: A browser extension that finds free full-text PDF versions of articles.
  • Unpaywall: Another legal alternative that finds open-access versions of articles.

10. Stay Informed About Open Access Initiatives

Keep an eye on developments in the open access movement. Initiatives like Plan S are working to make all publicly funded research freely available. Following these developments can help you stay ahead of the curve in accessing free research.

download research papers for free

Ethical Considerations and Best Practices

While accessing free research papers, it’s crucial to keep these ethical considerations in mind:

  • Respect copyright laws and publisher agreements.
  • Use obtained papers for personal research and educational purposes only.
  • Properly cite all sources in your work.
  • Support open access initiatives when possible.

Accessing research papers for free is not only possible but also increasingly important in our interconnected world. By utilizing the methods outlined in this guide, you can tap into a vast wealth of knowledge without breaking the bank. Remember to always respect copyright laws and support the open access movement to ensure that knowledge remains freely accessible to all.

14 Websites to Download Research Paper for Free – 2024 – Alternative Methods

Collecting and reading relevant research articles to one’s research areas is important for PhD scholars. However, downloading a research paper is one of the most difficult tasks for any research scholar. You must pay for access to high-quality research materials or subscribe to the journal or publication. In this article, ilovephd lists the top 14 websites to download research papers, journals, books, datasets, patents, and conference proceedings for free.

Check the 14 best free websites to download and read research papers listed below:

Sci-Hub is a website link with over 64.5 million academic papers and articles available for direct download. It bypasses publisher paywalls by allowing access through educational institution proxies.  To download papers Sci-Hub  stores papers in its repository, this storage is called Library Genesis (LibGen) or Library Genesis Proxy 2024. It helps researchers to download free articles by simply using the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article.

Scihub

Visit: Working Sci-Hub Proxy Links – 2024

2. Z-Library

The Z-Library clones Library Genesis, a shadow library project. Z-Library facilitates file sharing of scholarly journal articles, academic texts, and general-interest books (including some copyrighted materials). While most of its books come from Library Genesis, further expanding the collection, users can also directly upload content to the site. This user-contributed content helps to make literature even more widely available. Additionally, individuals can donate to the website’s repository, furthering their mission of free access.

Z-Library claims to have a massive collection, boasting more than 10,139,382 Books books and 84,837,646 Articles articles as of April 25, 2024. According to the project’s page for academic publications (at booksc.org), it aspires to be “the world’s largest e-book library” as well as “the world’s largest scientific papers repository.” Interestingly, Z-Library also describes itself as a donation-based non-profit organization.

Z-Library

Visit Z-Library – You can Download 70,000,000+ scientific articles for free

3. Library Genesis

The Library Genesis aggregator is a community aiming to collect and catalog item descriptions for the most scientific, scientific, and technical directions, as well as file metadata. In addition to the descriptions, the aggregator contains only links to third-party resources hosted by users. All information posted on the website is collected from publicly available public Internet resources and is intended solely for informational purposes.

Library Genesis

Visit: libgen.li

4. Unpaywall – Free Research Paper Download

Unpaywall harvests Open Access content from over 50,000 publishers and repositories, and makes it easy to find, track, and use. It is integrated into thousands of library systems, search platforms, and other information products worldwide. If you’re involved in scholarly communication, there’s a good chance you’ve already used Unpaywall data.

Unpaywall is run by OurResearch, a nonprofit dedicated to making scholarships more accessible to everyone. Open is our passion. So it’s only natural our source code is open, too.

how do i download research papers

Visit: unpaywall.org

5. GetTheResearch.org

GetTheResearch.org is an  Artificial Intelligence(AI)  powered search engine for searching and understanding  scientific articles  for researchers and scientists. It was developed as a part of the  Unpaywall  project. Unpaywall is a database of 23,329,737 free scholarly Open Access(OA) articles from over 50,000 publishers and repositories, and make it easy to find, track, and use.

Gettheresearch.org ilovephd

Visit: Find and Understand 25 Million Peer-Reviewed Research Papers for Free

6. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) was launched in 2003 with 300 open-access journals. Today, this independent index contains almost 17,500 peer-reviewed, open-access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Open-access journals from all countries and in all languages are accepted for indexing.

DOAJ is financially supported by many libraries, publishers, and other like-minded organizations. Supporting DOAJ demonstrates a firm commitment to open access and the infrastructure that supports it.

Directory of Open Access Journals

Visit: doaj.org

7. Researcher

The Researcher is a free journal-finding mobile application that helps you to read new journal papers every day that are relevant to your research. It is the most popular mobile application used by more than 3 million scientists and researchers to keep themselves updated with the latest academic literature.

Researcher

Visit: 10 Best Apps for Graduate Students 

8. Science Open

ScienceOpen  is a discovery platform with interactive features for scholars to enhance their research in the open, make an impact, and receive credit for it. It provides context-building services for publishers, to bring researchers closer to the content than ever before. These advanced search and discovery functions, combined with post-publication peer review, recommendation, social sharing, and collection-building features make  ScienceOpen  the only research platform you’ll ever need.

how do i download research papers

Visit: scienceopen.com

OA.mg is a search engine for academic papers. Whether you are looking for a specific paper, or for research from a field, or all of an author’s works – OA.mg is the place to find it.

oa mg

Visit: oa.mg

10. Internet Archive Scholar

Internet Archive Scholar (IAS) is a full-text search index that includes over 25 million research articles and other scholarly documents preserved in the Internet Archive. The collection spans from digitized copies of eighteenth-century journals through the latest Open Access conference proceedings and pre-prints crawled from the World Wide Web.

Internet-Archive-Scholar

Visit: Sci hub Alternative – Internet Archive Scholar

11. Citationsy Archives

Citationsy was founded in 2017 after the reference manager Cenk was using at the time, RefMe, was shut down. It was immediately obvious that the reason people loved RefMe — a clean interface, speed, no ads, and simplicity of use — did not apply to CiteThisForMe. It turned out to be easier than anticipated to get a rough prototype up.

citationsy

Visit: citationsy.com

CORE is the world’s largest aggregator of open-access research papers from repositories and journals. It is a not-for-profit service dedicated to the open-access mission. We serve the global network of repositories and journals by increasing the discoverability and reuse of open-access content.

It provides solutions for content management, discovery, and scalable machine access to research. Our services support a wide range of stakeholders, specifically researchers, the general public, academic institutions, developers, funders, and companies from a diverse range of sectors including but not limited to innovators, AI technology companies, digital library solutions, and pharma.

CORE

Visit: core.ac.uk

13. Dimensions

The database called “Dimensions” covers millions of research publications connected by more than 1.6 billion citations, supporting grants, datasets, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents.

