Go to the library's homepage (select it from "go to quickly" on the Gustavus main page or type in http://gustavus.edu/Library
Mark the articles you want to print out or send to yourself by e-mail. To do this, click in the box in the upper left-hand corner of the citation. Then click on save/print/email and decide whether you want to download it, send it to your e-mail account, or simply print it.
Getting the articles you've selected:
Once you've scanned your options and you want to get an entire article, check the Source field in the listing. This gives the name of the journal in which it appeared. You can then check our list of periodicals or type the title of the journal into the PALS catalog to see if we own it--or you can simply click on "locate document" in the upper right-hand corner of the citation. This will launch a search of our catalog for that title.
If we don't have the journal here, print out the citation(s) you want, write at the top your name and the bar code number on your ID card (it begins 20110--) and drop it off at the Interlibrary Loan counter. We will get a scanned copy of the article from another library in a few days and will send it to your PO. There may be glitch if we ask for too many articles from one journal--copyright law limits us in that case, and you may have to make another choice.
Database searching is one way to find articles; looking at what is being cited is another. When you find a good article, look through the references it provides and see if other articles would be good for your literature review. These have been carefully selected by another researcher and using their experience is a good way to find relevant, quality research.
To locate these resources, first determine whether it is a journal article or not; if it is, check the library catalog or the list of current periodicals to see if we have it; fill out an interlibrary loan form if we don't subscribe to that journal. If it is a research bulletin, report, thesis, or conference proceeding it may be harder to find. For the purposes of this project, concentrate on journal articles. You can pick up an interlibrary loan form at the reference desk or fill it out electronically; choose the ILL for Magazine Articles link.
How can you tell if it's a primary article?
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts is the most in-depth database available in this library for biological research. The library subscribes to other databases that have other strengths. Here is a sampling of them:
Current Contents Choose from
the "select a database quickly" list
This service is designed to keep scientists up-to-date with the latest
publications. The tables of contents of a wide variety of journals in included
for searching, though not the full text of the articles. It's handy for
seeing the latest publications because it's updated quickly. It's also
useful for topics that fall across disciplines.
IDEAL
A full-text periodical collection, this one offering the current issues
of all of the journals published by Academic Press. References to articles
published by other affiliated companies are included, but are not full-text.
JSTOR
A full-text periodical collection that presents .pdf file images of
the actual pages of journals. Unlike most electronic databases, this one
covers journals from their first issue on, but does not include the most
current two-five years coverage. The idea behind it is to be an electronic
archive for older issues, but one benefit is being able to do full-text
searches. There are several ecology journals in this collection, but none
specifically on animal behavior.
Science Direct
A collection of around 700 full-text journals published by Elsevier
as well as references to articles not available in full-text. To search,
choose "group login."