How to get an academic paper from an author

https://thelogicofscience.com/2019/09/17/how-to-find-and-access-peer-reviewed-studies/

“To actually get a hold of an author, email is usually the best option. At least one author always includes an email address on the paper. If that address doesn’t work, they may have switched universities, but a Google search will usually bring up their current position with their current email. Failing that, you can try to contact them via Research Gate, but at least for me personally, I find that to be an inefficient way for people to get in touch with me. I don’t get notifications from my Research Gate (because they were obnoxious) nor do I check it often, so when people ask me for my papers via Research Gate, it often takes me a long time to respond. In contrast, emailing me usually results in a response is a few hours. I think this is probably true for most academics, so I’d start with email.

One final note about emailing scientists, sometimes people feel like they are inconveniencing scientists by asking for a paper (particularly people who are not academics or students) so they write them a lengthy story about what they are interested in and why they want the paper. Don’t do that. You don’t need to justify your desire for knowledge and you are just wasting their time. All you need to say is, “Dear Dr X, could you please send me a copy of your paper titled, “Y.” Thank you very much, Your Name” or something to that effect. It doesn’t have to be quite that terse, but academics often get hundreds of emails a day, so keeping your message short is appreciated.”

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