• If you ever find an interesting academic paper in Google Scholar's search results:
  

• ...and when you click on the result, the page says that you need a subscription:
  

• ... go back and click on "All n versions", below the search snippet (where in this example n=6), to find other versions of the paper from Google Scholar.
  
  If you're lucky, you'll find the paper in the HTML, PDF or PostScript format.
  

Tip:to find a link to the full version of an academic paper in Google Scholar, look for the green arrow Tip: .