“Seamless access”

Mike D’Emic’s new paper The evolution of maximum terrestrial body mass in sauropod dinosaurs is out! Yay! Relevant to our interests! Obviously I want to read this paper, so I simply …

1. Go to the paper’s page at Current Biology.
2. It’s paywalled.
3. There is a “Log in” option at top right, but it’s only for an account specific to … what? This journal? This publisher?
4. Find another copy at Science Direct.
5. Click “Access through your Institution”
6. Type “bristol”
7. Select University of Bristol from among the 20 options.

(I over -simplified. There is no “University of Bristol” in the 20-entry dropdown. But there is “”University of Bristol (University of Bristol School of Sociology Politics and International Studies)” so I shrug and choose that. Other options presented at this point include:

• Simmonds and Bristow Pty Ltd
• Morristown-Beard School
• 聖隷クリストファー大学 (Seirei Christopher College)
• San Cristobal of Huamanga University
• Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης

The options are not sorted.)

8. New page loads.
9. Click the “Access through University of Bristol (…” button.
10. The University of Bristol’s SSO (Single Sign-On) page loads.
11. Enter username, which rather counterintuitively is [email protected] but fine.
12. Enter my password
13. I am asked to enter 2FA code from authenticator app
14. Find my phone
15. Start the authenticator app
16. “Google Authenticator is upgrading”
17. There is no “skip” option, so click “Get started”.
18. Click “Continue as Mike”
19. Find the correct entry on the authenticator app. For some reason its name begins “Microsoft” instead of “Bristol”.
20. The code is three digits, a space, and three more digits. Type this into the original page. Last digit will not enter.
21. Delete the space and type all six digit contiguously.
22. Note that the code has changed while I was doing this.
23. Type in the new six-digit code, omitting the space.
24. “Your session has timed out. Please close your browser and sign in again.”
25. Reload page.
26. “Sorry, but we’re having trouble with signing you in.”
27. Back button
28. Forward button
29. This gets me a new “enter the code” prompt
30. Start typing in the new new six-digit number.
31. It changes as I am in the process of typing it.
32. Phone detects lack of activity and turns itself off.
33. Turn phone back on.
34. Copy new new new new six-digit number, omitting the space
35. Click “Verify”
36. Success! I now see a new page asking me “Stay signed in? Do this to reduce the number of times you are asked to sign in.”
37. Click the “Don’t show this again” checkbox, even though experience shows that doing this makes no useful difference.
38. Click the “Yes” button
39. Arrive back at the article.
40. Click “View PDF”
41. See the PDF in a little window under control of Elsevier’s lame and gratuitous PDF-viewing app.
42. Click the tiny download button (“”) at top right.
43. Close the browser.
44. I now have a file on my computer with the less than informative name “1-s2.0-S0960982223002403-main.pdf”
45. Rename file to “DEmic2023-evolution-of-mass-in-sauropods.pdf”
46. Open file in PDF viewer.
47. Read article. (It turns out to be only two pages long, but that’s fine.)

And now, THE PUNCHLINE …

On the publisher’s website, this process is branded “Seamless access”.