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Reseach Guides > General > Finding the Full Text of Articles
Finding the Full Text of ArticlesPlease rate this guide. See the bottom of this page. Subject Librarian: Janet Olsen Location: Gelman Library E-mail: jolsen@gwu.edu Phone: 202-994-1358 Updated: April 2006 Need Help? Click Contents of this PageThis guide will help you find the full text of your article once you have the citation information. The URL for this page is http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/guides/general/fulltext.html What is a CitationWhen you are searching for journal articles, databases give you the title of the article, the author of the article, the date the article was written, the journal title the article is in, and the issue the article is in. All of this information is known as the citation. This information is important, not only when you are citing the article in your papers but also when you are looking for the full text of the article. Make sure that you write this information down when you find an article that you like. Finding the Article OnlinePeople often think you can get the full text of journal articles on the Web by using a search engine such as Google. This is very unlikely, since full-text articles usually have to be paid for. The library pays for many databases that contain the full text of articles. The next few steps will help you find the full text of your articles online. Full Text in the DatabaseSome databases contain the full text of articles. In these cases you will see a link similar to the following:
In this case all you need to do is click on the link to the full text and the link will bring you directly to the article. Some good full text databases are Academic Search Premier and ProQuest Research Library Plus. Keep in mind, however, that these databases are multi-disciplinary and therefore don’t go in-depth into a particular topic like some of the other databases do. Databases with the Find It ButtonSome databases have links within them that allow you to
find the full text of the article. These databases contain either a
When using one of these databases, click on the appropriate button, and a new window will open up that looks similar to this.
From here you can see which databases contain the article full text online. In the example above you can see that Academic Search Premier, ProQuest Research Library Plus, and Lexis Nexis have the full text available. When the system does not find the article full text online, only the line “Search for holdings in WRLC Libraries
Catalog” appears in the window. In this case click the
The Electronic Journal Title FinderThe e-Journal Title Finder will search through databases to see which database has a copy of the journal you are looking for full-text on-line. It can be found by going to: http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/ejournals/searchform.html In the box provided type in the title of the journal you are looking for. Remember to eliminate any “a”, “an” or “the” from the beginning of the title. Once you have entered the name click the search button. A screen that looks similar to the following will appear.
The title of your journal should appear in the list. Below that you will find a listing of schools that have access to the journal full-text. Make sure to check the GW entry. Since GW is part of a consortium of schools you may see that another school has the journal full text online, but we do not. Unfortunately, you do not have access to other school's online databases. Next to the GW you will see a list of databases that you have access to that also have your journal full-text online. Make sure the database covers the date of your citation. For instance, if the article you are looking for is from 1990, it will not be in Academic Search Premier, since, as you can see from the dates, that journal is only available in that database from 1999 to the present. Finding the Article in PrintGetting the Article From Gelman LibraryIf you can’t find the article online then you will need to find the paper version of the journal. To do this go to the WRLC Libraries Catalog which can be found at http://catalog.wrlc.org/. Below you will see a picture of the catalog.
In the box provided type the title of the journal and then select journal title from the “Search By” box on the right hand side of the screen. When you are done click search at the bottom.
The next screen will be a results listing, similar to the one above. This shows you all the different universities that have a copy of the journal you are looking for. Find GW in the Library column and then click on the journal name to open the full record. At the bottom of the next screen you will see the "holdings", the issues of the journal the library has.
Make sure that GW has the correct date issue of the journal you are looking for. Look in the "Recent issues" and under the heading "Library has". Check the location line to determine where in the library the journal is located. Getting the Article from Another UniversityIf GW does not have the journal you are looking for but another university in the consortium does, you may use the Request button located in the blue tool bar at the top of the screen to get a copy of the article.
For more information see the Consortium Loan Website at http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/service/circulation/cls/index.html If none of the libraries in the consortium have the journal you are looking for, then you can use Interlibrary Loan to gain a copy of the article. For more details you can go to the Interlibrary Loan Website at http://www.gwu.edu/gelman/service/interlibrary/index.html For more information, call the Reference Desk at 202-994-6048 or use the E-mail Reference Form. This page is maintained by Janet Olsen.
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button or a link that looks like this 
.
Below is a list of databases that contain these links.
next to
the line and you will be taken directly to the catalog. Once in the catalog
you will be able to see which libraries have a paper subscription to the journal
you are looking for.
