Overview
Get Full Text Research (GetFTR) is a pioneering service that enables streamlined access to scholarly content by integrating real-time entitlement checks into academic research tools. When full-text access is available, either through institutional subscriptions or Open Access, research tools that integrate can clearly signal availability and direct researchers to the authoritative version on the publisher’s platform. Examples of GetFTR in action can be seen on platforms like Semantic Scholar and Mendeley.
Launched in 2020 by five major academic publishers, American Chemical Society, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley, GetFTR quickly established itself as a vital piece of research infrastructure. To scale the service and address broader challenges like research integrity, GetFTR brought in Zenitech as its strategic development partner.
Driving research integrity
Zenitech played a key role in helping GetFTR elevate its mission of preserving scholarly integrity. One major enhancement involved integrating real-time retraction and update notifications into the service.
This critical functionality ensures researchers are immediately informed when a paper has been updated or retracted, helping them avoid citing outdated or invalidated findings. In an era where the credibility of research is under growing scrutiny, this feature safeguards accuracy and transparency.
Enhancing access with the GetFTR browser extension
To further scale the service, GetFTR identified a need to extend its reach beyond research tools that have a direct integration with GetFTR. Zenitech developed Browser Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
These extensions bring GetFTR functionality to any website where scholarly articles appear, displaying full-text access indicators, Open Access flags, retractions and updates, and reuse rights. They also enable content saving to popular reference managers, streamlining the researcher workflow.
This required technical flexibility:
- On sites like Claude, Zenitech matches using Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
- On platforms like Google Scholar, Zenitech implemented metadata matching techniques due to DOI not being displayed
Feedback from publishers, research tools, librarians and researchers on the GetFTR browser extension has been positive:
“This is so cool! I just pulled up Google Scholar to test this out, and I love that it mentions if it’s open access or subscription!!!”
Seamless collaboration & agile development
Zenitech collaborates closely with GetFTR’s Product Director and publisher stakeholders, using an agile, test-and-learn approach. The team regularly proposes improvements to optimise performance, reduce infrastructure costs, and enhance value to end-users.
Examples include:
- Refactoring reporting systems for clarity and efficiency
- Creating “drop-in” buttons to speed up research tool integrations
- Identifying ways to reduce latency across API calls
GetFTR is powered by AWS and designed as a serverless architecture, ensuring cost-effective scalability. Zenitech’s engineering team quickly adapted to the serverless model, delivering high-performance enhancements while upskilling on new technologies.
Measurable impact
Today, GetFTR is integrated with over 70 leading platforms, delivering:
- 8+ billion entitlement checks
- 2.4 billion full-text links to the version-of-record content
- Expanded coverage to all Open Access content
With Zenitech’s support, this scale demonstrates GetFTR’s ability to remove access barriers, increase usage of legitimate publisher content, and boost researcher trust across disciplines.
Looking ahead
Building on the successful Browser Extension launch and continuous API improvements, Zenitech is supporting GetFTR in exploring new features and services, including:
- Librarian tools to provide aggregated subscription data, usage, and other key information
- Tools for publishers and integrators to benchmark performance
Conclusion
Zenitech’s partnership with GetFTR showcases how the right technical partner can accelerate innovation, expand feature sets to meet emerging demands, and scale services in a complex, mission-critical ecosystem. Together, Zenitech and GetFTR are reshaping how researchers access and trust scholarly content.