Accessing research and learning materials after graduation
Congratulations to everyone who is finishing their degree at Deakin this trimester. It’s a massive achievement in any student’s life. And while you’re heading out into the non-uni world, you don’t have to leave the support of your library behind.
Below are some tips and resources to help you keep learning and researching after you leave university.
Join all the libraries
Deakin Library Alumni membership is free and will enable you to keep accessing many print books and some online resources. You will need to know your Deakin student or staff ID number. Contact the Alumni Engagement Team if you don’t remember it, or if you need to update your contact details.
Check out the Using services and resources (for members) page for help joining and using the library as an alumni borrower. It provides instructions on a different way of searching than you might be used to as a student.
Use the Library Catalogue to search for books in the collection and the alumni specific e-resources page to find out which databases you can access. You might also be interested in the Finding research after graduation section of the Beyond Deakin LibGuide.
We also recommend joining other libraries – local, state and national – to access even more resources. Use the Australian Libraries Gateway (ALG): ‘Find a Library’ tool to find and join your nearest state and local libraries.
Once you have joined all the libraries, add as many of the Library Links as you can to your Google Scholar Settings.
Add these tools to your browser
Unpaywall and Open Access Button will pick up open access versions of articles as you’re searching Google Scholar and related platforms.
Library Extension will let you see the availability of books from libraries.
Search repositories to find open access resources
All universities should have their own repository. If you find a paywalled resource that you want to read, check to see if a repository copy is available. To identify the host university, check the affiliation of any of the authors at the top of the paper.
If you need help finding repositories, check out the following resources:
- Open Access Australasia Repositories: a directory of all Australian university repositories
- Open DOAR: global directory of Open Access repositories
- CORE: a diverse range of repositories and journals across disciplines
- PubMed: biomedicine and life sciences research
- Analysis and Policy Observatory : policy research
Use open citation searching and mapping tools
Search these platforms for known titles or topics and use them to trace citations forward and back in time:
- OpenAlex: The open catalog to the global research system
- Open Knowledge Maps – Your guide to scientific knowledge
Often searching in these platforms as well as Google Scholar for the title of the paywalled resource will bring up a repository copy.
If you can’t find an open access version of an article, you may at least be able to find open access versions of articles that have cited it.
Use Zotero to help you manage references
Zotero is an open-source alternative to the proprietary software known as EndNote, designed to support reference management. You can freely use it after graduation and more easily use it to collaborate and share research with colleagues and communities outside of universities.
Find out how to import your EndNote library to Zotero.
Learn how to use Zotero through the following tutorials:
- Collecting and Citing Sources – WI+RE (uclalibrary.github.io)
- Get Started with Zotero – WI+RE (uclalibrary.github.io)
Find open educational resources
- Open Textbook Library: online textbooks freely accessible at any time (all disciplines)
- Pressbooks Directory: open educational texts across many disciplines
- MIT Open CourseWare: collection of online courses that are publicly available
- OpenStax: core textbooks for various disciplines
- Open Syllabus: course reading lists from subjects around the world (limit to Open Access)
- The Commons Social Change Library (commonslibrary.org): educational resources on community organising, working effectively in groups, justice and diversity, creative activism, and more topics.
Contact the author
If you have tried all of the above and still can’t access the publication, it is worth emailing the author and asking for a copy. Many academics will be pleased to share their work directly, especially if you can explain your professional interest or how you will apply their findings in practice.
Open Access Week
If you enjoyed this post and want to learn more about the open access resources within it, come to our upcoming Open Access Week 2024 events.