Tips for Retrieving Articles
Steps to Finding and Acquiring Full Text Articles from the SIU Medical Library
1. If the journal article you are looking for is from a PubMed search, try the links provided with the PubMed results. (You must use the PubMed @SIUMED link from the Library’s home page for this information to appear.)
Have your Display set to Abstract or click on the Authors’ names. You will see a link like this:
- Click on “SIU-SM Online” to go to the full text site.
- If there is no link for “SIU-SM Online” try the other links shown.
- If these do not work, click on the Links button to the right and choose “Linkout”.
- Linkout” will show other possible sites to access the full text. Try each one.
2. If the links above do not work or your article is not from PubMed, check for the journal title at the E-Journals link on the Library's home page, http://www.siumed.edu/lib/ under the Journals button.
If the journal is listed here, click on the link. It will take you to the appropriate site.
- Some journals may require a user name and password. To obtain this information you will need to call Reference in Springfield at 217-545-2113, or in Carbondale call the MRC at 618-453-1516 or IRC at 618-453-1514. NOTE: We do not send user names and passwords through email.
- Some journals may be available in full text through MD Consult.
3. If the journal is not on the E-Journals list, check the Current Journals List found on the drop down Journals menu on the Library’s web site.
- The Library only subscribes to the full text of journals found on the E-Journals List.
- If the journal title is linked, click on the link. It will go to the journal publisher’s web site. At this site you may find access to full text, you may find only access to abstracts, you may find only the table of contents, or you may find that they want to charge a fee for access to the full text. If the full text is available here it is just by chance.
If the above steps do not work try the following:
4. Check the EbscoHost database from the Quick Links menu on the left side of the Library home page. Choose Academic Search Premier or Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition databases for their lists of full text journal titles.
5. Search Google. First try an author search. Sometimes the author’s articles are listed and are accessible. Or try to search for the journal title. You may find a link that gets you to the full text. You may have to try several different searches and/or sites.
6. PubMed Central is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. Many journal publishers have chosen to join PubMedCentral and have added long runs of their journals to the site. Additional publishers can join at any time. All full text articles are free.
7. If you cannot find access to the full text, search the Library Catalog to see if the library owns the paper copy of the journal volume/issue you need.
8. If you are doing an off campus rotation or if the Library does not own the journal, volume or issue you need, submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request. You can do this by clicking on the Library Forms tab on the Library's home page or go directly to http://www.siumed.edu/lib/forms/loanarticle.html and complete the request form.
*Please make a note in the comment field if you are off campus and need the article emailed to you.*
Questions? Call Reference Staff at 217-545-2113 |
