Service for accessing scientific Journals outside the institute

Overview

This service enables users that are not physically in the internal institute network to download papers from journal web sites which are not accessible to the public.

To use the service, go to https://browser.cbs.mpg.de

FAQ

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Why can't I download a paper from Journal X?

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It is an unfortunate side effect of web sites becoming more complex. The proxy service tries to rewrite web sites to disguise the original requesting IP (your address at home or abroad). Journals only allow access to registered customers (e.g. our institute) and enforce this by granting access only if requests come from a registered IP. The proxy uses a registered IP and the journals are cool with proxies being used, as long as can not be used by the public.

However, when web sites become more complex, include lots of programs (-> java script) and maybe employ anti-fraud mechanisms (which might be suspicious of the proxy rewriting URLs), things start to fall apart.

Long story short: More and more journal web sites will stop working inside the proxy context. You'll have to use RemoteLinux in that case. A session on a terminal server provides a real browser which will have no problem accessing journal web sites.

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