Dimensions is the most comprehensive research grants database that links grants to millions of resulting publications, clinical trials, and patents. It

provides up-to-the-minute online attention data via Altmetric, showing you how often publications and clinical trials are discussed around the world. 226m Altmetric mentions with 17m links to publications.

Dimensions include datasets from repositories such as Figshare, Dryad, Zenodo, Pangaea, and many more. It hosts millions of patents with links to other citing patents as well as to publications and supporting grants.

Dimensions

Visit: dimensions.ai

14. PaperPanda – Download Research Papers for Free

PaperPanda is a Chrome extension that uses some clever logic and the Panda’s detective skills to find you the research paper PDFs you need. Essentially, when you activate PaperPanda it finds the DOI of the paper from the current page, and then goes and searches for it. It starts by querying various Open Access repositories like OpenAccessButton, OaDoi, SemanticScholar, Core, ArXiV , and the Internet Archive. You can also set your university library’s domain in the settings (this feature is in the works and coming soon). PaperPanda will then automatically search for the paper through your library. You can also set a different custom domain in the settings.

Paperpanda

Visit: PaperPanda

I hope this article will help you to know some of the best websites to download research papers and journals for free. By utilizing open-access databases, free search tools, and potentially even your local university library, you can access a wealth of valuable scholarly information without infringing on a copyright. Remember, ethical practices in research paper downloading are important, so always prioritize legal access to materials whenever possible. Happy researching!

Scientific Research Paper for Download

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Dr. Somasundaram R

Scopus Indexed Journals List 2024

480 ugc care list of journals – science – 2024, 100 cutting-edge research ideas in civil engineering.

hi im zara,student of art. could you please tell me how i can download the paper and books about painting, sewing,sustainable fashion,graphic and so on. thank a lot

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Good, Keep it up!

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Get around this paywall in a flash: DOI: 10.1126/science.196.4287.293 URL: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/196/4287/293/tab-pdf PMC (Pubmed Central) ID: PMC4167664 Pubmed ID: 17756097 Title: Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase: a two-layered, square-shaped molecule of symmetry 422 Citation: Baker, T. S., Eisenberg, D., & Eiserling, F. (1977). Ribulose Bisphosphate Carboxylase: A Two-Layered, Square-Shaped Molecule of Symmetry 422. Science, 196(4287), 293-295. doi:10.1126/science.196.4287.293 or try your favourite citation format (Harvard, Bibtex, etc).

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Finding Available Research

Give us a scholarly paper and we’ll search thousands of sources with millions of articles to link you to free, legal, full text articles instantly.

Requesting Research

If we can’t get you access, we’ll start a request for you. We request articles from authors, and guide them on making the work available to you and everyone who needs it.

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How to use Sci-hub to get academic papers for free

  • Post author: Emil O. W. Kirkegaard
  • Post published: 10. April 2018
  • Post category: Science

I regularly tell people on Twitter to use Sci-hub when they say they can’t access papers:

Yes you can, use Sci hub like normal people do. — Emil O W Kirkegaard (@KirkegaardEmil) April 10, 2018

However, it seems that people don’t really know how to use Sci-hub. So here is a simple, visual guide.

1. Go to the Sci-hub website

The URL may change to the website because the lobbyists of Big Publish (Elsevier, SAGE etc.) constantly try to get government to censor the website as it cuts into their rent-seeking profits . You can find the latest URLs via this handy website called Where is Sci-Hub now? (alternatively, via Wikipedia ). Currently, some working URLs are:

  • https://sci.hubg.org/
  • https://sci-hub.yncjkj.com (global)
  • https://sci-hub.mksa.top/ (global)
  • https://sci-hub.it.nf/
  • https://sci-hub.st/ ( São Tomé and Príncipe )
  • https://sci-hub.do (Dominican Republic)
  • https://sci-hub.se/ (Sweden)
  • https://sci-hub.shop (global) [redirects]
  • https://scihub.bban.top (global) [redirects]
  • https://scihub.wikicn.top/ (global) [redirects]
  • https://sci-hub.pl/ (Poland)
  • https://sci-hub.tw (Taiwan)
  • https://sci-hub.si (Slovenia)
  • https://mg.scihub.ltd/ (global)

If your country blocks the website, use one of the many free general purpose proxies. I tested hide.me for the purpose of writing this article and it works fine for Sci-hub using the Netherlands exit.

2. Go to the journal publisher’s website

Go to the website of whatever article it is you are trying to get. Here we pretend you want the article in my tweet above:

  • Seeber, M., Cattaneo, M., Meoli, M., & Malighetti, P. (2017). Self-citations as strategic response to the use of metrics for career decisions . Research Policy.

The website for this is sciencedirect.com which is Elsevier’s cover name. Then, you locate either the URL for this (i.e. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873331730210X) or the article’s DOI. The DOI is that unique document identifier that begins with “10.”. It is almost always shown somewhere on the site, so you can use search “10.” to find it. In rare cases, it is in the page’s source code or may not exist. If it doesn’t exist, it means you usually can’t get the article thru Sci-hub. When you have the article’s URL/DOI, you simply paste this into the Sci-hub search box. Like this:

how do i download research papers

Then you click “open” and you should get something like this:

how do i download research papers

In some cases, this may not work. The APA journals seem to cause issues using the URL approach, so use the DOI approach. Sometimes Sci-hub returns the wrong article (<1% I should guess).

Finding articles from APA journals

These journals refuse to give a DOI and they don’t work with URL either usually. Example this paper . A workaround is to search Crossref for the title which gives the DOI, then use the DOI to fetch the paper as usual:

how do i download research papers

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Best Websites To Download Research Papers For Free: Beyond Sci-Hub

Navigating the vast ocean of academic research can be daunting, especially when you’re on a quest for specific research papers without the constraints of paywalls. Fortunately, the digital age has ushered in an era of accessible knowledge, with various platforms offering free downloads of scholarly articles.

In this article, we explore some of the best websites that provide researchers, students, and academicians with free access to a plethora of research papers across diverse fields, ensuring that knowledge remains within everyone’s reach.

Best Websites To Download Research Papers For Free

PlatformFeatures
– Hosts diverse academic papers.
– Free access to many scholarly articles.
– Links to open-access resources.
– Combines social networking with research.
– Direct downloads of open-access papers.
– Allows requests for papers from authors.
– Open-access article repository.
– Direct download of free PDFs.
– Search using keywords, DOI, or journals.
– Extensive open-access journal repository.
– Free download of scholarly articles.
– Advanced search by keywords, publisher, language.
– Focus on medicine and life sciences.
– Lists open-access and subscription articles.
– Free full-text links and integration with Unpaywall.
– Free access to paywalled articles.
– Uses DOI for article retrieval.
– Legal and ethical considerations.

