Use a Citation to Find the Article Full-Text

Sometimes you'll need to help someone find the full text of an article when all they have is the citation. Use the following citation to follow the steps to locate the full text of the article.

Avila, A., Ford, C. and Hamra, R. (2005), “Library training day: developing an effective academic library student training program”, Library Mosaics, January/February, pp. 18-19.

  1. First, you'll need to identify the name of the periodical (journal, magazine, or newspaper) in which the article is published. In the example above, the periodical is called Library Mosaics.
    • Tip: As of fall 2024, the names of periodicals appear in italics in the three major citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). So, look for the italicized title in reference citations. The title of the article usually appears in quotation marks.
  2. Then go to the library's homepage at https://ww1.oswego.edu/library and use the Find Sources menu to access the "Find a Specific Journal" link. Search for Library Mosaics.

  1. Next, check to see if the library provides access to the year and specific issue.  Click on the journal in your results list, and scroll down to look under View Online / Full Text Availability.  Each link here will tell you what date ranges it includes.  

    In the example above, the citation tells us that the article was published in 2005 and appears in the January/February issue. As you can see below, the library provides access to issues of Library Mosaics from several databases that include different date ranges. 

Under View Online / Full Text Availability, there are options for EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete - available from 09/01/2001 until 11/30/2005, as well as several other databases, some of which list different date ranges

  1. Click on one of the databases that includes the date this article was published.  (As long as the date range includes your article, it doesn't matter which you pick.  You can always try another if you run into trouble!)
  2. Now locate the title of the article. In the sample citation above, the title of the article is “Library training day: developing an effective academic library student training program”.

    Find where you have an option to Search Within This Publication, and type the first 3 or 4 words of the title into the "Search within publication" box with quotation marks.

  1. Your results should now include the article information with a link to the full text.