New service from publishers to streamline access to research

Get Full Text Research (GetFTR) is a new, free to use solution that enables faster access for researchers to the published journal articles they need.

When researchers are using online tools to search for research, GetFTR will provide seamless pathways to the published journal articles they want. Researchers will be able to link directly to the most up to date and best version of an article. To create a seamless experience, researchers will be taken directly to the article, and just the article, from a wide variety of discovery tools that they are already using. Even if a researcher does not have the relevant institutional access to an article, publishers can provide an alternative version of the content. Importantly, GetFTR enables users to access content in this way both off-campus and on-campus.

Publishers and providers of online research services are encouraged and invited to take part in GetFTR’s development to help maximize its benefits for the research community.

Why has GetFTR been created

GetFTR is a service developed by leading publishers that today’s discovery tools and scholarly platforms can use to streamline user access to research, whether subscription or open access.

Researchers use a wide variety of scholarly collaboration networks, discovery platforms and library portals to find published research relevant to their areas of interest. They often feel uncertainty, experience frustration and waste time browsing results and clicking through to publisher websites, not knowing if they will have access to the content. This experience drives many researchers to alternative online sources that may be unreliable, may distribute research illicitly and may lack useful supporting materials to aid them in their work.

GetFTR was developed by publishers to help solve this problem. When using today’s discovery tools and platforms, researchers will be able to easily tell which content their institution has made available to them via the GetFTR indicator. They will then be able to follow the enhanced links provided by GetFTR to seamlessly access research on publisher websites.

For users who do not have access based upon their institutional affiliation, participating publishers can provide access to an alternative version of the research, which will be more extensive than the abstract, enabling the user to better understand the nature of the article e.g. a preprint.

The technical detail

Unlike other features and tools that are trying to solve this problem, GetFTR provides researchers with accurate, real-time entitlements information from publishers’ websites and a seamless pathway to the trusted, publisher-approved source of information. GetFTR can be used on devices both on and off campus, from any browser, without the need for additional software, removing technological restrictions that limit the effectiveness of other solutions.

The GetFTR service makes use of the well-established federated access method* to enable the display of the GetFTR indicator and the user’s seamless pathway to the research. Discovery tools and scholarly platforms can leverage the recent work done by SeamlessAccess.org to ease the user journey through the federated access method by introducing a consistent authentication experience across websites.

GetFTR is expected to go-live in early 2020. Entitlements information from five publishers – American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis Group and Wiley – will initially be made available via GetFTR, and other publishers are encouraged to participate. Ongoing guidance and technical contributions have been provided by an Advisory Board comprising a broad range of industry participants, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Atypon, Digital Science, IEEE, Mendeley, Silverchair and Third Iron.

Three scholarly platforms and discovery tools – Mendeley, ReadCube Papers and Dimensions – have agreed to pilot GetFTR in the first quarter of 2020, enabling experimentation in a live environment, further learning from users, and refinement of the service.

Other publishers, publishing platform providers, discovery services and scholarly collaboration platforms are encouraged and invited to join the development and implementation of GetFTR to help fully realize the benefits the service will deliver for researchers. Please contact mediaenquiries@getfulltextresearch.com.

*Federated access is sometimes referred to as ‘Single sign on’, ‘Shibboleth and OpenAthens’ or ‘SAML-based authentication’. It is an authentication method in which the user indicates their institutional affiliation and uses their institutional credentials to authenticate.

Initial development

An initial group of five publishers have funded GetFTR’s development: American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis Group and Wiley. Other publishers are invited and encouraged to participate, either during the pilot in early 2020, or after the pilot concludes.

GetFTR may be integrated, free of charge, into discovery tools, scholarly platforms, library management systems, etc. GetFTR will be sustained through financial contributions from participating publishers on a tiered structure according to the volume of published output.

Issued 3rd December 2019 by American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis Group and Wiley.