PTK Honors in Action Research

This page covers how to find the full text of a source cited in a References list. 

1. Figure out what kind of source it is. 

Is the source being cited a book, journal or magazine article, or something from the open web? The citations will look different, so here are some tips to tell what kind of source it is by looking at the citation:

1a. Journal article citations

• Journal article citations will have the journal title in italics about halfway through the citation: here it's Psychological Review

• The journal title is usually followed by a few more numbers: the volume number, issue number, and page number(s): here it's 121 (volume number), 563 (page number)

• Journal article citations usually end with a doi (digital object identifier): here it's doi:10. 1037/a0037668

1b. Open web citations

• Open web citations almost always end with a URL: here it's http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lme4/lme4.pdf

• Open web citations may contain an accessed or retrieved date 

1c. Book and book chapter citations

• Citations to entire books are usually shorter than other types of citations

• If books are cited in APA format, they will include the city and state of publication: here it's New York, NY

• Book citations include the names of publishers: here it's Oxford University Press

• Citations to book chapters will include both chapter authors and book editors with an abbreviation like (Eds.) or the words 'edited by': here R. R. Hunt & J. Worthen are the book editors

• Citations to book chapters will include the chapter's page numbers in the book: here it's pp. 89-107

2. Search for the source in the right place (e.g., open web, catalog, databases).

2a. Journal article citations

To find this article in full text, search for the journal title in the library's Publication Finder, which searches across our databases to see which one(s) have the journal:

This particular journal did not appear in my search results, which means we don't have it in any of our databases. From here, you could try searching for it on Google Scholar or download the Chrome browser extension Unpaywall to help find a free, legal copy on the open web.

But if a journal is in the databases, you'll see the name of the database and the dates for which full text articles are available from that journal.

In this screenshot, we see the journal Social Psychology Review is available in full text from 2015 to the present (minus the most recent 6 months) in the Academic Search Complete database. 

Click on the database name. You'll see a page with publication details about the journal:

Use either the 'Search within this publication' link to search for a specific article title or author. Or use the 'All Issues and Articles' menu on the right to click into the specific journal issue you need.

2b. Open web citations

Many reference lists hyperlink URLs in citations: hover your mouse over it and see if it activates. If so, just click on it to open the source in a browser.

If the URL isn't hyperlinked, copy and paste the link into your browser.

If the URL returns a 404 error, try Googling the title of the source (you can type it in quotation marks to search for the exact title) and any author names, if available.

The source should be at the top of your Google search results:

2c. Book citations

To find a book from a citation, use the library catalog and/or library ebook databases to look up the title of the book. Here, it's Distinctiveness and memory.

I tried a title search in the Library Catalog, but got no results: this book isn't available in print in the LSC Libraries.

Then I tried searching the Ebook Central database and found it!

I can use the Table of Contents feature to jump directly to the chapter in the citation, "Reducing memory errors: The distinctiveness heuristic" and download the PDF or read it online:

3. Can't find it in full text? Place an interlibrary loan request.  

The LSC Libraries have access to tons of sources, but we can't provide access to everything. 

If you try your best to find something in the LSC library catalog or research databases and we don't have it, we can try to borrow it from another library for you.

Interlibrary is almost always free, but it can take some time for lending libraries to fill requests. Please allow plenty of time.

Fill out the form to request articles through interlibrary loan:

4. If you have any trouble or questions about steps 1-3, contact a librarian for help. 

Research can be tricky! Librarians are experts at helping you find the information you need.