Information Systems, Information Assurance, and Computer Science Resources

What if you need an article, but you have found only a citation and abstract for it?

The full article may be available in one of our other research databases, so take the following steps: 

1. Journal Finder.
   Use the Library’s “Find a Journal” to discover if the journal you need is available in full in one of our other research databases.
   • “Find a Journal” can be found in the center box on the library’s home page.
   • Go to Find a Journal
   • Enter the name of the journal you need in the Journal Finder search box.
   • If the Library has access to the journal, the results will tell you the publication years available and will provide a link to the database where the journal can be accessed.  
2. Google Scholar.
   If the year/issue of the journal you need can’t be found in Journal Finder, you can go to Google Scholar and search for the specific article. 
   • Sometimes you will be able to get the full article using this method, if it available from some location for free on the internet.
   • You may increase the number of full text articles you can find in Google Scholar searches by setting preferences to include items for which the DSU Library is paying. For instructions, see "Finding full text DSU sources with Google Scholar" elsewhere on this page.
3. Interlibrary Loan.
   If neither of the two above steps gets you to the full article, request the Library to get the article for you through Interlibrary Loan. Please note:
   • The Library can’t guarantee a specific delivery time for articles requested through Interlibrary Loan, so it’s not an ideal solution if you know you need an article within a few days.
   • For class assignments where you need an article quickly, and you could choose a different article, then it often makes sense to search for full text articles only in the Library's research databases.  Many of the research databases provide an option to limit the search to full articles -- either when you enter the search or on the results screen. When you have a very short turnaround time, this may be the only free and expedient solution for getting the material you need.
   • For projects where you want to be sure you are selecting the best and latest articles, then you won’t want to limit yourself by searching for full text articles only.  In that case, it’s best to do research no less than 3 weeks before you want to read the material.  That gives time for interlibrary loan of most articles that can only be retrieved through interlibrary loan. This is why we recommend never waiting until the last minute to do the research for major research projects, because doing so limits your ability to get the best material.  

Interpreting Find a Journal search results

In Find a Journal, type the journal's name in the top search box (or browse title instead).  

For example, a search for Rolling Stone magazine in Journal Finder produced these results:  

Click on the hyperlinked title of the journal to get the following page.

If the journal is available online, the search results will display a list of the databases that contain the journal's articles.

Each database link will take you into the database to get the article you need.

In the example above, Rolling Stone is available in these three (3) online databases:

Proquest Research Library
Academic Search Premier in Ebscohost
MasterFILE Premier in Ebscohost. 
 

Note the dates for which we have issues of the journal! 

Proquest Research Library issues are available from 1992 to the present, but Academic Search Premier has issues of Rolling Stone from 1990 to the present.

Click the link to one of the databases that has the date range of the magazine you need
 

If the journal is in print or microfilm in the library, there will be a link to the item labeled "Check Holdings at Dakota State University".

Note the dates for which we have issues of the journal!
 

If zero (0) results are returned from a search of Journal Finder, the Mundt Library does not have the magazine or journal you searched.

Here, you will need to request the article you need through Interlibrary Loan.