Starting the Research Hunt
So I was sitting there, coffee getting cold, trying to find good papers by this William Catterall dude everybody in neuro keeps mentioning. Popped his name into Google Scholar first thing. Pfft. Big mistake. Half the results wanted my credit card just to look at abstracts. I’m thinking: “Yeah right, like I’m paying $45 to find out if I even want to read page one.” Clicked away so fast my mouse wheel smoked.
Hitting the Wall and Changing Tactics
Scratched my head, spilled some coffee on my notes (classic move), then remembered university libraries sometimes hook you up. Logged into my old alumni portal – felt like cracking a safe, those passwords are ancient history. Got in… and bam! Another wall. Library had subscriptions, but not to the specific journals hosting Catterall’s heavy hitter papers. Felt like running full speed into glass. Again.
Got stubborn then. Dug deeper into Google Scholar, actually clicked the “All Versions” link hiding under a result. Jackpot! Found some sketchy-looking Russian science forum where some legend uploaded the full PDF. Downloaded that file faster than my cat hears a can opener. Scanned it quick – legit article, proper citations, the whole deal. Felt like winning the lottery without buying a ticket.
The Actual Goldmine Discovery
But I wanted the good stuff without cloak-and-dagger downloads. Back to digging. Found two magic words people whispered about online: PubMed Central. Searched Catterall’s name there. Ding ding ding! Free. Government-funded. Actual PDFs hosted right there. No hunting through forum back-alleys.
Took it step further. Some university labs throw papers up on their own websites. Typed “William Catterall University Lab” into DuckDuckGo. Found his department’s research group page. Buried under “Publications” were direct links – lab-hosted copies, totally free. Why didn’t I start here?!
Quick summary for finding free resources:
- Forget regular Google searches first pass – go straight to PubMed Central.
- Always click “All Versions” on Google Scholar – ghosts in the machine upload stuff.
- Dig into the researcher’s university department website – labs often post their own copies.
- Library access is hit-or-miss… mostly miss for niche papers.
Wasted a whole morning basically. Lesson learned: the free stuff is hiding in plain sight, you just gotta know the actual spots to kick the tires. No shortcuts. Feels good to have the papers now though – got them open right here.