Alternative mechanisms of discovering and accessing the economics literature.

This paper evaluates the bibliographic and full-text coverage of 15 discovery and access mechanisms for economics literature, comparing conventional databases like Scopus and EconLit with free alternatives including Google Scholar, web-based scholarly databases (Dimensions, OpenAlex), academic social networks (ResearchGate, Academia.edu, RePEc, SSRN, arXiv), and pirate sites (Anna's Archive, Sci-Hub). The study finds that several alternative mechanisms, notably Google Scholar, OpenAlex, and ResearchGate, provide more comprehensive bibliographic coverage and greater free full-text access than conventional databases, which cover no more than 62% of target documents. While some alternatives have limitations in user interface and metadata quality, their broader web-based harvesting methods and, in the case of pirate sites, disregard for intellectual property restrictions contribute to their extensive coverage. These findings suggest that free, alternative resources may offer valuable access to economics scholarship, especially for researchers without subscription access.