Looking for some
probably existing literature in the office, I happened to encounter
an empty shoebox which I had used to collect reprint requests in.
During the latest office move, I decided to be practical and
discarded all reprint stacks of my own papers, as well as all the
(several!) reprint request cards from often far-away-countries.
Everything happens electronically nowadays, so no need to request
reprints anymore. Reprint request cards were not for the Modern
Scientist; already several years had elapsed since I received one.
But I remember just
how I felt like to receive one. Somebody, somewhere, was interested
in my work! And this person sent me a card, perhaps with a beautiful
butterfly or mosquito stamp. I did not hurry to collect it from the
mail tray before all colleagues had commented it. Put it in the
shoebox and thought maybe after the next paper I need to get another
box, perhaps a boot box. Then came the electronic full-text
databases, such as ScienceDirect, which my institution started to
subscribe. It gives an easy access to the publications in journals
from this publisher, more reading than I might ever be able to
digest. Open Access journals make it even easier. Still, there is a
problem in achieving papers in journals from many publishers the
institution does not subscribe. The library could order them, of
course, but for a fee, which is often considerably high. Publishing
is business, and the publisher of course needs the money, but does a
5-page paper really need to cost 35 €, or more?
Electronic Reprint
Request (ERR) is the easy solution. Why not send an e-mail to the
author and request an electronic Portable Document Format (.pdf) file
of the interesting article? Publishers, at least some, permit the
distribution of copies of published journal articles to research
colleagues for their personal use
Below, please
find a simple model of ERR:
Dear
Colleague
Markus
J Rantala,
I
would greatly appreciate receiving a reprint (.pdf file) of your
article entitled:
"Adiposity,
compared with masculinity, serves as a more valid cue to
immunocompetence in human mate choice"
Which
appeared in:
Proc
Biol Sci. 2013 Jan 22;280(1751):20122495. doi:
10.1098/rspb.2012.2495.
Thanking
you in advance,
Antti
Oksanen, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, Research and Laboratory
Department, Elektroniikkatie 3, FI-90590 Oulu, Finland
Antti.Oksanen[at]evira.fi
You can easily
personalize your ERR by adding something about your own interest in
the matter:
I’m not skinny
but competent.
Don’t make the
error of not acquiring all the relevant literature needed in your own
research. An abstract is almost always less than an entire article.
ERR is a nice way to delight a Colleague and save money
simultaneously.
