Finding Full-Text Articles
To access the full text of an article from a database, use the Get it! Cornell links wherever you see them! If Cornell subscribes to the journal where the article is published, you will be linked to the full text. If Cornell does not have access to the journal and the article you need, click on the Submit a Request link from the database page. This will take you to your Interlibrary Loan account and you can then place a request for the article. In most cases, Cornell will email you the article in a few days -- for free! If you have not created an Interlibrary Loan account, you are encouraged to do so! It will save you time later.
If you have citations for specific articles, check the Library Catalog to see if we subscribe to the journal that contains the article. Type the journal title in the search box and then choose Journal Title from the field options.
The Catalog will show whether or not we have access to the electronic version and/or the print version.
If you have questions about this process, reference librarians are available to help you. Please contact us with any questions!
Searching Databases
Most databases allow the use of AND, OR and NOT to broaden or narrow and search.
- AND will narrow the search to include only records with both terms.
- OR with broaden the search to include records with either term.
- NOT will narrow the search to exclude records with one of the terms.
Truncation: You can use an * at the end of a word stem to broaden your search to include related terms. For example, to search for child, children or childhood use the search term child*
Putting quotes "" around words allows you to search for a phrase. For example, searching language development, without quotes, finds records with both the word 'language' and 'development' somewhere in the record. Searching "language development", with quotes, only find records with the phrase "language development".
Example: How does bilingualism affect language development in children?
NOTE: When you begin doing advanced searching in a new database, look for the Help or Information sections to determine how that database works, and how it may differ from other databases with which you are familiar.