How to Find Journals and Journal Articles
- What Journals are Available Online or in Print?
- Journal Title Abbreviations
- Finding Journal Articles
- Proxy Access to Electronic Resources
- Get Full Text of Article
- Incomplete Article Citation
- Cited Reference Search
- PubMed or Ovid?
What Journals are Available Online or in Print?
Click on the “Journals” button on the Becker Medical Library Web site to search for Journal titles owned by Becker Library. Search through all journals (Journals > At Becker) or just the electronic journals (Journals > Electronic). You can:
- Search for titles by keyword or NLM abbreviation
- Browse an alphabetic list of journals
- Search by subject (using the drop-down menu)
The catalog record will indicate which journals are available electronically, in print, or in both formats, and the years of our holdings. The location within the library of print editions is noted. If the journal is available electronically, the record will contain a hyperlink to that version and any access or password restrictions.
Journal Title Abbreviations
Many article citations use the National Library of Medicine (NLM) abbreviation of the full journal title. To convert a medical journal abbreviation to a full title or vice versa, use the PubMed Journals Database linked from the left sidebar of PubMed (under PubMed Services). The PubMed Journals Database can be searched using the journal’s abbreviated title, full title, or keywords from the title.
Becker Library Catalog records for journals include the NLM abbreviation of the title. You can search the Becker Library Catalog using the journal title abbreviation in the “Journal Title Keywords” field.
Finding Journal Articles
To find a list of articles on a particular topic or by a specific author, use a bibliographic database such as Ovid, PubMed, SCOPUS, or ISI Web of Science. The Becker Library provides access to over 100 medical and scientific databases – within the catalog click on the “Databases and Selected Web Sites” tab. You can:
- Search for databases by keyword
- Browse an alphabetical list of Databases
- Search by subject (using the drop-down menu)
Bibliographic databases may be searched in various ways including keywords, author name, article title, and National Library of Medicine Subject Headings (MeSH). Most electronic bibliographic databases index articles from the 1960s to the present. Consult the user’s guide in the database to determine the range of years covered. If you need to perform a historical search for earlier articles, consult Index Medicus, a print periodical index located in the Becker Library on the main floor. Click on “Help” within a particular database for assistance in using that database, or contact the Becker Library reference staff (askreference@msnotes.wustl.edu / 314-362-7085).
Many of the electronic full-text journals that the Becker Library subscribes to are accessible directly from the databases. This “link-out” feature allows you to access the full-text article without exiting the database. Databases have different ways of noting full-text availability via link-out options, depending on the publisher or vendor. Some databases display a link to the journal on the results page; others display the link in the abstract of the citation. Some link-out options are icons or graphics; others are text based. Examples of databases that link to full text are Ovid, PubMed, SCOPUS, ISI Web of Science, and EMBASE. If you do not see a link-out option to a journal from a database, copy the citation and check for journal availability from the Becker Catalog.
Use the proxy service to access electronic databases from a non-wustl.edu network. To login to proxy, go to the Becker Library Web site and click the “Logon to Proxy” button on the left side of the web pages. Proxy service is not needed for password-based databases such as Ovid.
Proxy Access to Electronic Resources
Two new proxy servers now provide access to select clinical resources for members of the WUSM and BJC community located anywhere in the Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s Hospitals. Select the link that will provide you the most access based on your affiliation and the location of the computer you want to use.
Affiliation |
Location of Computer |
URL for Resource Access |
| WUSM | WU network | http://becker.wustl.edu Access to all Becker Library resources; select from the Quick Links menu |
| WUSM | Carenet network | http://beckerproxy2a.wucon.wustl.edu Access to MDConsult, First Consult, UpToDate, Isabel, Stat!Ref, Science Direct |
| WUSM | Home | http://beckerproxy.wustl.edu (Proxy account required) Access to all Becker Library resources except UpToDate |
| BJH/SLCH | Carenet network | http://beckerproxy2a.wucon.wustl.edu Access to MDConsult, First Consult, UpToDate, Isabel, Stat!Ref, Science Direct or http://becker.wustl.edu Access to MDConsult, First Consult, UpToDate, Isabel, Stat!Ref, Science Direct from the Quick Links menu |
| BJH/SLCH | WU network | http://becker.wustl.edu Access to all Becker Library resources; select from the Quick Links menu |
| BJH/SLCH | Home | No access |
For more information about Proxy service, click here.
Get Full Text of Article
After you have identified relevant citations, you will need to find the full text of the articles. Many full-text articles are accessible electronically while others are available only in print. Several publishers offer the choice of either PDF or HTML versions of articles.
To find full-text articles online:
- Becker Library Catalog – go to the online version of the journal. Each journal’s user interface should allow access to current and archived articles as well as provide a search function.
- PubMed – look for the “WUSTL Becker Online” icon. Click on that icon to go to gain access to the full text.
- Bibliographic databases – look for links to full-text versions of the articles. Many of the electronic full-text journals that the Becker Library subscribes to are accessible directly from the databases.
To find print articles:
- Ovid, PubMed, and many other bibliographic databases indicate whether the Becker Medical Library holds the print issues of a journal.
- Becker Library Catalog – search the Becker catalog to determine the library’s print holdings. The catalog record will indicate which volumes are available and where the journal is shelved (the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th floors of the library).
- If the Becker Library does not hold the journal you need, contact Interlibrary Loan to request a copy.
Incomplete Article Citation
If you have a partial or incorrect citation for an article, use PubMed’s Single Citation Matcher to retrieve the complete citation. PubMed Single Citation Matcher is linked from the left sidebar of PubMed (under PubMed Services). The fill-in-the-blank form allows you to enter partial journal citation information to locate a record for a specific single article, or items indexed from a particular volume or issue of a journal.
PubMed indexes journal articles in more than 5,000 biomedical journals. If the article you are looking for is not indexed in PubMed you will get zero results. This does not mean that your article doesn’t exist – you may need to try searching in a different database.
Cited Reference Search
Both ISI Web of Science and SCOPUS provide information on the number of times an article has been cited in the published literature.
In ISI Web of Science, click on the “Cited Ref” tab to access the Cited Reference Search. Enter the cited author and the cited work (abbreviated journal/book title) into the search box. Click on “search” to retrieve a Cited Reference Index. Select the applicable variants of the article/work and click on “Finish Searching” to view the articles that cite the selected references.
In SCOPUS, the search results page includes a “Cited By” column on the right side of the page. Click on the number in the “Cited By” column to see a list of other articles that cite that particular article.
The SCOPUS database also has an author search tool. Select the “Author Search” tab from the main page and enter the author’s last name, first name or initials, and subject areas. Click on “Search” – the results page will display the number of documents in the SCOPUS database for that author, the author’s subject area focus and affiliation, links to the author’s published works in the database, and a citation overview for the author.
PubMed or Ovid?
Both PubMed and Ovid provide access to MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database. PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and is freely accessible over the Internet.
PubMed provides limited free access to full-text journals and provides links to items owned by the Becker Medical Library. Ovid is a proprietary database, developed by Ovid Technologies, which allows searching of MEDLINE and other databases simultaneously. Access requires a user name and password and is restricted to the WUSM community. There are advantages and limitations to both the PubMed and Ovid interfaces. PubMed is generally easier to search than Ovid, but it can return large numbers of irrelevant articles unless the user is familiar with the advanced search options. Ovid can be more difficult to learn, but complex and precise searching is easier on Ovid than on PubMed, allowing a greater level of control over a search and resulting in retrieval of fewer irrelevant articles.
Contact the Becker Library reference staff (askreference@msnotes.wustl.edu / 314-362-7085) for assistance in setting up an Ovid account or for assistance in searching both Ovid and PubMed. Classes on “Using Ovid Online” are offered several times throughout the year – consult the Computer and Library Education Series class schedule for more details.
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