You are looking for the full text of one specific journal article or book chapter. Do you have the full citation?

YES (Skip down for 'No')

 

  1. What is the title of the journal or book?
    • It is usually in italics and follows the article title.
    • If it is a journal article, you'll usually see number notations like 12.2, 12 (2), v.12, no.2 after the journal title. (You can also use our article resolver to direct you to the article, but the information must be exact.)
  2. Search for the journal or book title into our library catalog (the catalog tells you (a) if we have it and (b) where it is). Here is an example of finding a journal article from the Journal of Abnormal Psychology:
    • If we do not have the journal or the book, go and request document delivery.
      • If you are looking for a journal article, choose Item Type: Journal/Magazine/Newspaper Article and fill out the form.
      • If you are looking for a book chapter, choose Item Type: Book Chapter/Section, including the page number of the chapter you want.
    • For journal articles, if there are links or copies, check the year listed to see if the published year of the article is included.
      1. Go to the link or area in the library with that journal and its articles.
        1. If the link takes you to the database or website that has the journal but you don't see the article right away, navigate to the published year of your article (or look for the 'Archive' section), and then narrow down by volume/issue number notation, then the article should be listed in sequence by page number.
    • If it is an article inside a book (an anthology):
      1. Find the book (by call number if it is a physical book, or by link if it is an ebook) and go to the page number provided by the citation.

NO

 

  1. What do you have?
    • A short footnote or the author in (parenthesis) in the text. Where should you go to find the full citation?
      1. Go to the end of the article, you should find the full citation with the number of the footnote, or in alphabetical order by author's last name.
    • A sentence or a page from the article.
      1. Go to Google.
      2. Search the sentence (or pick out a sentence), but put the entire sentence in "quotation marks" into the search bar. Google will search if anyone else used this exact sentence and provided the citation.
      3. If you cannot find it, try putting "quotation marks" around the phrases in the sentence that are fairly unique rather than the whole sentence. You may have written down or remembered a few words incorrectly.
    • The title and author of the article.
      1. Go to Google Scholar, search with the title and author.
      2. If this item was published 3-5 years ago, try Google Books to see if anyone else cited this item.
  2.  You should be able to find the full citation, go back to YES above and follow the directions. If you are still unable to find the citation information, contact us for assistance.
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