How do I find an article when I have just the
citation or an abstract?
Many index databases contain citations and abstracts to articles but
do not have the full text online. The following steps will help you locate
the full text of the articles you need.
- Go to the library's A -
Z Journal List to see if Mary Baldwin College has access
to the journal in print or online.
- Search for the journal title by entering the first few words or
use the Alphabetical list to browse for your title. For example,
if you are looking for the New England Journal of Medicine, set
your search to Title Begins With and type new england journal in
the search box. Or use the alphabetical links and scroll to the
spot where new england journal of medicine would appear alphabetically. You
can also search the journal by ISSN or by keyword (Title
Contains All Words), which is helpful if you don't know the exact
title of the journal.
Note: If you do a search and come up with no results, check your spelling
and/or search in another way, either alphabetically or by Title Contains
All Words. If you still get no results, jump
to step number 6 below.
- If MBC has access to the journal you will see our holdings listed. The
holdings information includes the years of coverage and where or in
what database you will find the journal. Compare the holdings to your
citation to be sure the year your article was published is available.
- If you see "Mary Baldwin Print Holdings," that means the journal
is in print in the periodicals room of Grafton Library. If you
click on the Mary Baldwin Print Holdings link, you will get more information
such as whether the journal is bound, on microfiche, in storage, etc.
If you are an ADP, MAT, or MLitt student working from off-campus, use
our online forms to request your article.
- If the journal is full text in a database, the holdings information
will supply the database name and a link to the database and sometimes
to the journal itself.
- Expanded Academic ASAP: Type the title of the article
(you usually only need three or four words not the entire title) and
hit Search.
- Lexis-Nexis: Clicking on the database link should take
you to the Guided Search where your journal is automatically selected
to search. For example, if you were looking for an article in
the Washington Post, when you click on the link in the Holdings
List, you will be directed to Lexis-Nexis and the screen would look
like the one below. The newspaper name is filled in in the box
that reads Search this publication. At this point, put
in your article title where it says Enter search terms.
- JSTOR: the
link from the holdings list takes you directly to the journal within
the database where you can either search or browse for your specific
article.
- Factiva: In
the search box, type (sn=name of journal) and the article title in
quotes. For example, to find the article Crisis in the Cupboard which
appeared in Newsweek magazine, you would type the following:
(sn=newsweek) and "crisis in the cupboard". Set appropriate date range. Click
on Search. It will look like the following:
- ABI/INFORM Global: The holdings link will take you directly
to a list of issues for the particular journal. Browse the list
until you find the issue you need.
6. Sometimes we do not have access to the journal either in print or
online. If this is the case, you can place a
request for the article
through our interlibrary
loan department.
