Library : Journals Guide

Finding Journals

Using Journals AtoZ

Journals AtoZ is the best way to find:

• Print subscriptions (with years held)
• Online subscriptions (with available years)
• Free online journals in health sciences
• A way to navigate to the full-text article whenever direct links in PubMed, ICL or MANTIS fail.

Journals AtoZ is not an article index. 
You should search journal indexes and databases to find specific articles on your topic.

However, if you want to search inside just one journal, AtoZ will take you to the journal’s web site and often it will have a search feature.  

Journals AtoZ:   step by step

• Use the alphabetical bar to navigate to the journal title 
        OR
  Enter the most significant keyword in the search box.
• If there is a link to the online version of the journal, it leads to the publisher’s site.
• Then navigate to the year, volume, issue, and page of the article you need.
• If there is a link to more than one online version, such as the publisher’s site and the full-text database Alt Health Watch, then you have a choice.

Journals AtoZ:   sample search screens

Sample entry from the “Sp” section of the list:
	←	Library has a subscription only to the print issues.
	←	Library has a subscription to the print issues + full text online.

Sample results of keyword search for journal titles containing the word   “manipulative”
	←	Library has a subscription to the print + full text online + full-text access via Alt HealthWatch.

 

Using PubMed@LCCW

Use the special link PubMed@LCCW on the Research Databases page, instead of www.pubmed.gov. Only then will our icons to show up in search results displayed in Abstract view.

The icons look like this.  They appear only when citations are displayed in Abstract view.

Article is available online.	Article is available in print.

If clicking the Electronic Format icon to open the article occasionally fails,  try the online journal links in Journals AtoZ as an alternative.  First, make a note of the citation, because in Journals AtoZ, you will have to navigate to the journal, then the volume, issue, and finally the article.

Free articles in PubMed are visible to everyone.

PubMed indicates Free Articles in brown, when results are displayed in Summary or in Abstract view. 
Summary View is the default screen, the one you see after each search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If an article is not free, redisplay it in Abstract view to see if Life West subscribes.

 

Important PubMed tip for LifeWest faculty and students
In PubMed, do not check the “Limit to free full text” feature.  This is found under the Limits tab.

 

Why not?
Because you will omit all articles in the library’s subscriptions.  Tuition pays for this.

 

 

 

 

What should you do instead?
You can limit search results to only those articles immediately available at Life West.  Easily retrieve both Life West subscriptions and free full text using this simple strategy. 

1. Construct a search
2. Append this phrase AND (loprovlifewlib [sb] OR free full text [sb]). 
3. Note than search results will include Life West’s paid subscriptions as well as free articles.

 

Opening Full Text from Off Campus

Anytime and anywhere, faculty and currently enrolled students can open full text articles in subscribed journals.  EZProxy service, in tandem with Journals AtoZ list, makes this possible.

EZProxy does not work directly from PubMed or any other online index. 
You must navigate to the journal article using the links in Journals AtoZ.

EZProxy: Step by Step

• Have the needed citations in hand
• Look up the journal title in Journals AtoZ
• If there is a link available, go to the online journal
• Navigate to the article, and choose PDF format.
• Free articles will open up on their own
• Subscription articles generate the EZProxy login screen.  Instructions are clearly posted.
• Continue to connect with other journal titles as needed.  Login is active until browser window closes.
• Please contact the systems librarian to report technical problems.  Thank you!

 

Free Online Journals

• Index to Chiropractic Literature's Open Access Library has custom Google searchers for chiropractic magazines, and lists of journals with free content.
• Directory of Open Access Journals has an article search feature.
• Directory of Open Access Journals: Health Science is a useful subset of the entire directory.
• Free Medical Journals has a Journal Alert service. 
• Life West's Keeping Current guide lists services that notify users of new content for journals and newsletters. 
• HighWire Press: Free Online Full-Text Articles has an article search feature.  Limited to the journals published with the assistance of HighWire Press.  Claims to be the largest archive of free online science articles in the world.
• PubMed has a useful Limits feature.  It provides a checkbox that limits the search results to “free full text”.    Whenever an open-access journal is indexed in PubMed, its citations always include the link “Free Article” which leads to repositories or publisher sites such as PubMedCentral,  BioMed Central, Public Library of Science, and many more.