Google Scholar

As a researcher, you might find Google Scholar to be a repository brimming with academic papers covering a broad span of domains like social sciences, computer science, and humanity, including:

  • Journal articles
  • Conference papers, and

Unlike other websites to download research papers, Google Scholar provides free access to a vast collection of scholarly literature, making it one of the best websites to download research.

Not every article is available in full PDF format directly; however, Google Scholar often links to other open access resources like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and open-access repositories where you can directly download papers.

For instance, if you’re searching for a specific 2023 research paper in mathematics, you can use Google Scholar to locate the paper and check if it’s available for free download either on the platform itself or through links to various open access sources.

In many cases, Google Scholar integrates with tools like Unpaywall and Open Access Button, which are browser extensions that help you find free versions of paywalled articles.

These extensions often redirect you to open-access content, including those on platforms like Sci-Hub and Library Genesis, although it’s crucial to be aware of the legal and ethical implications of using such services.

ResearchGate

ResearchGate is a unique platform that blends social networking with academic research, making it an essential tool for researchers and scientists across various disciplines.

how do i download research papers

Here, you have access to a digital library of millions of research papers, spanning fields from computer science to social sciences and beyond.

When you’re on ResearchGate, downloading a research paper is relatively straightforward, especially if it’s open access. Many researchers upload the full PDF of their work, providing free access to their peer-reviewed articles.

If the research paper you’re interested in isn’t available for direct download, ResearchGate offers a unique feature: you can request a copy directly from the author.

This approach not only gets you the paper but also potentially opens a line of communication with leading experts in your field.

It’s important to note that ResearchGate isn’t just a repository; it’s a platform for discovery and connection. You can:

  • Follow specific researchers
  • Join discussions, and
  • Receive notifications about new research in your domain.

While it doesn’t have the controversial direct download links like Sci-Hub or Library Genesis, ResearchGate offers a more ethical and legal route to accessing academic papers. 

ScienceOpen

ScienceOpen is a comprehensive repository that hosts a multitude of open-access research articles across various fields, from the social sciences to computer science. 

The process of downloading a research paper on ScienceOpen is remarkably straightforward. Since it’s an open-access platform, most of the papers are available to download as PDFs without any cost.

This means you can access high-quality, peer-reviewed academic research without encountering paywalls that are often a barrier in many other scientific platforms.

For instance, if you’re delving into the latest 2023 scientific papers in mathematics, ScienceOpen can be your go-to source. You can easily search for research papers using:

  • Browsing through various open access journals featured on the site.

The direct download feature simplifies access to these papers, making it convenient for you to obtain the research you need.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a digital library is an extensive repository of open-access, peer-reviewed journals, covering a wide array of subjects from humanities to nuclear science.

When you’re navigating DOAJ, you’ll discover that it’s not just a platform to download research papers; it’s a gateway to a world of academic research.

how do i download research papers

Each journal article listed is freely accessible, meaning you can download these scholarly articles without any cost or subscription.

The process is simple: search for research papers using specific keywords, subjects, or even DOAJ’s advanced search functionality that includes filters like:

  • Language, or
  • The year of publication.

For example, if you’re delving into the latest developments in scientific research in 2023, DOAJ allows you to refine your search to the most recent publications.

Once you find a relevant research paper, you can easily access the full text in PDF format through a direct download link. This is particularly useful for accessing high-quality, open-access research papers that are not always readily available on other platforms like Sci-Hub or Library Genesis.

PubMed hosts millions of research articles, primarily in the fields of medicine and life sciences, but also encompassing a broad range of scientific research.

When you’re on PubMed, you can search for research papers using:

  • Authors, or
  • Specific journal names.

While PubMed lists both open-access and subscription-based journal articles, it offers a unique feature for accessing papers for free.

If you’re looking for a particular research paper, say in the domain of computer science or social sciences from 2023, you can directly access its abstract on PubMed. For open access articles, a free full-text link is often available, allowing you to download the research paper in PDF format.

PubMed integrates with tools like Unpaywall and the Open Access Button. These browser extensions help you find open-access versions of the articles you’re interested in, bypassing the paywalls that often restrict access to scholarly literature.

While PubMed itself doesn’t provide direct download links for all articles, its connection with these tools and various open access repositories ensures that you, as a researcher, have greater access to scientific papers.

Sci-Hub (with Caution)

Sci-Hub, often dubbed the ‘Pirate Bay of Science,’ has been a game-changer in the scientific community since its inception by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011.

It operates as a controversial, yet widely used platform providing free access to millions of research papers and academic articles that are typically locked behind paywalls.

As a researcher, you might find Sci-Hub an intriguing, albeit contentious, tool for accessing scholarly literature.

When you’re looking to download a research paper from Sci-Hub, the process is relatively straightforward. Say you need a journal article on computer science or a groundbreaking study in social sciences from 2023; you just need to have the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the paper.

By entering this DOI into Sci-Hub’s search bar, the website bypasses publisher paywalls, offering you direct download links to PDF versions of the articles.

how do i download research papers

It’s crucial to note that while Sci-Hub provides access to a vast repository of scientific research, its legality is under constant scrutiny. The platform operates via various proxy links and has been the subject of numerous legal battles with publishers and academic institutions.

Nevertheless, Sci-Hub remains a popular go-to for researchers and scientists globally, especially those without access to university libraries or digital archives.

While it opens doors to a wealth of knowledge, users should be aware of the ethical and legal implications of using such a service in their respective countries.

Wrapping Up: You Can Get Free Academic Papers 

The digital landscape offers a wealth of resources for accessing academic research without financial barriers. The platforms we share here provide an invaluable service to the scholarly community, democratising access to knowledge and fostering intellectual growth.

Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a curious student, these websites bridge the gap between you and the vast world of academic literature, ensuring that the pursuit of knowledge remains an inclusive and equitable journey for all. Remember to consider the legal and ethical aspects when using these resources.

how do i download research papers

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how do i download research papers

Get Scholarly Articles for Free

Harvard Library has paid for your access to hundreds of websites — from the New York Review of Books to the Oxford English Dictionary to the journal Nature: Chemical Biology . You just need to connect via HarvardKey.

The library offers many tools to quickly check if you have free online access. Each tool has features that you may find helpful at different times. Most people mix and match for different purposes. Find the one that's right for you.

Google Scholar

Get access directly from Google Scholar results.

  • Adds the "Try Harvard Library" link to your Google Scholar results
  • Selects the best access point for you

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Lean Library

Install the Lean Library plugin to automate access.

