If aDOI or otheridentifier is included, you can click on it to find an online copy of the article. This may or may not be free to access, but will give you a place to start. If the article does not appear free to access, you may still be able to find the article elsewhere, whether online or through a nearby library. Consider the resources in the following points as further guides to accessing such articles.
Install theUnpaywall extension on your browser: you will have a 50% chance of finding the full text in open access, wherever you found it.
Search for the article title onGoogle Scholar. If the initial result is behind a paywall, try clicking on the "All X versions" link - this will tell you if other databases include this article, and may help you find an open version. From here, you may be able to find additional sources on similar topics by clicking either the "Related Articles" or "Cited By" links appearing under most article's link in the results. Articles found using these links and may provide you with information to expand your search.
Using either the DOI, Google Scholar, or the journal's website, find out what databases index the article in full text. You can then see if either your local library orthe Wikipedia Library provides access to these databases.
UseWorldCat to see if your local library has a physical version of the journal.
Request the article or the journal through your library'sinterlibrary loan service, if available.
Reach out to the author(s) of the research paper by email and ask them for a copy.
Note that websites likeSci-Hub offer free and direct access to academic journal articles, but there are legal questions about their use and neither the Wikimedia Foundation nor the Wikipedia community endorses them.
Google Books will often give access to a few pages or a snippet view.
See ifother editions are available (although the content or pagination may differ).
UseWorldCat to see if your local library has a physical version of the book.
Request the book through your library'sinterlibrary loan service, if available.
Leverage your contacts with people studying or working in higher education facilities to get access of master's and doctoral theses from those institutions.
If you only need a chapter in a collective work or fragments of a research thesis, reach out to the author(s) of the work by email and ask them for a copy.
If the source is available inWikipedia:The Wikipedia Library and there is already a Wikipedia article about it, please put{{Wikipedia Library}} on the talk page, so other editors will know that they can access it there.
Note that websites likeLibrary Genesis offer free and direct access to books, but there are legal questions about their use and neither the Wikimedia Foundation nor the Wikipedia community endorses them.
Newspaper articles
If possible, search a quote from the article to see if it has been republished elsewhere.
See if either your local library orTWL provides access to the newspaper or to a database that indexes it in full text.
If this is an online newspaper and you see a paywall, try archiving the webpage with the article you look for inarchive.today or in the Internet Archive.
Alternatively, you can use theGoogle Rich Results Test webpage to see if the paywalled content surfaces from HTML inspection (note: this will only yield plain text)
See if an archived version of the article is available via a search feature on the newspaper's website.
UseWorldCat to see if your local library has a physical (print ormicrofilm) version of the newspaper issue containing the article.
Request the article or the newspaper through your library'sinterlibrary loan service, if available.
Get help on-wiki
NOTE. Before seeking other volunteers' help, you should exhaust all other possibilities to access the content yourself. In particular, check ifthe Wikipedia Library or your institution offers access to your desired content.
The Wikipedia Library
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