Re: Where to find white papers?

[Drew Sudell <drew@drewsudell.org>]

On 5/27/2011 3:41 PM, Nicholas Canzoneri wrote:
> Hey folks,
> 
> So, during the long weekend, I figured it would be a good time to read
> some papers. Only problem is that I'm having some problems finding
> papers that are available to the general public. A decent amount of the
> stuff I found through google scholar were all behind payrolls paywalls.
> 
> So what are your go to places to find papers? General topics I'm
> interested in at this moment are GIS and type systems, but general
> topics are cool too.
> 

This is exactly the problem the web was invented for.  But "pre-web"
methods still work (or did the last time I tried them, which was a while
ago).  Generally the delay from finishing a paper to publication in a
peer reviewed journal is kind of long.  So researchers tend to make
"pre-prints" available in advance.  Basically drafts.  Today, that's
usually an link on their personal website or the site for their research
group.  Before that it was postscript files on ftp servers. For older
papers it was having the department secretary mail you a copy.  That
still works.

When I was doing my masters, I wanted a bunch of the Linda papers, which
were not available online.  The group's secretary ended up mailing me a
huge package of just about every paper the group had done just because I
asked. It may have helped that it was at least a vaguely academic
context, though the independent study of a part time student in a
terminal masters program hardly counts as research.

Once you know what papers you ant, I'd try these, in order of increasing
work and latency
a) google the author and see if they have a site with it
b) try their department at their institution and see if there's
   a link to their research group.  Often the pre-prints become
   "technical reports" before the end up in journals.
c) just email the department secretary and ask how to get a copy
d) if all else fails, call a local university and see if the department
   library has a subscription and will let you copy it.  They are
   usually where most journals are and tend to be very generous.
   Never be afraid to abuse the fact that librarians some of
   the smartest people around and are so overjoyed to take a
   break from shushing people that they will get you all sorts of
   stuff and thank you for letting them help.

Admittedly, only a and b work for stuff you want to read this weekend.

The journals have a vested interest in charging.  That's how they fund
publishing.  But the researchers themselves have a long tradition of end
running that.


-- 
Drew Sudell <drew@drewsudell.org>   http://www.drewsudell.org