1. Enter as much information as you can about your citation.  Remember that the more citation information you can provide the better the chances will be that the article will be found. 
2. You must always include an ISSN.  After ISSN, volume and issue are the most important to include, followed by article title and journal title.  Next, include start page and date if available.
3. Note that the date field requirements vary by vendor:  you can enter a single year ("yyyy"), the month and year ("Mon yyyy"), or the date, month and year (yyyy-mm-dd or mm-dd-yyyy).

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4. You can, if you wish, cut and paste from the following into Article Finder to test this example:

Article Title: Band gap narrowing of titanium dioxide by sulfur doping
Journal Title: Applied Physics Letters
ISSN: 0003-6951
Volume: 81
Number: 3
Date: 2002
Start Page: 454

1. Article Finder returns results based on the information you provide and what it is able to find.  Notice in this example the different "sections" of information available to you:
   • Direct Access to Article
   • Full Text Online from Provider
   • Full Text in my Library
   • Article Request via Interlibrary Loan
   • Indexing Only Resources (no full text)
   • Other Resources
2. If you simply want quick access to the article, using the links listed in the "Direct Access to Article" section (if available) is your best choice.  These links will often take you directly to the article.  Occasionally the link may take you to a journal's main site rather than to the specific article and you will have to "drill down" to the proper volume and issue to locate it.  NOTE that Article Finder is configured to cast a "wide net" in order to provide as many potentially valid links as possible.  At times it may provide links to publishers or other vendors that CSM patrons can not access.  Note also that most providers require you to have a Mines IP address to access their full information.
3. The "Full Text Online from Provider" section links will take you to sites that provide access to the full text but you may have to "drill down" or "navigate" to find the article. 
4. The "Full Text in my Library" link will do a search for the journal in the Library's catalog, Catalyst.  Using this link you can discover if the Library carries print copies of the journal.
5. The "Indexing Only Resources" will provide links to one or more databases that index the journal in your citation.  They will not provide access to the full text, but they can be very useful for finding similar articles. 

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1. In the "Band gap narrowing" example presented above, if you click on the "Your Article from EBSCOHost" you will see the screen that follows below.  It provides you with a direct link to the article.
   
2. If  you click on the "Your Article from The Publisher" you will see the second, different screen from the publisher of "Applied Physics Letters".  It also provides you with a direct link to the article.
3. As you see, this article happens to be available directly from two different sources.  This is not always the case. 

 
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1. If you click on one of the "Full Text Online" links you'll be taken to a full-text provider, but as mentioned you will have to "drill down" or navigate to find the article.
2. Different providers use different methods to allow you to navigate to find the article you seek.  In this case the EBSCO Research Databases interface will require you to identify the year, volume and issue of the article.  Note that Article Finder does not carry that information over for you automatically.

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The "Indexing Only" links will take you to databases that index the journal in question but which do not provide full-text access.  Instead they provide citation information and access to related articles.  Like the previous "Full Text Online" example, the information from the citation is not carried over.  You will be presented with a search screen and required to re-enter your citation information.  These powerful research databases can often help you find related articles.  For example, they might point you to other articles by the same author, articles that cite this work, or that the work itself cites, articles with similar subject or topic areas, and other research possibilities.

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Sometimes you won't get any links in the "Direct Access to Article" section.  In these cases you will need to examine the other section links and evaluate their usefulness.  In the following example, the article is available directly from JJAP (under the "Full Text Online" section), but you must navigate to locate it, once you've clicked on the J-STAGE link.

If you are unable to find the article, try using the "Article Request via Interlibrary Loan" section.  Interlibrary loan will attempt to locate the article for you.

Hopefully you have now begun to see that this process can be more of an "art" than a "science" and that it can take some patience as well as trial and error.  You may find that online full text access is not available through Arthur Lakes Library, and you will have to use inter-library loan; other times perhaps you need to make sure your citation information is correct and as complete as possible.

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