The expansion of technology has allowed more and more periodicals to become available electronically. This allows for their inclusion in databases and electronic indexes. Electronic versions of periodicals are available 24/7. For this reason, many libraries are reducing their print (paper) collections in favor of the electronic versions. Not only does this allow for a greater access to the material, but it also frees up space on the library shelves for other items.
The University of Cincinnati has a large collection of journals and periodicals available as full-text. Full-text means that the entire contents of an article are available electronically. Other components of a journal/periodical, such as advertisements or graphics, may or may not be included in the full-text versions.
Accessing full-text items Full-text electronic articles may be accessible through many databases and electronic indexes. Usually these databases will indicate if they contain full-text items or just abstracts. If the full-text item is available, a link will be available to get the full-text, usually as a PDF, sometimes as an HTML document.
Use the help function in the database or index to direct you to identifying and acquiring full-text items or you may ask the library staff for assistance.
If an item is not available full-text in the electronic resource, it may still be available full-text through other library resources. If a ‘get a copy’, ‘find a copy’, ‘search for a copy’, or similar link is available, the item’s source information (the journal in which it was published) is searched in the library’s catalog. If full-text is available for the source (journal), then a ‘Connect to’ link will be available in the catalog record.
Note: You will need to know the year, volume, issue, and/or page numbers for the desired article. Some items are only electronically available for certain years.
What if the reference did not come from an electronic source? If you have a citation for an article and do not know if it is available full-text, you can look for the source (journal) via several different methods.
Search the catalog (http://uclid.uc.edu/search) for the name of the journal. A ‘Connect to’ link will indicate that at least some articles in the journal are available.
Using Electronic Journal Finder (http://aj2vr6xy7z.search.serialssolutions.com/) The Electronic Journal Finder is designed to provide an alphabetical listing of the full-text journals available to the University of Cincinnati, including Clermont College. (Full-text journals may also be searched via the ISSN number if you know it.)
The Electronic Journal Finder may be accessed using the link above, or by going to the ‘Articles and Databases’ link from the library website (http://www.ucclermont.edu/library/), and clicking on the ‘Full Text Journals’ link under Find Journals.
The screen that first appears has four sections:
The first section ‘Search by title or ISSN’ has a drop down box to select the title or ISSN search selection, a fill-in box for what you want to search, and a search button.
The second section ‘Browse by title’ has a link for each letter of the alphabet and a link for 0-9. A click on any of these links will allow you to browse the titles of journals beginning with that letter or number.
The third section ‘Browse by subject’ contains a drop down box of different subject categories and a search button.
The fourth section ‘Search a database’ has a listing, with links, of many of the databases available.
When using the first section, pay attention to the different title search options and be aware that this option is particular about the title. For example, a search of “Journal of American Society” produced 0 results whereas a search of “Journal of the American Society” produced 5 results.
The Journal of the American Society of Information Science is a good example of another potential challenge: title changes. In this case the title of the journal was changed to Journal of the American Society of Information Science and Technology around 2001. Since these listings are next to each other and the change was minor, it is easy to see. However, more dramatic name changes, or ones that result in the items being separated in a list might not be so obvious. It is also easy to confuse similarly named items. Example: Editorial Research Reports (not available full text) changed circa 1986 to CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Researcher (available online through the catalog, but not listed in the serial solution). CQ Researcher may be confused with CQ Weekly (listed in serial solution), but they are different journals.
If you are not finding the item you want, trying browsing the titles, and/or using a keyword search in the catalog. As indicated above, some items are available online, but not through the full text serials solution. If you still have trouble locating the item, the library staff are more than happy to assist you.
If an item is not available full text or online, remember that you can always use InterLibrary Loan (a.k.a. ILL) to request an article. (If the article is available from Langsam Library, contact Clermont Library for assistance.)
Notes on Browsing by title When you browse by title, the screen that appears will only contain a section of the list for the letter selected. At the top and bottom of the list is a horizontal list of groupings within the letter range. The start and stop of each grouping is indicated by the first three letters. (e.g. Cou – Cre) Not all the groupings will fit in the display width. Hitting next goes to the next grouping relative to the one you are viewing. (e.g. When viewing Cou – Cre, next will display Cre-Cri) To see groupings not on display, click on the last displayed grouping. The new display will include groupings after the current view. Similarly for groupings previous to the grouping list being displayed, click on the first displayed grouping.
Some groupings are less helpful than others due to the three character display limit. For example, a journal whose title begins Journal might be difficult to find by browsing as there are approximately 24 Jou – Jou groupings.
