It’s always frustrating to hit a paywall when you stumble across an exciting article. Until recently, for many of us the only legal way of getting hold of the publication was to purchase the paper in question. But that is no longer the case for millions of scientific publications thanks to Unpaywall – a free, open-source tool launched by ImpactStory – a nonprofit dedicated to making scholarly research more open, accessible, and reusable.

What happens when you cite someone’s research? As you write a research publication you include references to the work of your fellow researchers. Once the article is published in a scientific journal the readers may view the reference list to verify cited information or perhaps discover additional studies relevant to their topic. But have you ever wondered what happens with citation data that you produce and how it is being used by others?

Reading scientific papers can be very time consuming. So you should not waste a minute searching for the relevant literature. Thanks to the cutting-edge search technologies Europe PMC helps you find facts and evidence in research publications in a blink of an eye. Search results now display snippets – highlights from the article matching your query. For every result you can see up to two snippets, separated by an ellipsis.

As 2017 concludes, we reflect on Europe PMC’s landmark achievements. Let’s take a closer look at the highlights of this year. Cutting-edge search and viewing mechanisms Search results now display snippets – fragments of the publication text that contain matches to your query. Snippets highlight the search term in its context, making it easier to identify the relevant content you were looking for.

The PubMed Central International (PMCI) network is a collaborative effort between the PMCI repositories, publishers, and funding organisations that wish to preserve and provide free access to journal articles authored by the researchers they support. For many years, the PMCI network has consisted of three nodes, PMC USA, Europe PMC and PMC Canada.

We are excited to announce the launch of Europe PMC Annotations API, which provides programmatic access to annotations text-mined from biomedical abstracts and open access full text articles. The Annotations API is a part of Europe PMC’s programmatic tools suit and is freely available on the Europe PMC website: https://europepmc.org/AnnotationsApi.

We’re delighted to announce that the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance joins Europe PMC as a new funder. This brings the Europe PMC funder family to 28 members.

Whether applying for a postdoc, a grant, or a tenure position, you will need to compile a publication list every now and then. There can be many ways to do so, from maintaining an Excel sheet, to building your profile on a faculty page. One option, however, requires minimum effort from your side and keeps a stable record of all your achievements.

Jo McEntyre, EMBL-EBI; Thomas Lemberger, EMBO; Mark Patterson, eLife; Kristen Rattan, Collaborative Knowledge Foundation; Alfonso Valencia, Barcelona Supercomputer Centre. The use of preprints in the life sciences offers tantalising opportunities to change the way research results are communicated and reused, and the work of ASAPbio has been key in engaging the scientific community to promote their uptake.

Modern scientists are busier than ever. Their typical days are filled not only with experimental work, but also with teaching, supervising, mentoring, grant applications, budget planning… The list goes on and on. No wonder there is barely any time left to stay on top of the field. Keeping track of published literature is made easier by following these simple tips: Newest first Don’t get lost in the long list of publications.

Imagine you are exploring a new topic. You start by searching for relevant papers in the field. You type your query, click the search button, and end up with thousands of scientific articles, waiting to be read. How do you identify which papers to focus on? In Europe PMC, search results can be sorted differently to help you navigate through the literature. By default, results are sorted by relevance.