How to Access the Full Text of an Article
Find Articles via Subject Databases
"Get it at UC" Button
Most databases provide a description of articles and other resources to help you find what you need by searching through the indexed literature within their website. Included as part of the item record is the “Get it at UC” button. Clicking this button will direct you to a copy of the full text of the article.
Interlibrary Loan Request
If we do not own a journal or book, you can submit an interlibrary loan (ILL) request to have the book or article (e)mailed to you for free from another UC library. Learn more about how to request books or articles.
How to Choose a Database
In deciding which database(s) to use, it is helpful to note:
- Who: Who is authoring these publications? Are these scholarly, popular, or industry sources?
- What: What can I find in the database? (e.g. articles, conference proceedings, data)
- When: When does coverage begin? How well is historical literature covered? Does it include articles published in the last year?
- Where: What is the geographical scope of the coverage? Does that match your research interest?
NOTE: Your database comparison table distributed in the class (and also to be available from your Canvas class site) helps with locating the above criteria for four of the key databases for finding animal-related literature: BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, PsycINFO & PAIS.
Recommended Subject Databases:
Key databases for Companion Animal Literature
Describe BIOSIS Previews - when to use? Biology basics about any animal
Describe CAB Abstracts - when to use? Top VetMed database with good coverage of companion animals in VM context
Describe PsycINFO - when to use? Excellent for animal behavior of heavily studied or well-understood taxa
Describe PAIS - when to use? Policy including animal control, rules
Describe Zoological Record - when to use? Exotic pets including birds and reptiles
Philosopher’s Index? Ethics including animal welfare
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BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new windowBIOSIS Previews is a database for researching the biological sciences literature. Designed by biologists for keeping up with the literature across pure and applied life sciences including agriculture and medicine. Excellent features for searching by taxonomic categories and broad concept codes (subject categories). More than 27 million records in all life science areas, including agriculture, biochemistry, biomedicine, biotechnology, ecology, environmental biology, genetics, microbiology, plant biology, veterinary medicine & pharmacology, and zoology. Indexes over 6,000 journals, serials, books and book chapters, conference proceedings and patents.
[Coverage: 1926-present] -
CAB Abstracts (Ovid) This link opens in a new windowProvides citations and abstracts to the international agricultural literature, including veterinary medicine, human and animal nutrition, forestry, rural development, as well as other related topics such as tourism and human ecology. Covers over 11,000 journals and conference proceedings and selected books in agriculture. Produced by CAB (Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux) International (CABI) with more than 10 million records. HISTORICAL SCOPE: Archive abstracts added in August 2005 go back to 1910 with 1,860,000 additional records. CAB DATABASE PDFs: As of January 2009, hard-to-find literature may be available as CAB Database PDFs (so noted below the UC-eLinks button). These CABI Full Text items give users automatic access to over 350,000 journal articles, conference papers and reports 80 percent of which are not available electronically anywhere else. NOTE: the default UCD Search Type is set to Advanced Ovid Search.
[Coverage: 1910-present] -
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowPublished by the American Psychological Associations and provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. Documents indexed include journals, articles, books, dissertations and more. 90% of the 3,000+ titles indexed in APA PsycInfo are peer-reviewed.
[Coverage: 1840-present] -
PAIS Index This link opens in a new windowIndexes all types of materials in the area of public affairs and public policy - journal articles, books and book chapters, reports, government documents. Topics include agriculture, banking, demographics, education, environment, finance, government, health, law, legislation, political science, social sciences, and statistics.
[Coverage: 1914-present] -
Zoological Record This link opens in a new windowPrimary database for wildlife researchers. The oldest continuing database of animal biology - designed to include all records of new species information and naming. Comprehensive coverage of zoology; including behavior, conservation and environmental science, ecology, evolution, genetics, habitat, marine and freshwater biology, nutrition, parasitology and disease, reproduction, taxonomy and systematics, veterinary studies, zoogeography and fossil records. Especially strong in new species reports and field studies.
[Coverage: 1864-Present] -
Philosopher's Index This link opens in a new windowThe Philosopher's Index is a comprehensive, bibliographic database covering worldwide research in all areas of philosophy. It is created by philosophers for philosophers. The Philosopher's Index features: the inclusion of documents from philosophy and interdisciplinary publications, extensive indexing, and author-written abstracts. Philosophers prescreen potential source documents for relevance to the field of philosophy; this enables the inclusion of articles from interdisciplinary journals and contributions from interdisciplinary anthologies that pertain to philosophy. The indexing includes the assignment of subject headings that encompass proper names and subject terms using a standardized thesaurus. The indexing improves the quality of search results and the use of the standardized thesaurus provides consistency across records from the various publications. The abstracts help the user more quickly ascertain the relevance of the documents. The database provides global coverage, with source publications from more than 135 countries, and has records from 1940 to present, with additional records dating back to 1902. It includes more than 530,000 records in 37 languages. Sources includes: journals (print and e-journal articles from more than 1600 philosophy and interdisciplinary journals); books/monographs, including encyclopedias, dictionaries and book series; anthologies; contributions to anthologies from philosophy and interdisciplinary anthologies; and book reviews.
[Coverage: 1940-present]
Identify Peer-Reviewed Articles
A peer-reviewed source is an article that has been reviewed by several other experts in the field before being published in order to ensure its quality. This 2 minute video describes the peer review process.
How do I Know if an Article is Peer-Reviewed?
Look for limits/filters
Many databases allow you to specify that you want to search only in “peer-reviewed” or “refereed” sources.
Visit the journal’s webpage
Search online for your journal’s title. Sections like “about this journal” or “editorial policies” generally mention whether the journal is peer-reviewed/refereed.
Check a directory
Use the Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory to find key information about a journal, including whether it has a peer-review process.