Skip to Main Content

Bachelor of Science in Nursing Research Guide

A research guide to find BSN resources from the EFSC Libraries

How to Find a Full-Text Article Using a Citation

If you are trying to find an article in full text from a References or Works Cited list, there are several options available. This guide shows the steps for each option.

Step 1: Search for the article title in Library Search.

Search Everything to see if the cited article is available online in the Library's collections.

Library Search for Article Title

Step 2: On the results list, click Available Online to see where the article full text is located.

NOTE: If the article title is not found in Library Search, then try another option (See tabs above)

Step 3: The detailed screen will open, under View Online, select a database. There may be 1 - several databases listed.

NOTE: You must be logged in to be able to see full text availability. Log in using your Titan User Name and Password.

Step 4: The selected database will open and display the article in full text.

If you are trying to find an article in full text from a References or Works Cited list, there are several options available. This guide shows the steps for each option.

All credible research articles should have a References or Works Cited list. Here is an article found in MEDLINE and the references list.

Step 1: To determine if an article on a References list is available in full-text, find the journal title....not the title of the article.

Example: in #4 above, the journal title is: Am J Crit Care

This is an abbreviation of a journal title.

If you are not familiar with an abbreviation, a helpful site for looking up journal title abbreviations is All that JAS: Journal Abbreviation Sources.

The abbreviation Am J Crit Care stands for the American Journal of Critical Care.

Step 2: Next, search for the full journal title in the Journal Search.

This will determine what online resources contain your journal title in full-text and which years are included

Journal Search Result Example

Step 3: In the example above, you are looking for an article in this journal from 2015. It looks like that year is contained in CINAHL Complete. Click the link to go to the journal listing in CINAHL Complete.

Step 4: Drill down until you find the volume, issue and page numbers for the cited article.

In this case, you need 2015, volume 24, number 3, pages 216 - 224. Click through until you find your article and the full-text.

If your journal title or journal year is not available in the Journal Search, then try another option to find the full text (see tabs above).

If you are trying to find an article in full text from a References or Works Cited list, there are several options available. This guide shows the steps for each option.

Step 1: Determine if your article has a hyperlinked cited references list.

In CINAHL, the search results list will show if an article includes Cited References.

NOTE: MEDLINE does not offer this feature.

Click on the hyperlink to see a list of the references for this article. If a reference is available in full-text in the database, a link to the PDF will appear.

If you are looking for a cited reference that is not available in full-text, then try another option to find the article (see tabs above).

If you are trying to find an article in full text from a References or Works Cited list, there are several options available. This guide shows the steps for each option.

NOTE: Be sure to configure your settings in Google Scholar so you can link to EFSC online resources. See the handout below to set up Full Text @ EFSC.

Google Scholar

Find the article DOI and search Google Scholar for the full-text. To find the DOI look at the detailed record of the article in CINAHL, MEDLINE, OVID, or PubMed.

If there is no DOI, try searching for the article's title.

Find your citation in the Google Scholar result list and then click on All versions . This will bring up all locations of your citation.

Google Scholar search for article title

Next look for a html OR PDF OR Full Text @ EFSC link on the right side. Not every version will have a link.

Google Scholar result with Full Text link

Click the link to try to view the full-text of the article.

Note: Not all articles are free on the internet. Never pay to view the full-text of an article. The Library can often get the full text article for free.

If the free full-text of the article is not available, then try another option (see tabs above).

If a cited reference is not available in full text, then try Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary Loan is a free service for EFSC faculty, staff and students which provides access to full text articles not available in EFSC collections.