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Finding Nature and
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Reference Desk (413) 774-1509 |
Some periodical publishers "embargo" current articles so that consumers will purchase their publication. This means that from one to several years of the most current issues are not available in electronic databases.
- Nature and Science are indexed in several of the databases available in the library, but the full text is not available.
- This means that the citation and a summary (or abstract) of the article are provided.
- The Boyden Library subscribes to both Nature and Science.
- These publications are available in paper format in our library.
- Search the database to find citations and use our Periodical List to determine where the current issues of these publications are located in our library.
In Academic Search Premier and Science Reference Center
Nature is supposed to be available in full text from 1997-present with a 12 month embargo, however, all Nature articles are not full text
Science articles are available in full text from 1997 through 2004
- Academic Search Premier is linked under Databases by Subject/General databases and under Databases by Title on the library website
- Science Reference Center is linked under Databases by Subject/Science and under Databases by Title
- To limit the search to articles in either Nature or Science, click on the "Advanced Search" tab
- DO NOT limit your results to "Full Text"
- Use the drop down menu for the first search window and choose "Journal Name"
- Type either Nature or Science
- In the second search window, type your search term
- Use the drop down menu and choose "Subject Term" if you think your term might be a subject heading--if not, you can elect not to "Select a Field"
- Searching by subject is very powerful and finds articles that are completely about your topic
- Keyword searching finds articles where your terms are mentioned and can bring up more false hits
- Add another concept in third search window if your search is more complex and requires another concept
- Consider other limits to your search results (by date, type of article, etc.)
- The results will come up chronologically with the most current articles first
- Click the "Search" button to conduct your search
- Browse the search results to evaluate them for relevancy
- Select the citations/articles you wish to print or email to yourself by adding them to the folder
- Click on the folder in the upper right corner of the search results page, choose print or email, and follow the instructions
- If any of your results were citations rather than full text articles, use the Periodicals List to determine where the publication is located in the Boyden Library
In General OneFile
Nature is indexed back to 1987 in this database, but the full text is not available
Science is indexed back to 1980. Full text is available through 2004
- General OneFile is linked under Databases by Subject/General databases and under Databases by Title on the library website
- To limit the search to articles in either Nature or Science, choose the Advanced Search option
- Use the drop down menu for the first search window and choose "Publication Title"
- Type Nature or Science
- In the second search window, type your search term
- Use the drop down menu and choose "Subject Term" if you think your term might be a subject term--if not, you can elect to search by keyword instead
- Searching by subject is very powerful and finds articles that are completely about your topic
- Keyword searching finds articles where your terms are mentioned and can bring up more false hits
- Add another concept in third search window if your search is more complex and requires another concept
- Consider other limits to your search results (by date, etc.)
- The results will come up chronologically with the most current articles first
- DO NOT limit your search "to documents with full text"
- In InfoTrac databases you can also choose to search by "publication title" at the bottom of the Advanced Search screen
- Click the "Search" button to conduct your search
- Browse the search results to evaluate them for relevancy
- Select the citations/articles you wish to print or email to yourself by marking them
- Click on the link for "Marked Items" in the horizontal menu at the top of the screen to bring up the list
- Choose Print or Email from the menu across the top of the screen and follow the instructions
- If any of your results were citations rather than full text articles, use the Periodicals List to determine where the publication is located in the Boyden Library
If you have difficulty with either of these databases or with understanding the instructions, contact a Reference Librarian at the Reference Desk or at x1509.