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Context: I am writing a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) as part of my master's thesis project. After initially screening the titles and abstracts of 338 papers from four selected databases, I identified 138 papers that matched my inclusion criteria. During the full-text review phase, I encountered difficulty obtaining 3 papers out of the 138. I couldn't access these 3 papers because our university wasn't subscribed to these journals, and the Science Hub Mutual Aid community couldn't help either.

Questions:

  1. Is this acceptable to reviewers in reputable journals?

  2. How should I address this in my SLR?

  3. Is it appropriate to email the authors for copies of their papers?

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    In some countries (Germany) university libraries have some network, and printed journal volumes, or print outs of other universities can be send by post. At some universities this system is ancient and only works on computres physically in the libary. When i worked at a university in Italy i could borrow by post from the University of Hanover Germany (tib.eu) which really has access to a lot, for just the post fee. From China things could be harder. Alternatively write an email to the authors if possible, many authors are happy to send a pdf.
    – Hjan
    Commented Jul 30 at 20:44
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    Ask a librarian about an inter library loan.
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Jul 31 at 13:40
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    Virtually any author would be thrilled to get an email saying “I would really like a copy of your paper”! You could also check their website as well—often authors put freely available downloads there.
    – Greg Martin
    Commented Jul 31 at 20:41

5 Answers 5

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Your library can almost certainly get copies for you within a day or two through interlibrary loan and document delivery. Contact your library if you can’t find details of how to request this on its web site. Yes, it is also perfectly acceptable to email the authors and ask for copies of the papers. If both of these fail, then yes, it is acceptable to note in the review that you were unable to access these papers.

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    Contacting the (corresponding) author of the paper is very much a valid option, perhaps even easier than using the library's aid. Most authors are more than gla to send the manuscript and even supplementary materials. Its a good thing someone is interested in their work. In 2-3 occasions I even got some useful comments from them when asked such way.
    – Neinstein
    Commented Jul 31 at 13:37
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    On your last sentence - as it's a systematic review make sure you exclude the papers at the appropriate stage with "unable to access" (or similar) as the exclusion reason.
    – deee
    Commented Jul 31 at 14:46
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    @Neinstein Why do you say it's easier? I get no response from emails much less frequently than ILL can't find it (once?).
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Jul 31 at 17:35
  • @AzorAhai-him- All I meant was that it's a simple email to the corresponding author, while interlibrary loans are done through multiple steps of forms, authentication etc. At least this was my experience. I don't say it's also more reliable, but so far I had luck.
    – Neinstein
    Commented Aug 2 at 6:27
  • @nein Hm, I guess. Usually ILL is just a couple clicks for me
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Aug 3 at 19:14
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Search for them harder - for ideas see How can I find an old, obscure, or otherwise inaccessible paper when the usual methods fail? If your university is not subscribed, they might still be able to get them by some other means.

But talk to your advisor. For a master's thesis you might not have time to make a very large effort.

Answers: (1) (I put "not really" here originally. But see Crazymoomin's comment.) (2) Search harder. (3) Yes.

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    Search harder is not very helpful advice for someone who does not know how to do that. Remember, the OP is just a student. So, for Evon's benefit: the way to search harder is to go to your library and ask the librarian. They have been borrowing materials from other libraries for centuries: they are the professionals where science hub mutual aid are the amateurs. So if the amateurs fail you, go see the professionals, or just skip the amateurs altogether.
    – Maarten Buis
    Commented Jul 30 at 12:06
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    @MaartenBuis I will edit to make it clear that the advice on how to search harder is in the linked page
    – toby544
    Commented Jul 30 at 12:26
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    Friendly research librarians love a challenge. Seems like many places don’t do library orientation sessions anymore where students would get introduced to their capabilities.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jul 30 at 14:51
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    It's not uncommon for literature reviews to screen out papers the authors don't have easy access to, usually under something like "full text unavailable" in the PRISMA diagram. Whether it's acceptable or not is another discussion, but in my experience journals rarely pick up on it. Of course if it's two or three papers which will have a negligible impact on the conclusions of the review, that's different to a good chunk of the available literature. Not to encourage being lazy, but busy academics do tend to take shortcuts.
    – Crazymoomin
    Commented Jul 30 at 17:36
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    This probably applies to every paper published in a language that you can't read, since it's unlikely you have the resources to commission a translation. It might be that you work in a field where everything significant is in English, but remember that you're making an assumption about this.
    – Michael Kay
    Commented Jul 30 at 19:03
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Ask the university library to locate this for you. I wanted a rare, old paper on a subject and submitted the paper title and author through the library system. To my surprise, they came back with a scanned PDF from the author's thesis, scanned for me personally by the author's university. This is what they specialize in. My answer is from the U.S. at a large university, but I suspect it's the same in other organizations.

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You should ask for help:

  • Ask your advisor for ideas on how to get copies. (As @toby544 suggests).
  • Contact the authors and ask them for a copy so that you can survey their work.
  • Ask your university library for help getting a copy (as @Significance suggests, and @ChrisDenniston as well).
  • Perhaps reach out to prominent researchers in the field, to see if they can help you get a copy. But - only if you've already been in contact with them and they know you, via your adviser.
  • Reach out to researchers who have cited the missing papers, and who have been active recently, to see if they can help you understand where you can get a copy.
  • Contact the publishing entities of those papers to see if they have physical or electronic copies.
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    This is good advice for papers that are not easy to get. OP has the problem that the papers are behind a pay wall. As a prominent researcher, I would not help a random student to get around a pay wall for a paper I have no connection to.
    – usr1234567
    Commented Aug 1 at 6:53
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    @usr1234567. I agree. An out of the blue request for someone else's paper could certainly be considered rude.
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Aug 1 at 13:05
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    @ScottSeidman: See edit.
    – einpoklum
    Commented Aug 1 at 15:09
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    @usr1234567: See edit
    – einpoklum
    Commented Aug 2 at 9:11
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Ask your advisor if he (the institute) can buy these three papers.

I think it is weird to contact authors, other researchers in the field or the librarian to obtain the paper, just because the papers would cost you or your institute around 30 $ each.

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    It's not weird to contact authors to ask them for their papers if those papers aren't readily available. The downside of how open access is currently implemented is that smaller research groups frequently can't afford the publishing fees, so most are perfectly happy to provide copies when asked.
    – WhatTheDuck
    Commented Aug 1 at 20:05
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    Whenever I've asked a librarian about a borderline request for inter-library loan they have encouraged me to proceed. Librarians should not find it weird to process research-related inter-library loan requests. This is covered by some funding, like overhead on grants.
    – Terry Loring
    Commented Aug 1 at 21:07
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    It’s weird to use your library? That’s what it is for!
    – Significance
    Commented Aug 2 at 8:07
  • @Significance You are right, I meant librarian, not library.
    – usr1234567
    Commented Aug 2 at 12:40

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