EBSCOhost Passport ™

EBSCOhost Passport ™ is a browser extension designed to streamline access to full-text scholarly articles while you browse the web. Instead of manually checking your institution's library website to see if you have access to a particular article, this extension automatically verifies availability by scanning pages for Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). When you first install it, you select your institution or library from a searchable list. Once configured, the extension places a small "E" icon on pages where it detects a DOI-either directly on the page or in a sidebar on the right-indicating that the article is accessible through your institution's subscriptions or is freely available as Open Access. Clicking the icon may prompt you to log in with your institutional credentials, after which you are redirected to the full text. This eliminates the need to copy DOIs, open separate tabs, or navigate away from your current research context.

Key Features

• Automatic DOI Detection: The extension scans web pages for DOIs-unique identifiers for scholarly articles-and checks them against your institution's holdings. This works on any website you visit, including publisher sites, preprint servers, and research databases.
• In-Context Access Indicators: When an article is available, a green "E" icon appears either inline on the page (near the DOI) or in a fixed panel on the right-hand side. This visual cue lets you know at a glance whether you can access the full text without leaving the current page.
• Institutional Login Integration: If you click an available link and your institution requires authentication, you will be prompted to log in via your institution's standard login page. After successful login, you are taken directly to the full-text article.
• Zero Configuration for Institutions: Your library does not need to perform any special setup or integration. The extension works by querying EBSCO's knowledge base, which is already configured for thousands of institutions worldwide.
• Open Access Recognition: In addition to subscription-based access, the extension identifies articles that are freely available as Open Access, so you can access them even if your institution does not have a subscription.
• Privacy and Permissions: The extension requires "Read" and "Change" permissions on web pages. Read permission is used solely to scan the page for DOIs. Change permission is used only to add the access icons and links; no other modifications are made. No personal user information or browsing history is collected or transmitted. EBSCO does not share any data with third parties, and no additional trackers are added to pages.

In practice, EBSCOhost Passport is most useful for researchers, students, and faculty who frequently encounter paywalled articles while browsing the web. Instead of manually checking each article's availability through your library portal, the extension does the work for you in real time. Whether you are reading a blog post that references a study, browsing PubMed, or visiting a journal's homepage, the extension will surface access options without disrupting your workflow. It also helps you discover Open Access versions of articles that might otherwise be hidden behind paywalls.