Anyone can download the full-text of a paper that has been uploaded to Academia for free, without paying a cent, no payment or subscription required. All you need is a free Academia account.
Downloading a paper is simple:
- Log in to Academia.
- Find the paper you want to download.
- Click the Download button.
If you don't have an Academia Premium subscription, we might recommend upgrading. To stay on the free tier, click "No thanks, I'll stay on the free tier," "Just this PDF," or any similar language. You do not need to pay anything to download a single paper.
We'll use this article to break down the instructions in more detail and go over frequently asked questions related to downloading papers like:
- Why is the paper I downloaded incomplete?
- Do I need to upgrade to Academia Premium to download a paper?
- Can I get the paper in another language?
- How do I share or bookmark a paper on Academia?
Why is the paper I downloaded incomplete?
Academia only has the versions of the paper the author has uploaded to the site. The paper you downloaded is the version the author uploaded to the site.
This means if the author has only uploaded a cover page, you'll download only a cover page. If the author has uploaded a table of contents of the paper, you'll only get the table of contents when you download it.
You may contact the uploader (typically the author of the paper) to see if they can share the full document with you. Click "Message" under their name to send them a nice letter (and remember to thank them).
Do I need to upgrade to Academia Premium to download a paper?
Upgrading to Academia Premium will not give you access to any documents you can not already download for free. All documents on Academia are 100% free to download in their entirety. If your download is incomplete, that means the version of the document we have is incomplete, and upgrading to Academia Premium will not unlock any different versions of the document other than the one you have downloaded.
Can I get the paper in another language?
Paper translations are an Academia Premium feature. You can learn more about how to translate a PDF if you're interested in this benefit.
How do I share or bookmark a paper on Academia?
Click the three dots button to see all of your sharing and saving options.
You'll see a variety of free options, including:
- Share paper: Opens a dialog for copying the link to your clipboard, sharing the paper with someone on Academia.edu, or posting the paper to your social media (e.g. Twitter/X and Facebook).
- Save to Drive: Saves the paper to your Google Drive.
- Bookmark: Save this paper to read in your Academia library later.
- Recommend: Endorse this paper for others to read on Academia.