  • Checks every website that you visit and reloads via Harvard Key automatically
  • Notifies you if an ebook or online article is available via Harvard
  • No action required: Lean Library is always working in the background
  • May sign you out of personally subscribed accounts

Check Harvard Library Bookmarklet

Get one-click access with the Check Harvard Library Bookmark.

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  • Reloads the page you're on via Harvard Key
  • You're in control: use the bookmark when you want to check for access

Check Harvard Library Bookmark

Stay current with your favorite academic journals, preview the table of contents, and never miss a new article. Harvard Library offers free accounts.

Library Access via VPN

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Don't want to keep logging in using HarvardKey? Searching for articles while abroad? You can get the same access as a campus computer by installing and configuring a Harvard VPN.

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  • Some sites won't recognize VPN, some sites only work on VPN
  • Can be helpful for access outside of the United States

Instructions on how to install the VPN client (via HUIT)

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Looking for another type of access or free articles? Find answers to commonly asked questions and ask your own. Library staff members are also available via chat during posted hours.

Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic search engines

academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

  • Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
  • Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
  • Related articles: ✔
  • References: ✔
  • Cited by: ✔
  • Links to full text: ✔
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Google Scholar

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

  • Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
  • Abstracts: ✔
  • Related articles: ✘
  • References: ✘
  • Cited by: ✘
  • Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine aka BASE

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

  • Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
  • Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
  • Export formats: BibTeX

Search interface of the CORE academic search engine

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

  • Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
  • Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Search interface of Science.gov

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

  • Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Search interface of Semantic Scholar

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

  • Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
  • Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
  • Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Baidu Scholar

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

  • Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
  • Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
  • Export formats: not available

Search interface of RefSeek

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

how do i download research papers

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

Rhetorical analysis illustration

“The only truly modern academic research engine”

Oa.mg is a search engine for academic papers, specialising in open access. we have over 250 million papers in our index..

Research guidance, Research Journals, Top Universities

how to use sci hub

How to use SCI HUB to download research papers for free

Use Sci-Hub to download research papers

The  Sci-Hub  project supports the Open Access  movement in science. It provides mass & public access to research papers.

Often we have reported that most of the research papers published by some reputed journals are paid. If anyone wants to download such manuscripts, he needs to pay to access such papers.

SCI Hub allows downloading and reading such papers for free . Sci-H ub contains most of the academic and scientific papers. What one has to do is visit the site after finding the research paper link or DOI of the journal article . You can paste the DOI or URL in the search button and click search. If the paper is available, a preview will be shown. You can download this paper and use it for your reference.

Researchers most often use SCI HUB to download research papers for free.

How to use Sci-Hub?

Follow the below steps to download paid researchers papers for free using Sci-Hub.

Step 1: Go to the official website of SCI-HUB .

Step 2: Enter the Title/ DOI/ URL of the research paper that you want to download/ read using SCI HUB.

use sci hub download research papers

Step 3: Click on Open or press enter key.

Step 4: As soon as you perform step 3, the desired research paper will be visible on the website. You can download the paper by clicking on the download icon.

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Is there a simple way to bulk download a large number of papers from a list of references

I've got a library of 1200 references I'm using for a systematic review. Now I need to download the PDFs of all these references, which will take days if I do it manually. Is there a simple way to automatically download as many as possible from pubmed / Google Scholar / (maybe Scihub)? I have institutional access.

Edit: My solution was to load the reference list into multiple reference managers and run the PDF import function in all of them. Some managers succeeded where others failed. I had to do the rest manually.

  • reference-managers

Nereus's user avatar

  • Did you try to ask your librarian? –  EarlGrey Commented May 24, 2023 at 11:56
  • 2 If you want to do a systematic review of these 1200 works I suspect you would need to read at the very least the abstract but presumably significant parts of the text in each of them. Relative to that effort, the downloading is completely trivial. –  quarague Commented May 24, 2023 at 12:43

2 Answers 2

For systematic review, if you're following PRISMA, you'll typically do some preliminary 'checks' before getting to the lists for full text review.

I'm assuming the 1200 odd references are your final list after the duplicate removal and screening, and perhaps your forward-and-reverse literature chaining.

In Zotero, you can enable automatic PDF download in preference. For your purpose, you then bulk import reference using doi or bibtex or ris .

  • Someone recently developed a working script for bulk adding doi and updating metadata

The trick with Zotero is that Zotero is able to download pdf link to an entry from multiple sources. There are limitations though. Beware that most academic database would lock you out if performing large bulk downloads at fast rate. Always a good idea to use proxy. In your case, you already having institutional access which might assist.

With Endnote, you can bulk import PDF files or like you have in Mendeley, you can set a 'watch' on a folder from which Endnote will automatically import entries for PDF files added to the folder. Unfortunately, that does not address your challenge. With Endnote, similar to Zotero, you can import reference list to populate tour Endnote database.

  • simply export reference list from your search (Google, Scopus ...) to a RIS file.

[Technical approach beyond the scope of Academia forum] For other technical solutions beyond the scope of Academia, you can work directly with API of academic database.

  • Science direct and Scopus provide API access, which you register for for free. You'll still need access to perform low-level tasks and download.
  • you can leverage Python to work with academic database API
  • for Google Scholar, use Scholarly: Scholarly pypi , GitHub
  • for Scopus, pybliometrics is well used.
  • Pyscopus claims to be more friendly. I'm yet to use Pyscopus unlike others. More so, it's inactive since 2019!

There's one I've used recently, just can't recall the name offhand. It allows robust analysis and topic search. I'll update in due course.

[Scientific PDF download]

  • RESP: Research Papers Search claims to search and download scientific papers. Yet to try it out.
  • Articledownloader is worth exploring
  • PyPaperBot is well used for downloading scientific articles from DOI or academic database.

I'm busy with a fork of Automated Search Helper . A research project by Lech Madeyski team at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland. I'm yet to upload latest revision which has the

  • pdf downloader working with JSGlue, Jinja2
  • I have it working locally but need some code clean-up and documentation.

NB: with automatic downloaders, beware of captcha and blocking/ban by academic database

SciPDFParser comes across as a good parser of downloaded articles PDF.

semmyk-research's user avatar

I don't know of any tool to specifically scrape academic databases for pdf's. There may be some obscure program out there on GitHub or a web-crawler that could be repurposed. This question is a bit dated but addresses your problem in more detail and proposes some interesting solutions in that vein.

The easiest off the shelf solution is Endnote. It has a feature that allows for automatic search and retrieval of pdf's. If you have access, it works fairly well. Though it doesn't capture everything . I suspect that there are other reference managers with a similar feature. I don't know of free ones specifically, if that is a concern.

