How To Library

The fastest way to find the number of journals available from OLLU in a particular subject area is to use Full Text Finder.

You can get to Full-Text Finder from the library homepage by clicking on the "Journals By Title" link under Research:

Once in Full-Text Finder, click on the discipline you want to search (i.e. "Biology"):

Full-Text Finder will show you how many journals are available in that subject area. You can also use the limiters on the left side to narrow the subject further:

If you know the name of the journal you're looking for, go to Full-Text Finder and start typing the title:

If the journal is available at OLLU, Full-Text Finder will auto-fill the search box with possible titles. If your search gets no results, the library may not have access to that particular title. You can always check with a librarian to make sure!

A typical article citation might look like this:

Find the journal title (in this example it's the Journal of Policy History) and type it into the search box in Full-Text Finder:

If OLLU has access to the journal, Full-Text Finder will bring up the subscription dates as well as the database access links in the search results. For this example, we can access full-text articles from the Journal of Policy History through Academic Search Complete from 2004 up to one year ago. Since the article we're looking for is from 2009, we have access to it!

Click the link to access the journal through the database. You will most likely need to navigate to the article by clicking on the year on the right side index. Since the citation tells us that this article is in volume 21, issue 1, we can click on that particular link:

You'll be taken to a page with all of the journal articles from that issue. Look for the article you need by title, or by page numbers (the articles will usually be in order according to page number).

Double-check that your citation is actually for an article and not a book chapter or a book instead. A book chapter will have both a chapter title and a book title:

A book citation will not have any page numbers listed:

If your citation is for a book or a book chapter, try searching for the book's title in the library's Books & Media catalog instead.

If you run into problems at any step during the process, just Ask A Librarian
and we will be happy to help you locate your article!

(citation images courtesy of GMU Libraries)

What's the Difference?

Article

A scholarly paper written by an expert in the field and often peer-reviewed by other experts before publication. Articles are usually published in scholarly journals and contain a list of references or citations at the end.

Journal

A collection of articles in a particular subject area published on a regular schedule, often 4 times a year. Similar to a magazine except that the articles are often scholarly, peer-reviewed and are read by researchers in the field. A journal can either be in print or online.
(ie, The Journal of Philosophy)

Database

A searchable collection of articles from hundreds or thousands of scholarly journals and other sources. Libraries typically pay a licensing fee to publishers (such as Ebsco) in order to give library users access to search for and download articles from a database.
(ie, Academic Search Complete)

If you are looking for a variety of articles, try doing a keyword search in the main search box on the library's homepage:

For a more precise search, click on the Article Databases link under Research on the library homepage and choose a database by subject. You can also look at the Research Starters for your discipline to find more information.