Accessing the Full Text
After you have developed your search strategy and have begun finding citations to articles, you need to know how to access the full text.
Many of the library's databases and indexes provide direct access to the full text of the articles listed. The articles may be available as a PDF document or as an HTML document.
When the full text of the article is not available in the database or index you are searching, you may see the following icon:
When you see this icon, you can click to see if the UNC libraries have the full text of the article through another database or subsciption.
At the top of the screen, you'll see the original citation. If the full text of the article is available electronically, you'll see a link to either the article itself, the e-journal in which it is found, or the database that contains it. If there is no link to the electronic version, you can click on the link to the UNC libraries catalog to see if a print copy of the article is available. See How do I find an article if it is not full text? for more help.
Finding journals from abbreviations
Some citation styles use an abbreviation for the journal title. It can be difficult to figure out which journal to look for. Here are some resources that can help you decipher these abbreviations:
- CASSI, the Chemical Abstract Services Source Index Search Tool, is a free tool to help you identify journal titles and abbreviations for publications indexed by CAS since 1907.
- Search for the abbreviation in the ISI Web of Science Cited Work field, available on the Cited Reference Search page.
- Visit the Journal Name Abbreviation, ISSN Number and Coverage website from Frontiers in Bioscience.
- If you still can't find the journal title, the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has compiled an extensive list of resources for identifying journal abbreviations: Journal Abbreviation Resources on the Web.
