Unit 6: Search Tools: Subscription Databases

Lesson 5: Search Hints: Full Text Articles


Full text databases provide access to the entire text or body of an article, which you can download, view, email, and print. Most databases primarily provide articles in full text. Very few databases, however, provide full text access to EVERY article in that database. If you don’t see a link to full text beside the citation information, the article is not available in that database. A citation is a description of a particular resource. Journal citations include the article title, journal name, author, date, and volume and issue number. Journal citations also may include a brief abstract or summary.

If you only want to find articles in full text, limit your search to full text.

Note: Some databases do not provide any full text articles. Such databases only provide a citation to the article, and sometimes a summary.

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