# Open Access Button > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Open_Access_Button > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Open_Access_Button.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Access_Button > Source revision: 1338793645 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Browser bookmarklet Open Access Button logo The **Open Access Button** was a browser bookmarklet which registers when people hit a [paywall](/source/Paywall) to an academic article and cannot access it.[1] It is supported by [Medsin](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Medsin&action=edit&redlink=1) UK and the [Right to Research Coalition](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Right_to_Research_Coalition&action=edit&redlink=1).[1] A prototype was built at a [BMJ](/source/BMJ) Hack Weekend.[2][3] All code is openly available online at [GitHub](/source/GitHub).[4] A beta version of the Open Access Button was officially launched on 18 November 2013 at the Berlin 11 Satellite Conference for Students & Early Stage Researchers.[5] It records instances of hitting a paywall, and also provides options to try to locate an [open access](/source/Open_access) version of the article.[6] In April 2014 a [crowdfunding](/source/Crowdfunding) campaign was started to build a second version.[7] The second version of the button was launched on 21 October 2014 as part of [Open Access Week](/source/Open_Access_Week).[8] In February 2015 the Open Access Button and its co-founders, David Carroll and Joseph McArthur ("the button boys"), were awarded a SPARC Innovator Award by the [Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition](/source/Scholarly_Publishing_and_Academic_Resources_Coalition) (SPARC).[9] The third version of the button was launched on 28 October 2016, again, as part of open access week.[10] On September 18, 2025 OA.Works shut down the project.[11] ## See also - [12ft](/source/12ft) - [Anna's Archive](/source/Anna's_Archive) - [Bypass Paywalls Clean](/source/Bypass_Paywalls_Clean) - [EndNote Click](/source/EndNote_Click) - [Eprint button](/source/Eprint_button) - [Unpaywall](/source/Unpaywall) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-about_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-about_1-1) ["About"](http://oabutton.wordpress.com/about/). *Open Access Button*. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Carroll, David; McArthur, Joseph (2013). ["The Open Access Button: It's time we capture individual moments of paywall injustice and turn them into positive change"](http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/09/02/the-open-access-button-carroll-mcarthur/). *LSE Impact*. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-bmj_3-0)** ["Picture of the week"](http://www.bmj.com/highwire/section-pdf/653443/0/1). *BMJ*. **347**. July 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Open Access Button"](https://github.com/oabutton). *GitHub*. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Speakers at B11 Satellite Conference"](https://web.archive.org/web/20131122042127/http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/berlin11/speakers). *Right 2 Research Coalition*. Archived from [the original](http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/berlin11/speakers) on 22 November 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Push button for open access"](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/18/open-access-button-push). *Guardian*. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Browne, Tania (29 April 2014). ["Let's shine a light on paywalls that deny open access to scientific research"](https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/apr/29/paywalls-open-access-button-scientific-research). *Guardian*. Retrieved 29 April 2014. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Launching the new Open Access Button. Push Button. Get Research. Make Progress. | Open Access Button blog"](https://web.archive.org/web/20141008001151/http://blog.openaccessbutton.org/2014/10/02/launching-the-new-open-access-button-push-button-get-research-make-progress/). Archived from [the original](http://blog.openaccessbutton.org/2014/10/02/launching-the-new-open-access-button-push-button-get-research-make-progress/) on 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2014-10-15. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Adams, Caralee (2015). ["SPARC Innovator: The Open Access Button"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150915122630/http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator/oabutton). *[Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition](/source/Scholarly_Publishing_and_Academic_Resources_Coalition)*. [Association of Research Libraries](/source/Association_of_Research_Libraries). Archived from [the original](http://www.sparc.arl.org/initiatives/innovator/oabutton) on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 19 October 2015. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Labs, Cottage. ["Open Access Button"](https://openaccessbutton.org/blog/new-oab-2016). *openaccessbutton.org*. Retrieved 2016-10-28. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Sunsetting the Open Access Button & InstantILL"](https://blog.oa.works/sunsetting-the-open-access-button-instantill/). *OA.Works Blog*. 2025-06-16. Retrieved 2026-02-17. ## External links - [Official website](https://openaccessbutton.org/) - [Chrome Webstore Listing](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/open-access-button/dacjlklfannlijcjfljgkieikajciabg) v t e Open access History Timeline Concepts Subscription business model Subscribe to Open Paywall Copyright transfer agreement Academic journal Scientific journal Manuscript Preprint Postprint Article processing charge Predatory publishing Statements Budapest Open Access Initiative Berlin Declaration Bethesda Statement DORA Durham Statement Geneva Declaration NIH Public Access Policy Research Works Act Strategies Self-archiving Open-access mandate Open-access repository Hybrid open-access journal Delayed open-access journal Projects and organizations The Cost of Knowledge Creative Commons Directory of Open Access Books [ca; es] Directory of Open Access Journals Initiative for Open Citations Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association OpenAIRE Open Archives Initiative Open Knowledge Foundation Open Society Foundations Plan S Public Library of Science Public Knowledge Project Registry of Open Access Repositories Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition SciELO Sci-Hub By country Australia Austria Belgium Canada Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary India Republic of Ireland Italy Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Russia South Africa Spain Sweden Ukraine Other Access to Knowledge movement Access2Research List of open-access journals Open content Open data Open education Open government Open hardware Open knowledge Open science Open source --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Open Access Button](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Access_Button) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Access_Button?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.