How to tell if an article's full text is available in the database
Sometimes, the library databases will have just the citation and abstract of an article, and not the full text. Whether or not the full text is available will be shown on the results page after you do a search. The following images show how it looks in our most popular database interfaces.
EBSCO
Here, the first result has the full text included; you can see the links to the full text right under the citation. This particular article has the full text available in two formats, HTML and PDF, but some articles may have only one format. The second result does not have the full text. In place of the links to the full text, you see links to check for full text availability or to request the item through interlibrary loan. These options will be discussed in more detail in the "next steps" section of this answer.
ProQuest
In this example, the first result does not have the full text. In place of the link, you see a link to check for full-text availability. The second result does have the full text, and you can see the link to it right below the citation.
Most of our databases use one of these two interfaces, but if you are using something that looks different, you can use these two examples as a guide for what to look for in your results. All of the database companies try to make it easy for you to get to the full text, so if you don't see it, it's usually because it's not there.
Filtering your results for full-text only
If there are plenty of articles available for your topic, you can make things easier on yourself by telling the database to just show you the ones where it has the full text. You can find this filter on the search page or on your results page.
Here's how it looks in EBSCO, on the search page,
I've circled the full-text option in red. Note that when you're in the database, you may need to scroll down a little to find the checkbox.
And on the results page,
In this example, I've circled the checkbox in green. It's located in the "refine results" menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
Here's where to find the full-text option on the ProQuest search page:
I have circled the check-box in red. Unlike EBSCO, ProQuest puts all of the other options on the Advanced Search page, so you don't have to scroll to look for it.
And on the results page:
Here, once again, the check-box is circled in red. As with EBSCO, it's located in a filtering menu that includes many other options.
Most of our databases use one of these two interfaces, but if you are using something that looks different, there is probably a full-text filter available. If you can't find it, please feel free to reach out to us for assistance.
Next steps if the database doesn't have the full text
First, if the database gives you a "check for full-text availability" link, click on it! It will automatically check if any of the other databases have it.
If you're lucky, you'll get a screen that looks like this:
Simply click on a link to be taken to the other database, where you can then search or browse for the article you wanted. if you run into trouble please feel free to contact us for help.
If you're not lucky, you'll get this screen:
If you got here using a database link, you can ignore the part about checking your spelling.
The next step, if you really want the article, is to request it through interlibrary loan. Placing an ILL request is free and usually easy--most databases will give you a link to make the request automatically. However, it does take a couple of days for the article to actually arrive. Follow the link for all the details on how it works!