You are probably familiar with how to search for relevant research articles using PubMed. You enter your search terms, get a long list of results, scan the titles, skim an abstract, decide you would like to read the entire article, and then click a few (or many) links before finally arriving at the full-text article itself.
Pubget is designed to remove those final steps out of the equation by not only helping you search for articles of interest, but also supplying you with an immediate PDF as part of the results.
This does not mean that you are getting unlimited access to free articles. The only way to access fulltext is if the e-journal is open access or if it is licensed by HSLS. What makes Pubget unique is that it offers a much faster way of getting to the information you need. According to their Mission Statement:
“Each year, scientists spend about a half-billion minutes searching for biomedical literature online. This is time they could better spend curing disease and building the future. Pubget’s mission is to give them that time back.”
One convenient feature of Pubget is that the home page provides customizable links to top scientific journals, thereby allowing you to easily browse the most recent issues of your favorite publications and instantly read the PDF of an interesting article.
You can also create a personal library of articles on the site, as well as take advantage of the Pubget RSS feed to receive automatic updates on your favorite topics without recreating your search each time.
Pubget’s newest feature is PaperPlane, which helps you immediately access PDFs upon selecting an abstract in PubMed, via a bookmark in your toolbar.
Presently, Pubget is free, although the developers mention that “premium services” are coming soon. So now is the time to try Pubget, take a look at their blog, and see if it really does give you back your time!
~ Carrie Iwema