Thread by @hedonish

I believe patients should be as informed as possible about their medical conditions and health to be good advocates for themselves and often medical journal paywalls get in the way of that.

HERE ARE MY TIPS & RESOURCES TO FIND FULL-TEXT MEDICAL JOURNAL ARTICLES [thread]:

Disclaimer: I don't know (or care tbh) about the legality of these sources. I'm a chronically ill person with a rare disease and access to medical research has allowed me to advocate for myself and show my doctors research they hadn't read. Money should not be a barrier to that.

#1: Google

We're going to start with the simplest options first and move on from there!

You've probably already tried this, but in case you haven't, try putting the name of the article (if you know it) in quotations with the word PDF after finds me the article fairly often.

#2: PubMed Central
Google will often lead you to PubMed anyways, and PubMed Central (PMC) is PubMed's database that only displays free research articles.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

#2.5: PubMed

PubMed (free & paid) often offers abstracts of what each article is about—which is helpful to figure out what research you want to find full-text for. Even if it's not free, save links to articles you want to read (we'll use it later)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

#3: Unpaywall

A legal site/chrome extension! Installing the chrome extension makes a small lock icon show on the right side of your screen when you look at PubMed. If the icon is green, click it to go to a free full-text version of that article.

unpaywall.org

#4: Your Public Library

Libraries are so underrated and if you don't have a library card—GO GET ONE!

The vast majority of public libraries offer access to online services that often include free access to paid sites when you log in through their website.

#5: Researchgate.net

To my understanding, Researchgate allows the Drs & researchers writing these journal articles to post their work for free. Sign up for a free account to search the site. You can even send a thank you note to the authors when you download articles 😊

#6: SciHub

@Sci_Hub is wonderful, not super legal, and the exact URL changes as needed.

If you have the PubMed link open still, put that URL in the search bar (or search by name or DOI). It seems to find the full PDF pretty much every time.

sci-hub.tw

#7: (Surprisingly) Facebook

Shockingly, FB can actually be useful. There's a great FB group where people who have academic institutional access (i.e. students, professors, etc) help those who do not access research they need.

facebook.com/groups/8506095…

Add'l Options:

• Email the article's author, see if they'll send the full-text
• Ask your Dr if they could get it for you (they often pay for access already)
• Ask your cousin, or someone's cousin, for their login to their college's library

Patient Tip:
Save research articles on Google Drive/the cloud. Sharing access with other patients is a great way to save energy and work together.

BONUS: When a Dr tells you you're wrong pulling up the article on your phone to show them you're not (it's very satisfying!!)

I hope all this helps people access the information they need to get the best care possible!

I'm sure there are plenty more ideas and resources I haven't used or thought of, so if you know of any please feel free to add to this!