What are tokens? Tokens are metered counts for every time you read or download an article or chapter from an American Chemical Society journal that is not a Gustavus subscription.
How do token expenditures work?
- Every time you read or download an ACS article or chapter that is not included in our Gustavus subscription, we expend a token. ACS charges us a fee for each token used, on top of our subscription fee for unlimited access to our "Core" titles. Example: If a metered access article is downloaded or viewed 10 times, we will expend 10 tokens.
- Content accessed using a token can be accessed across different users for one hour; after the one hour, another token will be expended.
- ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication expends tokens by the sub-chapter.
- E-books consume tokens by the chapter.
- Tokens cannot access ACS In Focus.
How can you tell if you're expending a token?
- In the results list in the ACS search interface, the article will be marked "Token Access."
- You will be prompted to accept an affirmation screen before you expend a token; this will give you a chance to confirm that you do indeed want to expend the token, and it will help us identify trends in usage and better manage our token expenditures.
How can you limit token expenditures and help us steward College resources wisely?
- Read the abstract first: Read the abstract to make sure the article is what you need before viewing or downloading the full text.
- Download an article only once: If you plan to refer to an article multiple times, download it to your personal storage space; do *not* reopen the article it multiple times within ACS.
- Practice search skills, but don't expend tokens while you're practicing: When practicing or demonstrating search skills in the ACS journals search interface or in SciFinder, limit your searches to journals in our "Core" title subscriptions (these provide unlimited access to current content).
Questions? Contact e-resources@gustavus.edu.
