Digital Access Brokers: Clustering and Comparison (Part I – Locator Services)

Bijan Kumar Roy; Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

doi:10.17821/srels/2022/v59i5/168622

Authors

Bijan Kumar Roy
Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata – 700073, West Bengal
Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay
Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Kalyani, Kolkata – 741245, West Bengal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17821/srels/2022/v59i5/168622

Keywords:

Browser Extension, Digital Access Broker, Open Access, Open Access Button, Scholarly Communication, Unpaywall

Abstract

Scholarly resources published on different platforms are not often searchable and accessible to potential scholars. Google, like other search engines, does not always retrieve free articles on a consistent basis. As a result, there is a gap between the availability and discoverability of scholarly resources. Digital Access Brokers are ground-breaking developments in this context that assemble, discover, and link to open access copies of paid articles or paywalled papers legally uploaded by authors or author-posted manuscripts, with permission from publishers. Browser extensions have emerged as an alternative retrieval assistant to help scholars locate and provide free full-text access to such content available on different publisher sites, databases, open-access journals, or institutional repositories. Unlike other search engines, these extensions provide additional value-added services (such as recommending related resources, citation information, status, type of open access license, level of access and availability of copies by indicating different colours, integration with citation management tools, article metrics) along with the paper to reduce the information overload of the readers. The objective of this paper is to provide an idea about different browser extensions such as Kopernio, Open Access Button, Unpaywall, and along with their key features that might help them in selecting the best tool for their research work.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Azadbakht, E. and Schultz, T. (2020). At the click of a but¬ton: assessing the user experience of open access finding tools. Information Technology and Libraries, 39(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v39i2.12041.

Cook, E. and McArthur, J. (2017). What is open access button? An interview with Joe McArthur. The Serials Librarian, 73(3-4), 208-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2017.1391152.

De Sarkar, T. (2015). The prevalence of web browser extensions use in library services: An exploratory study. Electronic Library, 33(3), 334-354. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2013-0063.

DeVoe, K. (2007). Innovations affecting us - Browser add-ons, extensions, and plug-ins: How they can help leverage the use of library resources. Against the Grain, 19(5), 77-79. https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.5309. 5. Dhakal, K. (2019). Resource Review: Unpaywall. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 107(2), 286-288. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.650. PMCid:PMC6466485.

Else, H. (2018). How Unpaywall is transforming open science. Nature, 560(7718), 290-291. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05968-3. PMid:30111793.

Ferguson, C. L. (2019). Leaning into Browser Extensions. Serials Review, 45(1-2), 48-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00987913.2019.1624909.

Lawrence, A. (2017). What are Google chrome exten¬sions? Bleeping computer. www.bleepingcomputer.com/ tutorials/understanding-google-chrome-extensions/

Norris, M., Oppenheim, C. and Rowland F. (2008). Finding open access articles using Google, Information Review, 32(6) (2008), 709-715. https://doi. org/10.1108/14684520810923881.

Rodriguez, M. (2019b). Unpaywall. Technical Services Quarterly, 36(2), 216-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2019.1585002.

Rodriguez, M. (2019a). Open access button. Technical Services Quarterly, 36(1), 101-102. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2018.1532043.

Schultz, T.A. et al. (2019). Assessing the effectiveness of open access finding tools. Information Technology and Libraries, 38(3), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital. v38i3.11009.

Tay, A. (2019). Kopernio, lean library, anywhere access and other ‘Access Broker’ browser extensions-a roundup and update of current state of play. http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2019/05/kopernio-lean-library-anywhere-access.html.

Willi Hooper, M. (2017). Unpaywall [Chrome & Firefox browser extension] [Product Review]. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 5, 1-3. https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2190.

WilliHooper, M. (2016). Unpaywall [Chrome & Firefox browser extension] [product review]. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 15(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2190.

Williamson, P. O. and Mirza, R. (2015). Does Google scholar help or hurt institutional repositories. In: The complete guide to using Google in libraries: Instruction, administration and staff productivity (Ed. C. Smallwood) (211-217). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.