Keeping current with peer-reviewed professional journal publications is challenging for many healthcare professionals. While most academics can access recent articles or search for past publications with university library privileges, practicing clinicians and other professionals often are left to their own to find and fund their access to relevant scientific information. Keeping up with published research is required by many professional groups and by state law in most US states. More importantly, clinicians are expected to integrate such evidence-based techniques into their treatment protocols, then fully document such integration in their treatment notes. However, relevant articles may be difficult to locate or expensive. Fortunately, the Internet offers many ways to access low-cost or free journal articles. Numerous sites provide additional professional resources, including low-cost or free scientific journals.
Easy Internet Access to Professional Resources
Fortunately, the Internet provides several easy-to-access past and current professional articles at minimal or no cost. The report below provides a briefly annotated outline of 12 such digital libraries. Other professional resources can also be found on many of the listed websites below.
These are the steps to using these online resources:
Decide which topics are of interest.
Locate relevant journal articles related to those topics. TIP: venture to behavioral arenas outside one’s profession to see what other professions may have published in the topic area. For example, if you are a social worker, it may be worthwhile to venture into behavior analysis, counseling, psychiatric nurse practice, psychiatry, psychology, or substance use literature to get complimentary viewpoints.
Next, go to the relevant journal or journal service website to check for options to register to receive email alerts. These are typically published and disseminated when articles are published (often online first). They can include the journal’s table of contents with titles and other identifying information. For example, professionals interested in American Psychological Association-affiliated journals can go here.
Potential Legal & Ethical Issues to Consider
A quick review of possible sources for journal articles will yield some that don’t mention copyright permissions. Accessing copyrighted material, such as journal articles, from websites that offer them for free without the consent of the copyright holders is typically both illegal and unethical. This activity can violate copyright laws, which exist to protect the intellectual property rights of the creators or owners of the content.
Legal perspective. Copyright laws are designed to protect original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. If you access copyrighted material through a website that does not have permission to distribute the content, you could be infringing on these laws. Specific laws and penalties for infringement vary by country, but this activity is illegal.
Ethical perspective. Ethics refers to the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conduct of an activity. Ethically, it’s generally viewed as wrong to consume content in a way that deprives the content creators or copyright holders of the compensation or recognition they may be due.
It is worth noting that there are movements for more open access to scholarly works to reduce barriers to knowledge dissemination. Many
