All students, staff, and faculty must authenticate using WSU credentials to access online resources when not located on a WSU Campus or Extension Site. Users will only need to authenticate to OpenAthens once per session. An OpenAthens session stays active for up to 8 hours, unless you clear your browser cache and cookies. The authentication process will differ based on whether resources are accessed via library websites or directly from a content provider website. OpenAthens is integrated with the WSU single sign-on provider Okta. Many users who have already logged into a central service (such as Workday, Canvas, or WSU email) in a browser will already be authenticated and able to access WSU Libraries licensed subscriptions without an additional login.

Some vendors may request you create a vendor-specific account (or connect an existing account) when you log in via OpenAthens. This is normal, some vendors do this to avoid data loss if you have already created an account with them. 

Examples include:  

• ScienceDirect 

• O’Reilly 

As with the legacy system, links specifically generated for WSU can link to resources directly and prompt authentication if needed. Permalinks can be pulled from the Database A-Z list using the share option (which currently defaults to the legacy system, but will be updated as resources are migrated); they can also be extracted from the permalink option in many databases or generated using the tool below.