Finding Full-Text of Articles

You want the full text of articles, right? There are several ways to find them.

  • Use the Get it! Cornell links wherever you see them!
  • If you have citations for specific articles: check the Library Catalog to see if we subscribe to the journals that contain the articles. The Catalog will show whether or not we have access to the electronic version and/or the print version.
  • If we don't have it, we can get it for you for free in a few days! Request materials through Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan by clicking the Request Item button

Reference librarians are here to help you - so please contact us with any questions!

Off-Campus Access to Full-Text

If you're off-campus and want access to full-text, just go through the Library website. You can log in with your netID and password to gain access to our licensed resources.

For anytime, anywhere access from your broswer, download the Passkey toolbar from CUL Labs.

Not Sure Which Database To Use?

The best way to do a comprehensive search for scholarly articles in your area is to find a database in that subject. If you're not sure where to start to find a database that covers your subject area or the type of information you need, start with the library's research guides or ask a librarian!

Searching Databases

Go to a database that covers the subject (in this case, science) like Web of Knowledge.

In most of these databases you can do a search for your topic in basic or advanced search by keyword to find articles, using AND, OR, or NOT to connect your terms and concepts.

  • Write out your topic in a sentence or phrase (make sure you're topic is specific enough)
  • Break it into the important concepts
  • Be sure to think of as many synonyms or alternate terms as you can (including scientific names)
  • Connect your concepts with AND and your similar terms with OR (use not to exclude common meanings you don't want)

Most databases let you use a symbol (*) to indicate words that begin with certain letters and have any ending. Therefore, peanut* will get you peanut or peanuts. Check the Search Tips or Help to find out what the symbol (usually called a truncation or wildcard symbol) is called in your database.

In a lot of databases, if you look at the full record for the article (or the limiting options) you'll also find the subject headings or descriptors that the datbases uses to classify any articles specifically about that topic and you can use these to re-search by subject to narrow your search.

You can then limit your results by lanuaguage, subject, publication year, type of material (like only peer-reviewed articles) or other criteria (review articles).

Top Databases

Here are the top, mostly scholarly, databases in the life and environmental sciences area. What's the difference between popular and scholarly?

Other Useful Science Databases

Here are other, chiefly scholarly, databases that may include useful articles on biology, medicine and agriculture.

Other Useful Databases in Education and the Social Sciences

Here are the top databases in this subject area: