Jstor Plant Science
Jane McGary (Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:34:17 PST)
Sometimes one can get access to JStor and other subscription-only
sites through one's university alumni association. Not all
institutions provide this service. Institutional subscriptions are
always far more expensive than individual subscriptions (this is also
true of online reference sites such as the OED), and sometimes the
sites can be accessed only through terminals in the institution's own
network. Fortunately, my undergraduate college is in the city where I
now live, but it's still tedious to drive there just to look up an article.
If you need access to just one article, you can try searching out one
of the authors at his or her personal web page (usually every faculty
member has one) and asking. Often they are pleased to share their
work with interested people and will e-mail a copy, and they may be
unhappy that their journal articles, for which after all they were
not paid (except in "points toward tenure"), are so difficult of
access once Elsevier (for instance) gets hold of them.
Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA
At 11:30 AM 1/23/2013, you wrote:
All:
I checked with JStor about access a few years ago and found it to be
much too expensive. I seem to recall in excess of $50-$100k
annually...something that only large libraries can afford. I was
fortunate to subsequently gain access through our association with
our university, and that access is invaluable. JStor did indicate
when I spoke with them years ago, that they might start considering
options for smaller groups, so it might be worth a try to see where
their price point is now, but I'm betting it's still out of reach
for this group.