If a project, publication or journal will not open for you, you have most likely used up your free viewing allowance for that type of content. It is not a fault with the page, and an active membership removes the limit entirely.
There is no single free view number
Free viewing allowances are the same for everyone. Signed in without a membership you get 1 project a month, 5 publications a month and 10 journals a day. Signed out, projects need an account, and you get 3 publications a month and 1 journal a day. An active membership removes all of it. (UNI ran experiments on these numbers during 2026 and ended them on 2026-08-21.)
How to see your own number
While you still have views left, the page tells you. A small counter sits above the content reading something like "2 of 3 free views left this month", with an Upgrade link beside it. When that counter disappears, the allowance for that type of content is spent.
Once it is spent, the content is replaced by a panel headed Your free access has expired this month, with a View Membership Plans button.
How the allowance works
- Projects, publications and journals each have their own separate allowance. Projects are usually the tightest, which is why a locked page is most often a project.
- Signed in without a membership, projects and publications are counted per calendar month and journals per day. Signed out, projects and journals are counted per day and publications per calendar month.
- Only distinct items count. Reopening the same project does not use another view.
- Your own publications and journals never count and never lock.
- A project you are on the team of never counts, whether or not you started it. Projects have no separate author, so being on the team is what marks a project as yours. An invitation you have not accepted yet does not count.
- Entries in a competition that has made its entries public can be opened freely from that competition page, whatever your allowance.
- An active membership removes all of this. Members open everything, with no allowance and no counting.
On a locked project the page still opens. It is the gallery and the media that are held back, so the title, the description, the ratings and the comments are all still there.
If you are not signed in
Signed out visitors have their own separate allowances, and for projects the allowance can be zero. Signing in is often enough to open the piece you are looking at, so try that before considering a membership.
If your allowance is spent
The page stays locked for the rest of the counting period, which is the calendar month or the day depending on the content type, and then resets. If you would rather not wait, a membership removes the allowance on all three. See the membership plans.
If you are a member and something is still locked
That is not expected. Open a conversation with the UNI team and include a link to the page that will not open.