SeamlessAccess: Effortless, secure access to scholarly resources

The SeamlessAccess service eliminates access barriers while maintaining privacy and security. It leverages and simplifies federated authentication, making it easier for researchers worldwide to access content and resources using credentials from their home institution.

Minimize burden
SeamlessAccess lets researchers easily access content and resources by using their institute’s login. For institutions and service providers, SeamlessAccess offers a great access experience with minimal implementation and maintenance effort.
Works from anywhere
SeamlessAccess provides access regardless of the researcher’s starting point, physical location, and preferred device. No need to be on-campus or use a VPN.
Privacy-Preserving
Built with user privacy at its core, SeamlessAccess only stores information about the institute that the user selects when they log in. No other data is collected. For more information, see “Privacy and Trust”.
Global Reach
Works across research and education federations and is integrated into leading publishers, discovery services, and institutional platforms.

SeamlessAccess is a proven solution that works for all universities and libraries that are part of a Research & Education identity federation, and has been integrated by dozens of academic publishers and other service providers.

Service Components and Integration Options

The SeamlessAccess service consists of three elements:

The SeamlessAccess button, which can be integrated into websites to provide users with a visually familiar and trusted access prompt;

A best-in-class Identity Providers (IdPs) discovery service, which lets users easily find their institute from a (very) large list of options;

A “persistence service” that can be integrated in the back-end to communicate the user’s remembered choice of institute across participating websites.

To accommodate the needs of a wide range of service providers, SeamlessAccess supports different integration options:

Limited Integration:
Uses the SeamlessAccess discovery service, but not the SeamlessAccess button or persistence service.
Standard Integration:
Displays the SeamlessAccess button (using the persistence service to populate the button with the user’s remembered choice of institute) and uses the SeamlessAccess discovery service.
Advanced Integration:
Provides the Service Provider with access to SeamlessAccess’ persistence service, allowing for greater control over the user experience.

For more information about these options, please review our technical documentation. opens a new window

How SeamlessAccess Works

FIRST TIME USER JOURNEY

1.

Starts their journey on a discovery resource or publisher website, sees the SeamlessAccess button with the familiar call-out “’Access via my institution’” (but without the name of their institution)

2.

Clicks the button and selects their institute. (their choice is remembered)

3.

Logs in at their institute. They can now now access the resource that they were looking for, no need to login again

SUBSEQUENT JOURNEYS

1.

User sees the SeamlessAccess button with the name of their institution pre-filled the button (e.g. “Access via University of Amsterdam”)

2.

User clicks button. If they are still authenticated at their institution, they gain direct access to the resource they were looking for. If they are not authenticated, they have to log in at their institute first

No repeated logins, no confusing redirects—just seamless access to the resources they need.

Built for the Academic Community

SeamlessAccess works for all universities and research institutes that support federated authentication and that are a member of an identity federation included in eduGain.

SeamlessAccess is supported by leading academic publishers and a rapidly growing number of research infrastructures.

Service Operations

SeamlessAccess is hosted by SUNET with funding by GÉANT. It is monitored 24×7 and has several layers of redundancy to optimize availability. A detailed diagram of the technical architecture is available on the GÉANT wiki opens a new window.

To check on the status of the SeamlessAccess central services, or to sign up for scheduled service announcements, please see our status pages opens a new window.