I have graduated and my employer does not provide access to journals.
I don't mind paying, but I cannot afford subscribing directly.
Are there public mathematics associations that provide members with access to the most common mathematical journals?
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20$\begingroup$ This might be interesting: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub $\endgroup$– Michael GreineckerCommented Aug 28, 2017 at 8:14
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7$\begingroup$ This question from academia.SE might be useful: Ways to get free and legal access to research papers as a researcher. (And you can also try to search a bit whether there are some other similar questions on that site.) Maybe this question would be more suitable at that site - but it's quite possible that there already are several similar question there and it would be closed as a duplicate. (See also here for a discussion of this question in chat.) $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakCommented Aug 28, 2017 at 8:58
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18$\begingroup$ I don't mind paying Nor do I mind paying, but in most cases I've already paid. That is, my tax money pays the salaries of both people who do research and people who, without additional pay, act as referees and editors. What I do mind is being told that I have to pay again in order to access the research that I already paid for. $\endgroup$– user21349Commented Aug 28, 2017 at 15:56
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3 Answers
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What I did to continue having access to articles, even tho I am no longer affiliated with my alma mater, was to apply for an alumnus ID (lifetime membership in my case!) that allows me to make at most three free(!) trips to the university library a month. I then keep a running list of articles I want to read as I encounter them (e.g. on MO or anywhere else on the Internet), and then take this list whenever I go paper-chasing in the university library. In there, they allow you to print online journals or photocopy paper journals for a very nominal fee. (It also helped in my case that I was good friends with the librarians even before I graduated.)
I've figured at this point that the price I paid for my alumnus ID, altho relatively a rather substantial sum, is way much less than the sum of the cost of all the articles I have, if I had directly paid the publishers for them.
You might want to look for a similar deal in your libraries.
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2$\begingroup$ I have found that some university libraries will allow you to walk in and use one of their computer terminals without an ID or a login. From the computer terminal you can usually access electronic copies of journals and even save a copy or email it to yourself. University science libraries seem to be more lenient than main campus libraries in this regard. Of course this "solution" is not universally available but it is worth checking nearby university libraries, including their smaller departmental libraries. You might be pleasantly surprised. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 1:24
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1$\begingroup$ @Timothy, I guess that's a US or UK only thing; where I live, if you want to use the library of an institution you're not affiliated with, they charge an entrance fee (which however is still a lot less than the cost of paying for 2-3 articles). Also, I should've mentioned this, but my university library has a USB ban on their computers, and they block GMail, Yahoo! and all the usual e-mail sites. And, they charge alumni after their third free visit in a month. Maybe they know about cheap people like me after all... :D $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 2:05
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Yes, there are public associations that provide some access to published articles, but it would be difficult to give more details without knowing your location and field of research.
Note that many research institutes have a status of associated/invited researchers, which does not grant a salary but permits access to some of the facilities of the laboratory, e.g. email, servers, library and such.
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Often the author has a web page on which he or she posts papers, e.g., T. Tao. Another possible source is Archiv.