The Journal Article Locator is the easiest way to find your article and it can find articles even if you don't have a full citation.
Simply fill out the citation information that you have and click "Look for Journal Title or Article."
The Journal Article Locator will take you to the directly to the publisher presentation page with the full-text link.
Alternatively, sometimes the Journal Article Locator will search across several commonly used databases including the online library catalog.
In this case, your results list will look like this:
When you click on the "Article Match," this will take you directly to the record for this
citation. Now, just look for the pdf file or the
to view the full
text.
When looking for a specific journal, magazine, or newspaper article, most people prefer an electronic version if it's available. The place to check whether Illinois has online access to a particular title is the Online Research Resources (ORR) page. Use the ORR to search for the title of the journal, magazine, or newspaper you need, not for the specific article. Here's an example of how to use the ORR to find an article.
>> Watch a video on how to locate journal titles.
If you have the following article citation in hand, and want to find the full text:
The first step is to go to the ORR and click the Journals & Newspapers tab. Next, type in the first few words of the journal title and select Start of Title, like so:
Clicking Search brings up the following list of titles:
As you can see, there are multiple titles that begin with "American Journal of Education;" the one we need is indicated with an arrow. The next thing to check is the date range covered for the title. Since the article we need is from 2006, we should be able to find what we're after, so the next step is to click the in JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV link.
What you see next will vary from title to title, but in most cases, you will be able to browse to the year and issue you need. Here is one such screen for American Journal of Education:
Referring back to the citation, the article we need is from Volume 112, Issue 4, so click the no. 4 under "2006 (Vol. 112)" link to bring up the following screen:
Now, make it easy on yourself and look for the Discover Button
in order to find
the full text of the article.
Bingo! Here we find the article we need.
Finding an online version of an article is great, but it's not always possible, especially if the article you need is older. What do you do if you can't find the full text online? There are two options:
If you search the Online Research Resources page for the journal, magazine, or newspaper you need, you may find that Illinois has online access, but not for the date range you need. For instance, say you need a 1981 article from American Journal of Education. In these cases, you can click the See Catalog links in the ORR to see whether Illinois has the title you need in print:
Clicking this link calls up the catalog record for this journal:
Scrolling down, we see that the needed volume (90, from 1981) is in Main Stacks:
And finally, you'll need to make a note of the call number and head over to the Main Stacks in order to make a photocopy of this article.
Sometimes, we have no online coverage of a title, so it won't appear in the ORR at all. In these cases, you can search the catalog directly to find the journal, magazine, or newspaper you need. Here's how:
Go to the Online Library Catalog and start with a Quick Search. Type in the first few words of the journal, magazine, or newspaper title (omitting initial the's or a's) and select "Start of Magazine/Journal Title" from the "Search By:" list, like so:
Clicking Search will take you to a list of matches from the catalog, and then clicking a particular title will take you to the holdings information:
Before heading to the departmental library to retrieve the journal, make sure you note its location and call number, and the availability of the particular volume you need.
If you've gone through the steps above and still haven't been able to locate the article you need, don't despair! When Illinois doesn't have access to a particular article, we can usually obtain a photocopy for you from another library. This service is free for Illinois students and faculty. Learn more about how to find articles not available at Illinois.
>> Watch a video on hot to place an Interlibrary Loan request. More information.
Please Ask A Librarian if you need help tracking down an article!
University LibraryFor comments on this page contact: Learnlib
Last modified by: Merinda Hensley on 8/26/09