What is Unpaywall?

A lot of internet users often find themselves in an awkward position while browsing online content. Many sites hide their content behind a paywall, forcing visitors to make a small payment. Unpaywall is a new project that solves a lot of problems, as this web browser extension provides users with free full-text versions of research articles.

Unpaywall is An Intriguing Browser Extension

It is becoming increasingly difficult to monetize written content on the Internet. The traditional advertising business model is still profitable, yet given the number of visitors relying on ad blockers, a new solution has to be found. Putting a paywall in place is not necessarily the best course of action, although it is often considered to be the fairest solution for everybody.

That being said, not everyone is looking to pay to read an article, especially not when it is a research article. This is why the Unpaywall project has been created, as it allows anyone to bypass paywalls related to research literature. This browser extension is compatible with both Chrome and Firefox browsers and will provide users with a free full-text version of the content.

Powering this browser extension is an open index of over ten million open access resources. In about half of the cases, the browser extension will find a free full-text copy of the research content. That is quite a remarkable feat, albeit not a perfect solution either. More recent content has a higher chance of success compared to papers dating back years or even decades, though.

For anyone looking for research articles, Unpaywall is an excellent solution well worth checking out. Journalists, high school students, and even policymakers can reap the rewards from bypassing paywalls through a legal alternative. Subscription access to fact-based research literature is not something most people possess, which makes this plugin more than valuable to this particular crowd.

Unfortunately, Unpaywall cannot be used to bypass paywalls for more traditional content. News sites using paywalls and subscription-based services will still remain inaccessible. However, it is not unlikely similar browser extensions will be developed to bypass those restrictions as well. In fact, one could argue internet users are more likely to financially contribute once they have seen the content and its added value.

In the end, it is good to see initiatives like Unpaywall come to fruition. It is of the utmost importance to make information freely accessible, whether it is news or research content. It is understandable content needs to be monetized, yet not everyone will always pay for everything they want to read. Viable alternative solutions, such as Unpaywall, are direly needed, that much is certain.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

23 Comments

  1. Increase Mozrating September 28, 2020
  2. Yolando Maclachlan January 26, 2021
  3. April Boutet January 27, 2021
  4. cheap flights January 29, 2021
  5. cheap flights January 29, 2021
  6. Jennifer Boothe January 30, 2021
  7. http://tinyurl.com/y6meq3dg February 2, 2021
  8. cheap flights February 2, 2021
  9. tinyurl.com February 3, 2021
  10. Jordon Blackwelder February 9, 2021
  11. tinyurl.com February 11, 2021
  12. Cristobal Arteaga February 18, 2021
  13. Tomeka Moudy February 18, 2021
  14. ClarkGaino March 1, 2021
  15. web hosting March 10, 2021
  16. amoxicillin syphilis March 10, 2021
  17. lasix to bumex March 11, 2021
  18. zithromax iv March 11, 2021
  19. ivermectin for human March 12, 2021
  20. gamefly March 14, 2021
  21. coconut oil March 15, 2021

Leave a Reply
https://themerkle.com/what-is-unpaywall/
themerkle.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2021-17
71272
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:HRBAAWAF7N6D42JFAYP3CFLA6TRR6O2F
<urn:uuid:e16c9f61-20e2-4b29-93c2-c13432406be3>
2021-04-21T03:24:08Z
68.183.104.217
text/html
sha1:RYAVVMYEODLSTJSXIDRNEUGZFY5ZCIF3
<urn:uuid:f9e4f9a1-525a-48e0-a785-b6735bca1f3c>
https://themerkle.com/what-is-unpaywall/
response
<urn:uuid:2953bf0e-bfd7-4fb3-99ac-6bf97ca3f001>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-17
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-232.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/