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Why are my open access curation requests getting rejected?

Before submitting a correction to https://unpaywall.org/fix, check the actual article with your own eyes, from a non-university network. Let’s break it down a bit more:

Articles are open if:

  1. You can view the full text (PDF or HTML) from
  2. outside your university network (your phone with wifi off works well) with
  3. no login, payment, or account creation on
  4. a legal site (publisher or trusted repository).

Articles are closed if:

  1. They are paywalled on the publisher site AND
  2. there’s no fulltext in legitimate repositories.

Common traps:

  • The journal is open
    • Some journals are open now, but older content is closed.
  • The button says open PDF
    • Publisher websites can sometimes mislead. Check the PDF with your own eyes.
  • It’s free with an account
    • That’s not OA
  • It’s free on Sci-Hub
    • Also not OA

Remember, check the actual article with your own eyes from outside the university network.

Thanks for helping us keep Unpaywall accurate!