Individual Subscription and Downloads
Is a subscription needed to use the SPIE Digital Library?
Anyone can search and browse the site, view abstracts, tables of contents, and author profiles, and access content labeled "Open Access."
Additionally, users with either an institutional subscription or an individual subscription (attained via SPIE membership and/or purchase of a downloads packet) can view full-text, download PDFs, watch recordings of Conference Presentations, view references, figures and tables, and access multimedia such as video content and supplemental data sets.
If you do not have an institutional or individual subscription, articles and eBooks may be purchased individually.
If you would like to encourage your institution to subscribe to the SPIE Digital Library, we suggest submitting our Recommendation Form to your institution's library (or similar information center).
What subscription options are available to individual users?
Full access to the SPIE Digital Library is available to institutional subscribers only.* Users who are not affiliated with a subscribing institution may establish individual subscriptions in two ways:
SPIE Membership
Upon joining SPIE or renewing your membership, you automatically receive ten download tokens that may be used for any Journal article or Proceedings paper, plus an online subscription to one of SPIE's Journals of your choice (including access to all articles, editorials, reviews, etc., in that Journal). Members may also subscribe to online access to additional Journals at a substantial discount.
Download Packages
Individuals may purchase a download package without a membership. Packages are available for either 50 or 25 download tokens, which are valid for one year and can be used to download PDFs of Proceedings papers and Journal articles.
*If you would like to encourage your institution to subscribe to the SPIE Digital Library, we suggest submitting our Recommendation Form to your institution's library (or similar information center).
How many downloads are currently available in my individual subscription?
Sign in to the SPIE Digital Library, click My Account, then click Subscriptions and Downloads in order to view your subscription information and a count of available tokens for downloads.
How can I track the articles I have downloaded?
Sign in to the SPIE Digital Library, click My Account, then click Subscriptions and Downloads. Links to your previously downloaded articles will display under Token Usage.
(Note: this information only displays for users who have downloaded articles by using the download tokens included in their individual subscription. If a user has purchased individual articles on a one-off basis, we do not yet have the ability to display the order history in My Account.)
My personal account includes a subscription and/or download tokens, but when I try to download a PDF, I receive a purchase or login prompt.
Please make sure you have signed in to the SPIE Digital Library rather than to the main SPIE website.
Next, confirm that you have an active subscription and/or available download tokens by clicking My Account at upper right, then Subscriptions & Downloads.
- If you see a subscription and/or download tokens, please check the listed expiration date. If the expiration date is in the future but you are unable to successfully download a PDF, please contact SPIE Digital Library Support.
- If you do not see an active subscription and/or download tokens, but you think you should, please contact SPIE Digital Library Support.
