BIOL 163: Introduction to Biol Diversity and Ecology: Using Citations to Find Full Text

1)  If the article's citation ends with a URL or a DOI number, copy and paste it into the address bar of a web browser (like Google).  If you are on campus, this should bring you to a page about the article, and if we have full text access to the article through our subscriptions, you should see an option to download the full text PDF somewhere on the page.

**  Note ** This will NOT work if you are off-campus.  The full-text subscription access is verified through our on-campus IP address.  If you are off-campus, you are no longer using Holy Cross's IP address, and therefore the journal doesn't recognize that you have paid access.  You Holy Cross username and password will not work if you try to login to a journal from its webpage.  If you are off-campus, please go directly to step 2.

• If the full text is available, you will see a link that says, "PDF Full Text" or "Linked Full Text" - click this link to get the full text of the article.

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• If you see a purple "Check For Full Text" icon, this means that the article is not available in CrossSearch, but it may be available in another database.  Click this button.  

• The "Check For Full Text" button might send you directly into a new database where you will see the full text of the article.  You might also see a page that gives you a list of options:  
• Under "Full Text Options" click a link.  This link will bring you into a new database where you can access the full text of the article.

3)  If CrossSearch does not find the article, check the Electronic Journals  (EJournals) List by searching for the Journal name (not the article name) in the "Find" box.

4) If you cannot find the article in CrossSearch or the EJournals list, check the Library Catalog by searching in the TITLE field for the JOURNAL NAME (not the article name) to determine if the journal is available in print in the libraries:

5) If you are unable to find the article using these steps, ask a librarian for help!  You may need to request the article through interlibrary loan.

Request materials that we do not own in the Holy Cross Libraries' collections.  These materials will be lent from other libraries.  

Note:  Electronic articles or scanned book chapters usually take 1-2 business days or longer.  Print materials need to be shipped through the postal mail, and generally take 5-10 business days or longer.  

** Login to the ILLiad Interlibrary Loan System using your campus email account.  If this is the first time you're using the system, you will need to set up an account. **

How to read a journal article citation in APA format:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

In newer citations, you will often see a doi, or "digital object identifier."  This alpha-numeric string provides a persistent link to online resources - this ensures that if a database stops carrying a particular journal, a researcher will still be able to easily find the original article online. 

Examples of doi numbers:

doi:10.1037/arc0000014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014

https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014

Example of a citation with a DOI number:

Morey, C. C., Cong, Y., Zheng, Y., Price, M., & Morey, R. D. (2015). The color-sharing bonus: Roles of perceptual organization and attentive processes in visual working memory. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 3, 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/arc0000014

You can try to click or copy and paste a doi number in a citation to access the full text of an article.  Be aware that you might be brought to a journal's article archive, which will require a login with subscripition access.  Use the "Steps to Finding Full Text" to access articles in the Holy Cross Libraries' collections.

More information about DOI numbers:  https://www.doi.org/index.html

Often in citations, you will see journal titles abbreviated.  This can make it diffcult to determine what journal the article was published in.  Often you can type the abbreviation into Google to find the full title of the journal.  If that does not work, use the following tools to decipher the full title of the journal:

University of Illinois Undergraduate Library.  "How to Read a Scholarly Article."  YouTube, uploaded by University of Illinois Undergraduate Library, 6 Aug 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZS1Beio11M

Western University Libraries.  "How to Read a Scholarly Article."  YouTube, uploaded by Western University, 26 Apr 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SmOq6gENPM