If none of those options are workable for you, consider if it is necessary to download all those pdf's. I'm assuming that you are just beginning to conduct your screening and so you likely don't need the full texts right away. I have conducted a handful of systematic reviews and I have always relied on title and abstract for the initial screen. If I could not make a decision from that info, simply navigating to the original online version was sufficient. Since you already have institutional access, why store them on your local device from the get-go? It would be significantly easier to download and store the papers you flag for further review or inclusion. This may not be right in your case, but it's something to consider if all else fails.

sErISaNo's user avatar

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged citations reference-managers sci-hub pubmed ..

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5 free and legal ways to get the full text of research articles

By Carol Hollier on 07-Apr-2021 13:23:17

Accessing full text of research articles | IFIS Publishing

1.  Use your library if you have one !

If you are affiliated with a university, you probably have free library access to the full text of millions of research articles.   The library will have subscribed to these journals on your behalf. The smartest thing you can do for accessing research articles is familiarize yourself with your own library.

  • If you search a database your library will link from the records to the full text if they have it—all you need to do is click through the links.
  • When they do not have a copy of an article, a university library can get it for you from another library. This inter-library loan service is usually free to users.
  • Your library might use a browser extension like Lean Library or LibKey Nomad to link you to the library subscription or open access full text from wherever you are on the internet.
  • Google Scholar lets you configure your account to get links straight to your library’s subscription copy of an article.  But remember--side-by-side to library subscriptions for legitimate research, Google Scholar includes links to articles published in predatory and unreliable journals that would be unwise to credit in your own work.  Learn more about predatory journals.

If you are not affiliated with a university library, there are still ways you can successfully—and legally—get the full text of research articles.

2.  Open Access browser extensions  

More and more research is published Open Access as governments around the world are mandating that research paid for by taxpayer money be freely available to those taxpayers.

Browser extensions have been created to make it easy to spot when the full text of an article is free.   Some of the best are CORE Discovery , Unpaywall and Open Access Button .

Learn more about difference between discovery and access and why it matters for good research: Where to search - Best Practice for Literature Searching - LibGuides at IFIS

3. Google Scholar

You can search the article title inside quotation marks on Google Scholar to see if a link to a copy of the article appears.   If it does, be sure to pay attention to what version of the article you are linking to, to be sure you are getting what you think you’re getting.  These links can lead to an article's published version of record, a manuscript version, or to a thesis or conference proceeding with the same title and author as the article you expected to find.   

4.  Researcher platforms

 A Google Scholar search might lead you to a researcher platform like Academia.edu or ResearchGate .   There, if you set up an account, you can sometimes download or request a copy of the text.  Again, pay attention to which version of the text you get!

5.  Write to the author

If you can’t get a copy by other means, you can write to an article’s corresponding author and (politely!) ask them to send you a copy. Their contact information, usually an email address, will be listed in the information you find about the article, either in a database record for the article or on the publishing journal’s page for it. Many authors are happy to share a copy of their work.

Three bonus ways that might work depending on where you live:

1.  A nearby university library might offer access to articles even if you do not work or study there.

Members of the public are sometimes allowed access to university journal subscriptions through visitor access or a walk-in user service. You usually need to use the collections from a dedicated computer terminal located in a library and may need to make an appointment before you go. Do your research before showing up to make sure you bring the correct documents and equipment (like a flash drive) along.

2.  Try your public library

In some countries, public libraries partner with publishers to give the public access to research articles.   In the UK, for instance, many public libraries participate in the Access to Research scheme, which gives members of the public on-site access to over 30 million academic articles. Contact your local public library to learn what is available to you.

3.  Research4Life

In other countries, your institution might have access to a massive collection of research articles and databases through the publisher/library/United Nations agency initiative Research4Life . Check to see if you already have access, and if not, if your institution might be eligible to join. Membership is only available on an organizational or institutional level.  

Remember —even though you now have a lot of strategies for finding the full text of articles, research should never be led by the articles you can access most easily.

Good research is driven by first figuring out what articles are most relevant to your question and then getting the full text of what you need. One of the best ways to do this is to use a good discipline-specific database, like FSTA for the sciences of food and health.  

Learn more about difference between discovery and access and why it matters for good research:

Where to search - Best Practice for Literature Searching

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Search Help

Get the most out of Google Scholar with some helpful tips on searches, email alerts, citation export, and more.

Finding recent papers

Your search results are normally sorted by relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:

  • click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance;
  • click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date;
  • click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email.

Locating the full text of an article

Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. Alas, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Here're a few things to try:

  • click a library link, e.g., "FindIt@Harvard", to the right of the search result;
  • click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result;
  • click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources;
  • click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

If you're affiliated with a university, but don't see links such as "FindIt@Harvard", please check with your local library about the best way to access their online subscriptions. You may need to do search from a computer on campus, or to configure your browser to use a library proxy.

Getting better answers

If you're new to the subject, it may be helpful to pick up the terminology from secondary sources. E.g., a Wikipedia article for "overweight" might suggest a Scholar search for "pediatric hyperalimentation".

If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced works are often more general in nature.

Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer papers will often be more specific.

Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work, or search for author's name and see what else they have written.

Searching Google Scholar

Use the "author:" operator, e.g., author:"d knuth" or author:"donald e knuth".

Put the paper's title in quotations: "A History of the China Sea".

You'll often get better results if you search only recent articles, but still sort them by relevance, not by date. E.g., click "Since 2018" in the left sidebar of the search results page.

To see the absolutely newest articles first, click "Sort by date" in the sidebar. If you use this feature a lot, you may also find it useful to setup email alerts to have new results automatically sent to you.

Note: On smaller screens that don't show the sidebar, these options are available in the dropdown menu labelled "Year" right below the search button.

Select the "Case law" option on the homepage or in the side drawer on the search results page.

It finds documents similar to the given search result.

It's in the side drawer. The advanced search window lets you search in the author, title, and publication fields, as well as limit your search results by date.

Select the "Case law" option and do a keyword search over all jurisdictions. Then, click the "Select courts" link in the left sidebar on the search results page.

Tip: To quickly search a frequently used selection of courts, bookmark a search results page with the desired selection.

Access to articles

For each Scholar search result, we try to find a version of the article that you can read. These access links are labelled [PDF] or [HTML] and appear to the right of the search result. For example:

A paper that you need to read

Access links cover a wide variety of ways in which articles may be available to you - articles that your library subscribes to, open access articles, free-to-read articles from publishers, preprints, articles in repositories, etc.

