FAQ: Why can't I access full text in the databases?

Some databases do not offer full-text articles for all journals/newspapers/magazines. Some provide full text for only certain years while others are indexes.

You can check to see if the library has full text for a particular journal by using our Periodical Finder. 

• Once you type in the journal title it will tell you if we have full-text access to that journal and, if so, which database offers it and the date range that it is available.  The image below is an example search for Harvard Business Review.  As you can see by the date ranges, the best database to access full-text is Business Source Complete.  

  

• In many cases, we will not have full-text access for the most recent year (full-text delay).
• In this scenario, you may submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request for the article and we can obtain the PDF for you from a library that has the full text.

If you don’t see a PDF or HTML full-text link for the article, be sure to click on the link (if available) that says:

• “Search for Full Text”, “Link to Full Text” or “Full-Text Finder.”
• Many times this will lead you to the full text in a different database.  
• If we do not have the full text, it will direct you to place an ILL request for the item. 
• If it’s an article, we can typically obtain the full-text PDF for you within 2-4 business days.

If you are using the Multi-Search (the large search box on the library's homepage that searches many of our resources all at once) on the library home page you may encounter linking issues that prevent full-text access. 

• In that situation, we recommend going directly to the specific database that has the article (using the A-Z Database List) and then searching for your article title in that database’s search box (surrounding the title with quotation marks should bring it right up).
• As an example, let’s say you are researching monarch butterflies.  You see the below article in your results list and you click on the “Link to Full Text” link and it does not work. 
• Underlined in red is the name of the database where this article can be found.

  

• In this case, ScienceDirect is the database name and you would find it listed under the letter S in the A-Z Database List.
• Then you would copy and paste the article title into the search box in ScienceDirect and it should bring up the full text of the article if it’s available.