I am planning to deprecate support for the CORE Recommender in a future version of Open Access Helper.
A word on CORE
Before I get to the why, I want to say: CORE is doing important work. core.ac.uk aggregates millions of open access research papers and makes them freely available. Their infrastructure supports researchers, repositories, and institutions around the world. I have a lot of respect for what the team has built.
The CORE Recommender is a great feature — but it was built for repositories, and that is where it truly shines. Embedded in a repository, it helps readers discover related content right where they are. In a browser extension like Open Access Helper, the context is different, and that difference matters.
Why I am removing it
Honestly: it did not see enough uptake. Too few users enabled it, and those who did rarely engaged with it in a meaningful way. A feature that does not create value for users is a feature I should not spend time maintaining.
I am sorry it did not work out. I had hoped it would be a useful addition. The most difficult decision a small developer has to make is to let go of features, so this decision did not come easy.
Thank you, CORE
Thank you to the CORE team for their work, for making the recommender available via API, and for everything they do for open access. Please do check out core.ac.uk — it is a valuable resource.
I will announce the exact timeline in the release notes, but it will likely be with the next release of Open Access Helper.