From David:

As it stands, if a collection requires a log-in – corresponding to a registration (opt in), subscription or issue purchase, all articles appear with a big preview button (the one I'd like to get rid of – see feature request, "Get rid of the 'preview collection' button". All previews then provide a sample of the first part of the article, then an invitation to register to get the rest.

However, this also applies to articles in the collection that are individually published as ‘free', or freely viewable (no login required) with an opt-in at the end. It just doesn’t make sense to be able to read the entirety of the article if you access it from the articles section, regardless of being logged in, but then only be able to preview it if it's accessed from the parent collection – unless you're logged in.

If we agree that our main objective is to build our list of subscribers, or at least opted-in registrants, then the main purpose of making a complete article universally accessible is to provide a more compelling motivation than that of which an article snippet can provide.

This reason applies just the same, whether the article is accessed from the articles list, or from the TOC of its parent collection.

Actually, I can’t think of any situation in which you would want to make such a distinction.

Further, if we tell an author we are promoting their article by putting it on the ‘free list’ or tell an advertiser that we are giving them a special promotion by putting the article on which their ad appears on the ‘free list' (which, by the way we have done), and then they, discover – through trying to view it via the collections TOC (table of contents) – that this appears not to be the case, then we are in an embarrassing situation. At the very least, this is not in keeping with the integrity with which we’d like to operate. And trying to explain to them the complexities of what is currently an illogical distinction, is not going to cut it.

Can we get the FULL article (pre)viewable in the TOC preview, when it is set to be free, or opt-in accessable?

Thanks for the suggestion, David. I have passed this onto our team to review. If we decide to implement this, you will be the first to know! Keep the ideas coming 😊