Present Situation in Accessibility of Electronic Versions of Scientific Papers

Abstract

The scientific community has wide and efficient options to access electronic versions of scientific papers on Internet, starting from citations or from bibliographic or other scientific databases. What is not always clear is the fact that sometimes a particular article opens but sometimes not. In majority of cases the key problem is the IP address of the computer from which the user is asking for access. The IP address of institution, which is an inseparable part of the request, is compared with a list of IP addresses of subscribing institutions. The paper opens only in the case of agreement. This review summarizes the overall situation in availability of the electronic versions and some standing problems of further extension of access.