ReadCube Launches Free Research Pass Program to Enable Broad Full-Text Access for COVID-19 Researchers

In collaboration with leading publishers, ReadCube is announcing the launch of an unprecedented new initiative to facilitate access to literature relevant to COVID-19 research. The COVID-19 Research Pass (CRP) program provides direct access to over 26 million articles and is available to anyone studying or writing about COVID-19.

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, scholarly publishers were quick to open up access to COVID-19 literature to the greater research community. These initiatives have provided much needed and timely access to the latest publications specifically covering the COVID-19 virus.

The CRP program expands on these efforts to provide COVID-19 researchers with access to a broader set of content needed in the course of their research. Rather than pre-filtering access to specific articles related to COVID-19, the CRP allows researchers to access any article from participating publishers they may need while studying COVID-19, including both open access and content behind paywalls. The ability to access related and prior work can be particularly helpful to researchers studying ways of improving therapies, clinical, and public health outcomes. For example, topics such as ventilators or respiratory syndromes often remain behind paywalls. Additionally, the program can support COVID-19 researchers who are now working remotely and require remote access to literature.

Initial participating publishers include the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Springer Nature, and Wiley. We look forward to welcoming additional publishers to the program and expanding the range of articles accessible to participants.

Key aspects of the program include:

• Instant Full-Text Access. Pass holders can access free of charge any full-text article (or book chapter) required for use in the context of their COVID-19 research.
• Flexibility. Users can search within the portal or install a web browser extension which will alert them whenever they come across content covered by the program.
• Collaboration. Participants can generate temporary sharing URLs that provide read-only access (printing and downloading disabled) to the full text to anyone outside the CRP program. These links may be posted on social networking sites. Private collaboration groups are also accessible.
• Text & Data Mining. Participants may apply for automated Text and Data Mining Access (TDM) to full-text content.

The program is available to researchers across corporate, government and academic labs, clinicians, and other health care providers, journalists, and policy-makers who are actively working on COVID-19 efforts.