Digital Science Launches Anywhere Access for Fast, One-Click Delivery of Full-Text Scholarly Content

By MTS Staff Writer On Jul 25, 2018

Cloud-Based Library Technology Offers Immediate Access to Library e-Resources Wherever Researchers Start Their Discovery Journeys

Researchers can now experience open access (OA), subscription and on-demand content faster than ever before with Digital Science‘s Anywhere Access – the first cloud-based solution to bring one-click access to millions of full-text scholarly articles.

Access to full-text literature is an essential part of the research lifecycle, yet it remains one of the most time consuming and frustrating pain points for researchers, librarians and publishers. Integrating with existing library databases and tools, Anywhere Access gives researchers instant visibility and access to eligible content via ‘View PDF’ links that appear within dozens of popular discovery services, including Google Scholar, Pubmed, Dimensions, and Primo, as well as publisher and scholarly networking websites. As a result, users can effortlessly flow between search results and full-text.

“Accessing an article from an OA or subscribed journal should be as easy as double-clicking a song in Spotify. Too often, researchers are met with cascading layers of link resolution, authentication, proxies, changing publisher website templates, and other redirects before reaching the full-text. Each layer disrupts the researcher’s workflow and focus,” said Robert McGrath, CEO at Anywhere Access. “At the same time, a variety of new tools have emerged, legitimate or otherwise, attempting to reduce this friction. Over the past year, we’ve been working closely with partners to develop a COUNTER-compliant solution that would not only be faster for researchers but also offer a sustainable path forward for libraries and publishers.”

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Anywhere Access: A Library-Centric Solution

Unlike earlier browser extension-based solutions, Anywhere Access is a managed cloud-based solution. It integrates with current library technologies including subscription holdings databases, link resolvers, EZproxies, and Single Sign-On (SSO) technologies to accelerate access to content wherever possible. Anywhere Access can be easily embedded into existing library websites and discovery tools, such as Primo. A library-branded browser extension supports workflows with popular discovery services and facilitates access to the best available version of content on and off campus.

In addition to providing one-click access to subscription and open access content, Anywhere Access offers unmediated document delivery capabilities, providing researchers immediate access to content outside of current subscriptions. Institutions may also choose to integrate existing ILL-services or third-party document delivery providers into the Anywhere Access workflow.

Anywhere Access provides libraries with real-time visibility into subscription usage, including alerts whenever exceptions occur between the library’s knowledge base holdings and actual subscription access from publisher websites.

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Ten institutions have signed on to Anywhere Access, including the University of Denver, California State University, Northridge and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“The University of Denver became an early development partner on Anywhere Access because we wanted to make the process of accessing e-resources easier for our patrons,” said Michael Levine-Clark, Dean of Libraries, University of Denver. “We hope to remove as much friction from the authentication process as possible so that the experience of accessing content – whether licensed, pay-per-view, or open – is as easy through library discovery tools as it is through rogue and pirate sites.”

Advanced Article Streaming

A unique feature of Anywhere Access is the ability to stream full-text directly into the point of discovery. The one-click access feature automatically fetches full-text from the best available source in the library’s catalogue and streams it back to the user. Utilizing the Enhanced PDF technology, pioneered by ReadCube, Anywhere Access seeks to provide readers with the latest ‘Version of Record,’ including supporting information and datasets, figures, linked inline citations, article metrics as well as PDF annotation tools. Readers can easily save or print the PDF with annotations or export to popular reference management tools including Endnote, Mendeley, Readcube, Papers or Zotero.

“Anywhere Access was developed in response to a longstanding pain point for researchers, access to full-text,” says Daniel Hook, CEO of Digital Science. “Anywhere Access offers the whole community a practical and simple technology: Content is a single-click away for researchers, librarians deliver streamlined access to e-resources, and publishers ensure that researchers have access to the final published article in a compliant and measurable manner.”