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In this fascinating paper, we investigate various topics that would be of interest to you. We also describe new methods relevant to your project, and attempt to address several questions which you would also like to know the answer to. Lastly, we analyze …

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Artificial Intelligence

Should ai bots do scholarly research, an “ai scientist” project has bots formulate research questions, carry out experiments and even serve as peer reviewers. where does that leave human scientists, by jeffrey r. young     sep 26, 2024.

Should AI Bots Do Scholarly Research?

studiostoks / Shutterstock

Cong Lu has long been fascinated by how to use technology to make his job as a research scientist more efficient. But his latest project takes the idea to an extreme.

Lu, who is a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia, is part of a team building an “AI Scientist” with the ambitious goal of creating an AI-powered system that can autonomously do every step of the scientific method.

“The AI Scientist automates the entire research lifecycle, from generating novel research ideas, writing any necessary code, and executing experiments, to summarizing experimental results, visualizing them, and presenting its findings in a full scientific manuscript,” says a write-up on the project’s website. The AI system even attempts a “peer review,” of the research paper, which essentially brings in another chatbot to check the work of the first.

An initial version of this AI Scientist has already been released — anyone can download the code for free. And plenty of people have. It did the coding equivalent of going viral, with more than 7,500 people liking the project on the code library GitHub.

To Lu, the goal is to accelerate scientific discovery by letting every scientist effectively add Ph.D.-level assistants to quickly push boundaries, and to “democratize” science by making it easier to conduct research.

“If we scale up this system, it could be one of the ways that we truly scale scientific discovery to thousands of underfunded areas,” he says. “A lot of times the bottleneck is on good personnel and years of training. What if we could deploy hundreds of scientists on your pet problems and have a go at it?”

But he admits there are plenty of challenges to the approach — such as preventing the AI systems from “hallucinating,” as generative AI in general is prone to do.

And if it works, the project raises a host of existential questions about what role human researchers — the workforce that powers much of higher education — would play in the future.

The project comes at a moment where other scientists are raising concerns about the role of AI in research.

A paper out this month , for instance, found that AI chatbots are already being used to create fabricated research papers that are showing up in Google Scholar, often on contentious topics like climate research.

And as tech firms continue to release more-powerful chatbots to the public — like the new version of ChatGPT put out by OpenAI this month — prominent AI experts are raising fresh concerns that AI systems could leap guardrails in ways that threaten global safety. After all, part of “democratizing research” could lead to greater risk of weaponizing science.

It turns out the bigger question may be whether the latest AI technology is even capable of making novel scientific breakthroughs by automating the scientific process, or there’s something uniquely human about the endeavor.

Checking for Errors

The field of machine learning — the only field the AI Scientist tool is designed for so far — may be uniquely suited for automation.

For one thing, it is highly structured. And even when humans do the research, all of the work happens on a computer.

“For anything that requires a wet lab or hands-on stuff, we’ve still got to wait for our robotic assistants to show up,” Lu says.

But the researcher says that pharmaceutical companies have already done significant work to automate the process of drug discovery, and he believes AI could take those measures further.

One practical challenge for the AI Scientist project has been avoiding AI hallucinations. For instance, Lu says that because large language models continually generate the next character or “token” based on probability derived from training data, there are times when such systems might produce errors when copying data. For instance, the AI Scientist might enter 7.1 when the correct number in a dataset was 9.2, he says.

To prevent that, his team is using a non-AI system when moving some data, and having the system “rigorously check through all of the numbers,” to detect any errors and correct them. He says a second version of the team’s system that they expect to release later this year will be more accurate than the current one when it comes to handling data.

Even in the current version, the project’s website boasts that the AI Scientist can carry out research far cheaper than human Ph.D.s can, estimating that a research paper can be created — from idea generation to writing and peer review — for about $15 in computing costs.

Does Lu worry that the system will put researchers like himself out of work?

“With the current capabilities of AI systems, I don't think so,” says Lu. “I think right now it's mainly an extremely powerful research assistant that can help you take the first steps and early explorations on all the ideas that you never had time for, or even help you brainstorm and investigate a few ideas on a new topic for you.”

Down the road, if the tool improves, though, Lu admits it could eventually raise tougher questions for the role of human researchers. Though in that context research will not be the only thing transformed by advanced AI tools. For now, though, he sees it as what he calls a “force multiplier.”

“It’s just like how code assistants now let anyone very simply code up a mobile game app or a new website,” he says.

The project’s leaders have put in guardrails on the kinds of projects it can attempt, to prevent the system from becoming an AI mad scientist.

“We don’t really want loads of new viruses or lots of different ways to make bombs,” he says.

And they’ve limited the AI Scientist to a maximum of running two or three hours at a time, he says, “so we have control of it,” noting that there’s only so much “havoc it could wreak in that time.”

Multiplying Bad Science?

As the use of AI tools spreads rapidly, some scientists worry that they could be used to actually hinder scientific progress by flooding the web with fabricated papers.

When researcher Jutta Haider, a professor of librarianship, information, education and IT at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, went looking on Google Scholar for papers with AI-fabricated results, she was surprised at how many she found.

“Because it was really badly produced ones,” she explains, noting that the papers were clearly not written by a human. “Just simple proofreading should have eliminated those.”

She says she expects there are many more AI-fabricated papers that her team did not detect. “It’s the tip of the iceberg,” she says, since AI is getting more sophisticated, so it will be increasingly difficult to tell if something was human- or AI-written.

One problem, she says, is that it is easy to get a paper listed in Google Scholar, and if you are not a researcher yourself, it may be difficult to tell reputable journals and articles from those created by bad actors trying to spread misinformation or add fabricated work to their CV and hope no one checks where it is published.

“Because of the publish-or-perish paradigm that rules academia, you can't make a career without publishing a lot,” Haider says. “But some of the papers are really bad, so nobody will probably make a career with those ones that we found.”

She and her colleagues are calling on Google to do more to scan for AI-fabricated articles and other junk science. “What I really recommend Google Scholar do is hire a team of librarians to figure out how to change it,” she adds. “It isn’t transparent. We don’t know how it populates the index.”

EdSurge reached out to Google officials but got no response.

Lu, of the AI Scientist project, says that junk science papers have been a problem for a while, and he shares the concern that AI could make the phenomenon more pervasive. “We recommend whenever you run the AI Scientist system, that anything that is AI-generated should be watermarked so it is verifiably AI-generated and it cannot be passed off as a real submission,” he says.

And he hopes that AI can actually be used to help scan existing research — whether written by humans or bots — to ferret out problematic work.

But Is It Science?

While Lu says the AI Scientist has already produced some useful results, it remains unclear whether the approach can lead to novel scientific breakthroughs.

“AI bots are really good thieves in many ways,” he says. “They can copy anyone’s art style. But could they invent a new art style that hasn’t been seen before? It’s hard to say.”

