One of the pieces of advice we tell each other a lot in para-academic spaces online is 'ask the author and they will send you a pdf of their journal article'. This idea has been popularised in tweets that I see recirculated maybe as often as every month. And of course there's the ongoing critique of the for-profit academic publishing industry. So, I thought it might helpful to share some advice to help people successfully make these kinds of requests. I have heard from some academics that when they receive email requests from strangers, they feel unsure how to respond. For example, this is an email a colleague in the UK (not me!) recently received: HI: I am kindly requesting from you a paper copy of your publication: ['Title...'] best regards [Name, personal postal address] The first misstep here is the informal opening - you should always use 'Dear Professor Surname' or 'Dear Dr Surname'. The professor who got this email thought it was particularly