Finding Full-Text

You start working on your paper, and find that you really need some good articles from journals or newspapers to give you the background and facts that you need. Where to look?

The Library of course. But where exactly? You’re in luck, because the NHTI Library has access to thousands of articles from the scientific, to the philosophic, to the statistical, to the personal, and they are all at your fingertips (assuming you have access to a keyboard and Internet access)!

You go to the NHTI Webpage, hover over Support and Success, then click on Library: Research & Resources, then you cleverly spot the Quick Search box at the top of the page and think, “Aha, this is the place!” But then you see, further down the page, a link to Databases. Which one do you choose?

Let’s first try Quick Search. You see that there is a search box for you to put in the key word or words that you think describes your search. Below that is a check box for Full-Text. Since you want to read through complete articles, not just a citation and abstract, you click this box. At the same time, you might want to click the accompanying box marked Scholarly (Peer Reviewed). As a scholar yourself, you want to access articles that have been looked at by other experts in the author’s field and edited and approved before being published. That steers you away from unsubstantiated or opinionated sources.

When you click Search, you will see a results page with the number of results at the top. For many results, you may see below the summary either HTML Full Text, PDF Full Text, or Save PDF to Cloud. When you click on these, you may see “Log in for full access.” All you do is enter your NHTI Easy Login. Then, you will see the entire article as it appears in the journal or magazine in which it was published.

The two main formats, HTML and PDF both display the article in its entirety, however there are subtle differences between the two. For instance, in the HTML view, the article is ready for printing with a brief citation appended at the bottom. In the PDF view, you have a menu that lets you view a table of contents for each section of the article, view the associated illustrations, or even switch to other issues of the journal you are using. For more understanding of the all the many options available, click on Help at the upper right of the results page and click on Reading and Article and PDF Full-text Viewer under Viewing Results in the menu at the left. If you choose Save to Cloud, you will get options to save to Google Drive, Dropbox or One Drive if you have accounts with those services.

You may also see Linked Full Text, which will connect you to the article through another source outside of EBSCO or ProQuest such as Wiley Online Library.

Sometimes, there is no full text available in main database library. In many cases, though, you will see the link, Full Text Finder. This “integrated knowledge base provides links and coverage information from hundreds of thousands of unique titles in over several thousand databases and e-journals.” In other words, it helps you find the full text of the article in a different place and provide you with the links to get there.

Now that you’ve taken a look at Quick Search, you think you might take a different approach and use the link to Databases further down the Library’s page. When you click the link, you find that there are nine categories in which they are organized. Depending upon the subject of your research, you may want to look under Allied Health, Justice and Legal Studies, or Science and Technology. If you peruse all nine areas, you will find that some databases are listed under multiple headings but that’s just to make sure you don’t miss them if you choose an area that you think is your best resource. Don’t worry, you will get the same database and same articles regardless of where it is listed.

Databases often look different but have the same types of tools, such as an option to limit to full-text. Choose "Content I can access" in JSTOR and check the "Full text" box in ProQuest.

While this is just a quick overview of some of the sources available to you as an online student, all of this information is there for you anywhere you can connect, and any time you want. Whether you are on campus or accessing the databases remotely the Library staff is available to help. You can work with us through chat or set up a Zoom appointment.

Happy Searching!