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How to Find the Full Text of Articles

Why isn't the full text here?

The library subscribes to many online databases, electronic journals, and print magazines/journals. These subscriptions comes from different publishers and providers, so they can have different access to different titles. In one database you might only find an abstract for an article, but how are you supposed to know that we have a print copy on the shelves?

It can be very confusing! But, there are some simple steps to follow to check to see if we have full text, and if nothing else, simply ask your friendly neighborhood librarian!

Finding Full Text Video Tutorial

Below is a video intended to help you access the full text of an article through either the library's Discovery Service or through Interlibrary Loan:

Follow These Steps

1. If the database only has the abstract or a citation of an article, your first stop should be Discovery. This database can let you know whether we have electronic access through another source or even a print subscription. Some of our databases, have a link that will launch a search for the article in Discovery. Your search can either be by article title or by journal name.

Link to Search Discovery in a database

*If you are searching online (like with Google or Google Scholar), you will want to find the article title on the webpage, and search for it in Discovery. Never pay money to access the full text of an article through the publisher's website.

 

2. If we have the full text in Discovery, you will see the article record with a link to the full text of the article.

Example of a full text article in Discovery

 

3. If we do not have the full text of an article, a search in Discovery might result in a yellow box. Don't despair. Click on the "library's worldwide" link to start an Interlibrary Loan request.

Image of Yellow alert box in Discovery