He says there is a debate in the scientific community about whether major discoveries come from a pastiche of ideas over time or involve unique acts of human creativity and genius.

“For instance, were Einstein’s ideas new, or were those ideas in the air at the time?” he wonders. “Often the right idea has been staring us in the face the whole time.”

The consequences of the AI Scientist will hinge on that philosophical question.

For Haider, the Swedish scholar, she’s not worried about AI ever usurping her job.

“There’s no point for AI to be doing science,” she says. “Science comes from a human need to understand — an existential need to want to understand – the world.”

“Maybe there will be something that mimics science,” she concludes, “but it’s not science.”

Jeffrey R. Young ( @jryoung ) is an editor and reporter at EdSurge and host of the EdSurge Podcast . He can be reached at jeff [at] edsurge [dot] com

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Downloading documents from Scribd

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  • Updated September 26, 2024 02:44

How to download documents

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Poop core records 4,300 years of bat diet and environment

Jamaican fruit bat

Deep in a Jamaican cave is a treasure trove of bat poop, deposited in sequential layers by generations of bats over 4,300 years.

Analogous to records of the past found in layers of lake mud and Antarctic ice, the guano pile is roughly the height of a tall man (2 meters), largely undisturbed, and holds information about changes in climate and how the bats’ food sources shifted over the millennia, according to a new study.

“We study natural archives and reconstruct natural histories, mostly from lake sediments. This is the first time scientists have interpreted past bat diets, to our knowledge,” said Jules Blais, a limnologist at the University of Ottawa and an author of the new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences , AGU’s journal for research on the interactions among biological, geological and chemical processes across Earth’s ecosystems.

Blais and his colleagues applied the same techniques used for lake sediments to a guano deposit found in Home Away From Home, Jamaica, extracting a vertical “core” extending from the top of the pile to the oldest deposits at the bottom and taking it to the lab for biochemical analysis.

About 5,000 bats from five species currently use the cave as daytime shelter, according to the researchers.

“Like we see worldwide in lake sediments, the guano deposit was recording history in clear layers. It wasn’t all mixed up,” Blais said. “It’s a huge, continuous deposit, with radiocarbon dates going back 4,300 years in the oldest bottom layers.”

The new study looked at biochemical markers of diet called sterols, a family of sturdy chemicals made by plant and animal cells that are part of the food bats and other animals eat. Cholesterol, for example, is a well-known sterol made by animals. Plants make their own distinctive sterols. These sterol markers pass though the digestive system into excrement and can be preserved for thousands of years.

“As a piece of work showing what you can do with poo, this study breaks new ground,” said Michael Bird, a researcher in environmental change in the tropics at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, who was not involved in the new study. “They really extended the toolkit that can be used on guano deposits around the world.”

Past climates, past diets

Like sediment and ice core records, the guano core extracted from the Jamaican cave recorded the chemical signatures of human activities like nuclear testing and leaded gasoline combustion, which, along with radiocarbon dating, helped the researchers to correlate the history seen in the guano with other events in Earth’s climate history.

Bats pollinate plants, suppress insects and spread seeds while foraging for food. Shifts in bat diet or species representation in response to climate can have reverberating effects on ecosystems and agricultural systems.

“We inferred from our results that past climate has had an effect on the bats. Given the current changes in climate, we expect to see changes in how bats interact with the environment,” said Lauren Gallant, a researcher at the University of Ottawa and an author of the new study. “That could have consequences for ecosystems.”

The new study compared the relative amounts of plant and animal sterols in the guano core moving back in time though the layers of guano to learn about how bat species as a group shifted their exploitation of different food sources in the past.

The research team, which included bat biologists and a local caving expert, also followed living bats in Belize, tracking their food consumption and elimination to gain a baseline for the kinds of sterols that pass through to the poop when bats dine on different food groups.

Plant sterols spiked compared to animal sterols about 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period (900-1,300 CE), the new study found, a time when cores of lakebed sediments in Central America suggest the climate in the Americas was unusually dry. A similar spike occurred 3,000 years ago, at a time known as the Minoan Warm Period (1350 BCE).

“Drier conditions tend to be bad for insects,” Blais said. “We surmised that fruit diets were favored during dry periods.”

The study also found changes in the carbon composition of the guano that likely reflect the arrival of sugarcane in Jamaica in the fifteenth century.

“It’s remarkable they can find biochemical markers that still contain information 4,000 years later,” Bird said. “In the tropics, everything breaks down fast.”

The approach demonstrated in the new study could be used to glean ecological information from guano deposits around the world, even those only a few hundred years old, Bird said.

“Quite often there are no lakes around, and the guano provides a good option for information about the past. It also contains biological information that lakes don’t.” Bird said. “There’s a lot more work to do and a lot more caves out there.”

Notes for Journalists

This research study “ A 4,300 ‐ year history of dietary changes in a bat colony determined from a tropical guano deposit ” will be free and available for 30 days. Download a PDF copy of the paper here . Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo. This press release and accompanying multimedia are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/poop-core-records-4300-years-of-bat-diet-and-environment . 

  • Lauren Gallant (University of Ottawa, Canada)
  • MB Fenton (University of Western Ontario, Canada)
  • Chris Grooms (Queens University, Canada)
  • Wieslaw Bogdanowicz (Museum and Institute of Zoology, Poland)
  • RS Stewart (Jamaican Caves Organization, Ewarton, Jamaica)
  • Elizabeth Clare (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)
  • John Smol (Queens University, Canada) 
  • Jules Blais, corresponding author (University of Ottawa, Canada)

AGU press contact: Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, [email protected]

University of Ottawa press contact: Justine Boutet Media Relations Officer Cell: 613.762.2908 [email protected]

IMAGES

  1. How To Download Research Papers For Free (in Just 1 minute)

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  2. how to download research paper for free

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  3. How to search and download research papers for FREE

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  4. How to download research papers and books for free|How to download

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  5. how to search and download research papers published in 2021

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  6. How to DOWNLOAD research papers and books for FREE from google scholar! (1 minute solution)

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VIDEO

  1. How to Download Research Papers and Articles for Free?

  2. Best sites to find and download research papers for FREE. How to do literature search

  3. How to access and download paid research papers for free (all steps)?

  4. Using OpenVPN to access and download research papers from KKU network

  5. How to Download Research Papers Free

  6. How to Download Research Papers for Free-2023

COMMENTS

  1. 15 Best Websites to Download Research Papers for Free

    OA.mg - Best for Direct Download Links to Open Access Papers. #12. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) - Best for Social Sciences and Humanities Research. #13. Project Gutenberg - Best for Free Access to eBooks. #14. PLOS (Public Library of Science) - Best for Open Access to Scientific and Medical Research.

