If you're not affiliated with a university or don't have access to its proxy, getting full-text versions of articles is either expensive or impossible. DeepDyve is an innovative service targeted at individuals and companies alike, which makes the game much more affordable by letting you rent articles from thousands of journals.

DeepDyve lets you browse many major journals and spend up to five minutes a day on an article.

An abstract is not enough to judge an entire paper. A free account with DeepDyve gets you free access to full-text articles for five minutes a day. If you deem an article interesting, you can pay $20 for five 30-day rentals, or $40/month for 40 monthly rentals (or by DeepDyve's odd definition, "virtually unlimited").

DeepDyve's interface is friendly and easy to use, and a browser plugin for Google Scholar tells you which articles in the results list are available for rent. Your DeepDyve personal homepage is an RSS reader of sorts, and can be used to follow your favorite journals . Even if you are affiliated with a university, DeepDyve is a great way to preview full-text articles when you don't have access to the proxy.

Note: The Download button takes you to to the vendor's website.