How do I know if UVM owns the print or electronic version of a journal article?

UVM owns some journals in print, some journals in print and electronic form, and some journals only the electronic version.

The UVM Online Catalog contains information about all of our journals, including which years we own, where print journals can be found, and how to access electronic journals. There may be several options for accessing a journal: check the date ranges given for each one. In some cases, only selected articles may be available. The list can be searched, or it can be browsed by subject using the Categories menu.

How do I locate the electronic full text of a journal article?

There are several ways to locate an electronic journal article. One way is to search for the title of the journal in the UVM Online Catalog. Another way is to look in UVM's alphabetical list of journals. Another way is to link directly from an online database, like PubMed or Web of Science. Note: when accessing PubMed, you will only see the UVM holdings information if you link to PubMed using our link.

Are there any other ways to obtain the electronic full text of a journal article?

Sometimes a publisher will offer their text for free online if they are just getting into electronic publishing, or if their mission includes offering free articles. Some journal publishers freely offer electronic access to articles that are more than six months or one year old. See PubMed Central for these articles.

What if I'm willing to pay to get the full text?

The Dana Library Document Access service offers several options for obtaining the full text of journal articles. Please see Document Retrieval Information for details.

When I link to a journal article the publisher asks me to sign in. What is our user name and password?

The UVM Libraries uses IP Addresses to let our publishers know that UVM affiliates should have access to certain journals. If you are coming from on campus (including the University of Vermont Medical Center), or if you are off campus and are using the appropriate software (see next question), AND you are trying to access an article that UVM owns, then you should not be asked to sign in. If you are being asked to sign in then you are either trying to get to an article we don't own, or the IP address of your computer is not being recognized by the publisher. First check the journal title in the library catalog to determine that we do indeed own that title for the date of your article. (See first question.) If we do, and you still cannot get it, please contact us at (802) 656-2200 or [email protected] and we will work with you to fix the problem.

How can I access electronic journals from off campus?

See our Connecting to Library Resources page for instructions on how to access the proxy server, set up the VPN, or other remote access options.

Why is full text not always available?

Not all journals exist in electronic form. If our online catalog and PubMed do not include a link to the full text of an article, most likely that particular journal is not available electronically or the library does not maintain an electronic subscription. Be sure to check our library catalog to see if the library holds a print subscription to the journal. (See first question.)

Why are there sometimes multiple options for full text?

There is some overlap in the contents of electronic services to which the UVM subscribes. If a journal article is available electronically from more than a single source, the list of journals will list multiple options for full text access. Also, some journals change publishers, resulting in a link to one publisher for earlier articles and a link to a second publisher for articles published more recently. Make sure the link you select includes the year you're looking for. If one link doesn't work (perhaps because of a limit to the number of concurrent users, see that question below), go back and try a different option.

Why do I get the message "The limit for concurrent users ... has been reached. Please try again later."

A few of our online journals are available through the Ovid system. We are licensed for only one or two people at a time to view each of these titles. So if someone else is viewing an article in Ovid in the same online journal you want to use and there is only one concurrent user allowed, you will have to wait until that person is finished. Ovid will log off a user after 15 minutes of activity, but it is courteous to immediately log off of Ovid yourself as soon as you are done with the system.

Which option should I choose when I see the Elsevier Article Locator page and I have to pick between Article via ScienceDirect and Article via some other publisher?

In this case UVM will almost always subscribe to the article via ScienceDirect. That's your safe choice. In some cases the link to the Article via some other publisher will work, but not always. If you never want to see this choice again for this journal, click on the link on the Elsevier Article Locator page to Update My Preferred Elsevier Websites and follow the directions.