Open Athens

OpenAthens allows you to login to electronic resources using your UniSA credentials anywhere on the internet by using an OpenAthens sign-in. This means you can use your UniSA credentials on a journal’s website if you find an article during a Google search and save doing separate searches through the Library’s catalogue. To do this you will need to locate the OpenAthens sign-in area on the publisher’s website. Every vendor site is unique, but the Sign In or Login option often appears in the top right corner of the screen.

We are also rolling out OpenAthens to the Library catalogue. This means when you try to access an electronic resource that supports the new OpenAthens platform you may see a different screen asking for your credentials:

Simply choose “University of South Australia (OpenAthens)” if prompted and login with your UniSA credentials.

In many cases you may find the process even faster than usual if you have an active UniSA sign-on elsewhere in your browser due to the new single sign-on technology OpenAthens uses. To illustrate the process for logging into resources via the internet we have outlined the following examples.

Example 1: ScienceDirect.com

Here we will demonstrate what you need to do to get to the OpenAthens sign in prompt on the Elsevier ScienceDirect website (https://www.sciencedirect.com/). Choose "Sign in" from the top of the page:

ScienceDirect | Welcome screen
On the Elsevier welcome screen choose the sign in link:

ScienceDirect | Find your institution
You will then be then presented with the "Find your institution" screen.

1. Enter University of South Australia and,
2. Select “University of South Australia (OpenAthens)” from the list:

ScienceDirect | Sign in via institution
Click "Sign in via your institution":

ScienceDirect | Signed in
You will then be authenticated and signed in to ScienceDirect. You can now access all UniSA content:

Example 2: Informit

From the Informit website (https://search.informit.org/), select login at the top right of the page (1) or the Login link within a record (2):

Informit | choose home institute
From the dropdown list choose "University of South Australia" and click "Select":

OpenAthens | Sign in
If prompted click "University of South Australia":

Informit | Authenticated session
Once authenticated, you will have access to all UniSA subscribed content: