For attorneys trying to access scientific journal articles related to the forensic evidence in their cases, purchasing these articles online can be cost-prohibitive at around $30 per article. If someone in your office has an affiliation with a university, such as an intern, paralegal, or assistant who is pursuing another degree, they may be able to access the articles you need through their university.
However, if you don’t have any affiliation with a university, a great way to access these scientific journal articles is by getting a Borrower’s Card from a library in the UNC system. For $25 per year, a North Carolina resident can get a Borrower’s Card which will allow access to databases of free full text academic articles while at the library. Unfortunately, the borrower can only access the articles from the library, but PDFs of the articles can be saved on a jump drive, emailed, or printed for later use.
More information about the Borrower’s Card is available here.
Another way to access journal articles is through the public library system. If you are a North Carolina resident and have a public library card, simply go to NCLive which offers access to a variety of academic journals, news articles, and scientific articles for at-home use (for free!). In many cases, the full-text document can be printed, emailed, or saved on your computer. There are various databases which can be searched. Attorneys may be interested in these databases: Academic Search Complete, ArticleFirst, Health Source: Nursing/Academic, Newspaper Source Plus and Science Reference Center. However, fewer articles are available through NCLive than through the UNC system.