I bet some of you worked in scientific work posts, where you had to deal with acquiring contemporary knowledge and understanding it. As far as I know, the only way to do this, is through reading conference papers.

So my question is, how did you access the papers that you wanted? Did your employer provide them to you? Did you have to pay the provider yourself? Through other means?

I'd like to know your experiences.

 

It depends on the institution of learning (university) itself. Mine has a number of subscriptions to a collection of journals and sometimes they do have trial periods. If the journal that you want to find is not accessible at your institution, you may need someone who has the access to get it for you. At most times I do not have to pay anything at all.

 

Selling older papers reprints is a way for scientific publishing houses to earn money. The pricing is often hideous. Medical papers often cost $35 then reprints are ordered, even only if it is a few pages. And that sum does not include posting. However in my country some libraries and universities have deals with publishing house. So students and educational staff. May download reprints for free. If you are still in the education system. Ask your professor for help regarding this. If not try Google. It is amazing what you can find on the net.

 

I bet some of you worked in scientific work posts, where you had to deal with acquiring contemporary knowledge and understanding it. As far as I know, the only way to do this, is through reading conference papers.

So my question is, how did you access the papers that you wanted? Did your employer provide them to you? Did you have to pay the provider yourself? Through other means?

I'd like to know your experiences.

I wrote a ton of them and as far as I know, they became public domain for anybody to read after they were published.

 

In a career that spans half a century I gotta tell you, that the vast majority of academic papers are not worth the powder to blow them up. You can spend a great deal of time decoding them for very little reward or remuneration. If somebody will pay you to do it, that is another matter.

 

I'll give you a bit of backstory:

I'm officially starting a PhD soon. Unofficially I have already started. Writing a PhD thesis means that you have to come up with actually novel work, in the end of the 4 (nominal) years that you will be a candidate.
That means that just reading books won't cut it. Books contain compressed knowledge of at least 10 years ago. They're very good at what they do, but communicating the state-of-the-art to you isn't one of them.
What I have to do, in order to be able to choose a reasonable thesis subject as well as stay relevant to the scene, is incorporate reading papers in your weekly routine.

Up until last year, the university IP granted access to most IEEE Xplore publications, which covered pretty much all the needs of an EE. But in the paradise that is called Greece, funds have been trimmed and the IEEE bill went unpayed. As a result, I now have to access papers through "other means".
Hence my question.

It wasn't a question as to where I should go to find papers. I have some good leads. It is more of a poll, to see what other people do.

 

I wrote a ton of them and as far as I know, they became public domain for anybody to read after they were published.

The papers I use to look up are certainly not public domain. I think it is a disgrace for publication houses to make hyperprofit on other people's sweat, but that topic is pretty old and covered by much more informed people than me.

 

Before I got into uni, I managed to read some papers by talking to a couple of professors I had met at open days, and asking them if they wouldn't mind sending me any papers I could have a read of.

All seemed really happy to share their work, I got upwards of 500 papers in total!

I don't know if you can apply it to your situation, but perhaps meeting up/getting in touch with some professors, whose work you admire, might prove fruitful.

Incidentally, I keep in contact with one, even though I'm not at his university!

Sparky

 

I certainly understand the need if you are in an academic environment. The good thing is that you are not alone. There are many people who will do you a favor if you ask. Many people collect printed journals that they will let you borrow, so you need to enlarge the circle of friends and help them clean out their attics or offices.

BTW -- Good luck with your program.

 

for me it was library, interlibrary loans, sharing...

 

Libraries, particularly university libraries, are very good sources for journal and conference papers. This was particularly true in the days when printed journals dominated. As more journal subscriptions become available in electronic subscriptions, many libraries are opting to not get the print versions at all. Unfortunately, this often also means that the electronic versions are only available to those with a university network account.

Generally, employers will find a way to make the highly relevant reference materials available to employees at no cost to the employee. Having said that, only relatively few employers have a real, immediate need for employees to have access to very many such materials.

Where I worked for 14 years (small company with about a dozen employees), the company would pay for your membership in IEEE as well as one IEEE society. They would also pay for another society membership provided you brought the publications in to the office (you owned them and could take them with you if you ever left) and provided no one else was a current member of that same society.