Skip to Main Content
UNLV Logo

Open Access

This guide is to help UNLV authors learn about open access, article processing charges (APCs), avoiding predatory publishers, and open access policies.

Tools for Finding Open Access Content

Unpaywall

A database of millions open access scholarly articles. Unpaywall harvests Open Access content from thousands of publishers and repositories.

https://unpaywall.org/

Unpaywall is a browser extension that points researchers to legal open access versions of articles.

Once the browser extension is installed, researchers will see a color-coded lock on any record where a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is available.

  • Green means an OA article has been found
  • Grey means no legal OA copy could be found

Open Access Button

This browser extension and website checks for open access copies of articles and if none are found, provides an option to contact the author for a copy.

https://openaccessbutton.org/

The open access button assists researchers in requesting copies of works that are not currently open access. If you discover an article with a paywall you may wish to request that the author make an open access copy available.  The button works by checking to see if there is an open access copy, and if not prompting you to complete a few short questions about the work and the need for the article, and then a request is sent to the author on your behalf. The hope is that authors will choose to make their work available via a legal, open access route.

Directories of Open Access Content

Directory of Open Access Journals

The DOAJ provides a global list of open access journals. It also serves as a discovery tool articles published in those journals. 

Directory of Open Access Books

DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.

© University of Nevada Las Vegas