  2. Unpaywall

    Unpaywall is a browser extension that allows users to access peer-reviewed journal articles for free and legally.

  3. Download Research Papers for Free: Legal and Ethical Methods

    14. PaperPanda - Download Research Papers for Free. PaperPanda is a Chrome extension that uses some clever logic and the Panda's detective skills to find you the research paper PDFs you need. Essentially, when you activate PaperPanda it finds the DOI of the paper from the current page, and then goes and searches for it.

  4. Open Access Button

    Free, legal research articles delivered instantly or automatically requested from authors. × Getting Started on Safari. Open Access Button. Make sure your bookmarks bar is showing. If not, you can click View, and select "Show Bookmarks Bar." Drag the Button above to your bookmarks bar. ...

  5. How to use Sci-hub to get academic papers for free

    If your country blocks the website, use one of the many free general purpose proxies. I tested hide.me for the purpose of writing this article and it works fine for Sci-hub using the Netherlands exit. 2. Go to the journal publisher's website. Go to the website of whatever article it is you are trying to get.

  6. How To Download Research Papers For Free: Sci-hub, LibGen, etc

    There are many ways to download research papers for free, using websites like Oa.mg, LibGen, and more. This post will talk about these platforms, so you can go try it out yourself. Website. Features. Sci-Hub. - Direct download button. - Requires DOI of the paper. - Articles from nearly every field of research.

  7. Best Websites To Download Research Papers For Free: Beyond Sci-Hub

    Unlike other websites to download research papers, Google Scholar provides free access to a vast collection of scholarly literature, making it one of the best websites to download research. Not every article is available in full PDF format directly; however, Google Scholar often links to other open access resources like DOAJ (Directory of Open ...

  8. 9 Ways of legally accessing high-quality research articles for free

    So, read on and discover the diverse avenues that enable you to access research literature for free. Open Access Journals: Open access journals provide unrestricted access to their articles, allowing anyone to read and download the full text without payment. Platforms like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) and PubMed Central offer ...

  9. Get Scholarly Articles for Free

    Get Scholarly Articles for Free. HOLLIS isn't the only way to access articles and library resources. Google Scholar. Browser Extensions. Library Access via VPN. Harvard Library has paid for your access to hundreds of websites — from the New York Review of Books to the Oxford English Dictionary to the journal Nature: Chemical Biology.

  10. The best academic search engines [Update 2024]

    Get 30 days free. 1. Google Scholar. Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

  11. OA.mg · Open Access for Everyone · Download and read over 240 million

    Free access to millions of research papers for everyone. OA.mg is a search engine for academic papers. Whether you are looking for a specific paper, or for research from a field, or all of an author's works - OA.mg is the place to find it. Universities and researchers funded by the public publish their research in papers, but where do we ...

  12. How to use SCI HUB to download research papers for free

    Follow the below steps to download paid researchers papers for free using Sci-Hub. Step 1: Go to the official website of SCI-HUB. Step 2: Enter the Title/ DOI/ URL of the research paper that you want to download/ read using SCI HUB. Step 3: Click on Open or press enter key. Step 4: As soon as you perform step 3, the desired research paper will ...

  13. Open Research Library

    The Open Research Library (ORL) is planned to include all Open Access book content worldwide on one platform for user-friendly discovery, offering a seamless experience navigating more than 20,000 Open Access books.

  14. Ways to get free and legal access to research papers as a researcher

    Click see all versions (you can see many places where the same paper is available) Check one by one whether they are downloadable ; Another method, I always use when I really need an inaccessible paper, is just to write an e-mail to the corresponding author to send that paper. My experience is that I have always received the paper in a return ...

  15. Is there a simple way to bulk download a large number of papers from a

    [Scientific PDF download] RESP: Research Papers Search claims to search and download scientific papers. Yet to try it out. Articledownloader is worth exploring; PyPaperBot is well used for downloading scientific articles from DOI or academic database. I'm busy with a fork of Automated Search Helper. A research project by Lech Madeyski team at ...

  16. Search

    With 160+ million publication pages, 25+ million researchers and 1+ million questions, this is where everyone can access science. You can use AND, OR, NOT, "" and () to specify your search ...

  17. ResearchGate

    Share your research, collaborate with your peers, and get the support you need to advance your career. Visit Topic Pages. Engineering. Mathematics. Biology. Computer Science. Climate Change ...

  18. OATD

    You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses: Google Scholar; NDLTD, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not. Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published ...

  19. Academia.edu

    Work faster and smarter with advanced research discovery tools. Search the full text and citations of our millions of papers. Download groups of related papers to jumpstart your research. Save time with detailed summaries and search alerts. Advanced Search; PDF Packages of 37 papers; Summaries and Search Alerts

  20. 5 free and legal ways to get the full text of research articles

    5 free and legal ways to get the full text of research articles. By Carol Hollier on 07-Apr-2021 13:23:17. 1. Use your library if you have one! If you are affiliated with a university, you probably have free library access to the full text of millions of research articles. The library will have subscribed to these journals on your behalf.

  21. SpringerOpen open access books

    We offer authors the option to publish their books and chapters open access - making your research freely available to anyone with internet access! We offer authors the option to publish open access books and chapters in a wide range of areas within science, technology and medicine (STM) and within the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

  22. Google Scholar Search Help

    If they do, click on it, click the "Follow" button next to their name, select "New articles by this author", and click "Done". If they don't have a profile, do a search by author, e.g., [author:s-hawking], and click on the mighty envelope in the left sidebar of the search results page.

  23. Directory of Open Access Journals

    About the directory. DOAJ is a unique and extensive index of diverse open access journals from around the world, driven by a growing community, and is committed to ensuring quality content is freely available online for everyone. DOAJ is committed to keeping its services free of charge, including being indexed, and its data freely available.

  24. Should AI Bots Do Science?

    The AI system even attempts a "peer review," of the research paper, which essentially brings in another chatbot to check the work of the first. An initial version of this AI Scientist has already been released — anyone can download the code for free. And plenty of people have. It did the coding equivalent of going viral, with more than ...

  25. Downloading documents from Scribd

    How to download documents. Many of the documents on Scribd have been made available for download, so you can access them without an internet connection or print a hard copy.. If a document can be saved to your computer, you'll see a 'Download' option above the document viewer.

  26. Poop core records 4,300 years of bat diet and environment

    Bird said. "There's a lot more work to do and a lot more caves out there." - Notes for Journalists This research study "A 4,300‐year history of dietary changes in a bat colony determined from a tropical guano deposit" will be free and available for 30 days. Download a PDF copy of the paper here.