How do I find full-text articles (pdf or html)?
I keep only finding information about the article, but not the article itself.
Answer
Not all articles can be attached as full-text, this is usually due to vendor disagreements. You can limit you search to only articles that are full-text, or you can follow the steps below to track down the articles you need.
Searching:
There are a few ways to work around this, you can select the full-text limiter in your search, this will limit to articles that have the full-text pdf or html attached. We don't recommend doing this for larger research projects as it will limit your results and possibly bias your argument based on what is directly attached, but it can work if you just need a quick article.
Finding the full-text from a citation (find a step by step video here)
If you have an article you found by searching that is not attached, or you have the citation of an article, here are the best ways to track it down:
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Start with a Discover search. Discover searches many, but not all of our databases. Search the title of the article and the results list will show you if we have it here and how to access it. It might be as a PDF, in HTML, or a link out to another database. If the article/item is not there, move on to a journal title search (if you have an article). To learn more see: Navigating Discover.
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If the item is an article and it does not link to a full text copy in Discover, you can try a journal title search. Select Journal Titles from above the main search box on the library homepage and search for the title of the journal that the article was published in. You'll see a list of external platforms we subscribe to that offer access to these items, and the years for which they provide access. Check the year on your article and select the collection that has that year. Once you are inside the journal, select the year, volume, and issue number. From there, you should be able to look through the articles and find yours.
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If you haven't been able to find it by any of the above steps, you can try searching in Google Scholar for the title of the article. Open Google Scholar in a new tab (https://scholar.google.com/). Set up the Library Links for AU to access the articles we can get through the library subscriptions. It helps you find PDFs fast. Here's how to set up AU Library Links in Google Scholar.
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If none of these options work, you can request an interlibrary loan and we will see if a partner library can email a pdf of the article or chapters. The wait time varies depending on how difficult it is to locate or make a digital copy. To request an ILL, go to Get Library Support then select Accessing Services. Scroll down on that page to find the request links. Or see our Interlibrary Loan Guide.
If you are looking for a book or book chapter see Acessing Books