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Agricultural & Biological Engineering Research Guide

How to Find the Full Text of an Article

When searching a database:

1. If you don't find a link to the full-text in the database, use the Find It button to search all MSU databases for the full-text.

Find It button

2. If we don't have the full-text online, click on the link provided to see if the MSU Library owns a print copy. This will search the Online Catalog for the journal.

3. Examine any holdings statements to determine if we have the volume and issue that the article appears in.

4. If we don't have the article online OR in print, use Interlibrary Loan to get it from another library.


When you just have a citation:

1. Copy and paste the name of the article title into the library's Discovery database.

2. Follow the steps above to determine if the library has the article you need.


Note:

Many authors, especially federal government employees, post versions of their articles online. So you may be able to find what you need through a Google or Google Scholar search.

Developing Effective Searches

Boolean Searching, Truncation, and Phrase Searching
This ... Finds records with ...
sleep AND grades both terms
coffee OR caffeine either term
diet* diet, diets, dietary, etc.  (truncation)
"college students" the words together
students NOT college the 1st term but not the 2nd  (use sparingly)  [Scopus uses AND NOT]

These can be combined in search boxes as follows:

  "college students*"
AND sleep
AND grades OR "academic achievement"

Other tips:

  • Limit results by year of publication.
  • Sort by relevance (default in most databases, but not in Scopus).
  • In the results list, look for subject terms of keywords that can help you fine-tune your search.

Keep up with what's being published on a topic with search alerts!

If you are working on a large research project, search alerts can notify you when new articles about your research topic are added to a database.

Search Alerts in Scopus

The following steps show how to set up email alerts in the Scopus database. Most other databases also allow you to set up alerts.  

  1. Set up a Scopus profile by clicking on Register at the top right.
  2. Enter the required information. (You should not use your MSU ID and Password for this.)
  3. Perform your search.
  4. Click on the Set Alert link, located above the Document Results box.
  5. Click on Create.

Search Alerts in EBSCO Databases

The MSU Libraries subscribes to many databases from the EBSCO company, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, Environment Complete, ERIC, and more. The following are the steps for setting up a search alert in any EBSCO database.

  1. Perform your search.
  2. At the top of the page, click on the three dots next to Relevance (shown below)
  3. The Create Alert button will then appear.
  4. You will be taken to the MSU login screen (cas.its.msstate.edu)
  5. Log in with your MSU Net ID and Net Password.

Search Alerts in PubMed

  1. Set up a free PubMed account by clicking on Log In in the upper right. (You should not use your MSU ID and Password for this.)
  2. Perform your search.
  3. Under the searchbox, click on Create Alert.
  4. Complete the preferences for the alert.

 

Table of Contents Alerts

For immediate notification when new issues of your favorite journals become available, set up Table of Contents Alerts.

  1. Go to the publishers website.
  2. Find the homepage of the journal.
  3. Look for the link to sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.