Savvy Searcher

Electronic Journals

Last year, Himmelfarb Library rapidly expanded its access to electronic journals. Himmelfarb Library now offers access to nearly 700 journals in a full-text electronic format. All of these journals are available from the E-Journals page, which is linked from the main menu on the library website. All journals listed on the E-Journals page are available full-text online.

ACCESS POINTS - The new collection of electronic journals provides a variety of access points for individual titles. Titles continue to be available from publisher websites, as well as through database vendors such as Ovid. Additional titles are available through databases such as MDConsult, ProQuest, and LEXIS/NEXIS, and from online services such as Ingenta/Catchword. For each journal, on-campus access is indicated in the first column and off-campus access is indicated in the second column.

MULTIPLE ACCESS POINTS – Some electronic journals have multiple access points. As you see in the page image above, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is available from multiple access points, via both ProQuest and LEXIS/NEXIS.. As you gain familiarity with electronic journals, you may find that you prefer one access point over another. For example, Publisher and ProQuest are more likely to provide the article in PDF format so that it looks like the actual journal pages, while Ovid or MDConsult may provide additional years of back issues. In general however, all access points will provide the full-text and images from the journals.

FULL-TEXT COVERAGE – The years of full-text coverage for each journal and for each access point are listed. Most electronic journals have electronic access beginning in the mid 1990’s and continuing through the present. However, some started earlier and provide issues going back into the 1980’s, and some started later and provide only the last few years. In addition, some electronic journals offer only the most recent journals (example, Current 12 months only), while still others make only the older issues available (example, Archival: Feb 1997 -Jan 2002). When deciding which access point to use, review the dates of full-text coverage in order to be certain that the issue that you need will be available.

FINDING AN ARTICLE - Some access points (ex, Publisher, Ovid, Ingenta/Catchword) link to a website that contains a list of available issues for that particular journal. Other access points (MDConsult, ProQuest, and LEXIS/NEXIS) link to databases, and you must search for the particular article that you want within that database. While this isn’t the seamless access we want to provide, we thought that our users would value knowing where to find the full-text of journals even if it required some additional mouse clicks on their part.

Complete instructions for locating electronic journals via the various access points are available at the bottom of each E-Journals webpage under “Icon Key.”

TROUBLESHOOTING – If you have any difficulty accessing the titles available from the E-Journals page, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can telephone Himmelfarb Library’s Reference Desk at 202-994-2850 or send an email to library@gwumc.edu.