Resources for Finding and Accessing Scientific Papers

Check the library of a local college or university. · Look for a free online version. · Go directly to the online homepage of the journal · Search directly for the ... ProjectGuides ResourcesforFindingandAccessingScientificPapers AddFavorite Print Email ShareMenu Facebook Pinterest Twitter MoreMenu ReportaProblem GoogleClassroom CreateAssignment CreateAnnouncement Introduction Readingscientificliteratureisacriticalpartofconceivingofandexecutingasuccessfuladvancedscienceproject.TheHowtoReadaScientificPaperguidecanhelpyougetthemostoutofeachpaperyouread—first,ofcourse,youhavetoactuallygetyourhandsonthepaper!That'swherethisguidecomesin.Belowyou'llfindtipsandresourcesforbothsearchingforandacquiringfreecopiesofscientificpaperstoread. AcademicSearchEngines:ResourcesforFindingSciencePaperCitations Whenyoustartyourbackgroundresearch,oneoftheearlystepsisfindingandreadingthescientificliteraturerelatedtoyourscienceproject(seetheRoadmap:HowtoGetStartedOnanAdvancedScienceProjectarticleformoredetailsonprojectsteps).Mentorsareagreatresourceforrecommendationsaboutwhichscientificpapersarecriticalforyoutoreadandyoushoulddefinitelyaskyourmentor,oranotherexpertinthefield,foradvice.Butthere'llalsobetimeswhenyourmentorisbusyorisn'tup-to-dateonaparticularexperimentalmethod,inwhichcase,you'llneedtobeproactiveandhuntforpapersonyourown.Itturnsoutthatjustpluggingsearchtermsintoaregularsearchengine,likeGoogle,Yahoo,orMSN,isn'tveryeffective.Thepagesyougetbackwillbeawidemixtureofwebsites,andveryfewwillbelinkstopeer-reviewedscientificpapers.Tofindscientificliterature,thebestthingtouseisanacademicsearchengine. Therearemanydifferentacademicsearchengines.Somefocusonasinglediscipline,whileothershavecitationsfrommultiplefields.Thereareahandfuloffree,publiclyavailableacademicsearchenginesthatcanbeaccessedonline;someofthesearelistedinTable1,below.Theremainder,liketheISIWebofScience,aresubscription-based.Universitiesandcollegesoftensubscribetoacademicsearchengines.Ifyoucan'tfindwhatyouneedusingafreesearchengine,youmaybeabletoaccesstheseresourcesfromcomputersinauniversityorcollegelibrary.Consulttheschool'slibrarywebpage,orcallthelibrarydirectly,tofindouttowhichacademicsearchenginestheysubscribetoandwhetherornotyou'dbeallowedintothelibrarytoaccessthem. Table1:Thistableprovidesalistoffree,onlineacademicsearchenginesforvarioussciencedisciplines. AcademicSearchEngine URL Disciplines HelpFiles GoogleScholar scholar.google.com All scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html ScienceDirect http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/search All NA Pubmed www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed Lifesciences www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial IEEEXplore ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/guesthome.jsp Electronics,Electricalengineering,Computerscience NA NationalAgriculturalLibrary(AGRICOLA) agricola.nal.usda.gov Agriculture agricola.nal.usda.gov/help/quicksearch.html EducationResourcesInformationCenter(ERIC) eric.ed.gov Education NA Hereareafewtipstohelpyougetstartedwiththeacademicsearchengines: Eachsearchengineworksslightlydifferently,soit'sworthtakingthetimetoreadanyavailablehelppagestofigureoutthebestwaytouseeachone. Whenyou'rebeginningyourliteraturesearch,tryseveraldifferentkeywords,bothaloneandincombination.Then,asyouviewtheresults,youcannarrowyourfocusandfigureoutwhichkeywordsbestdescribethekindsofpapersinwhichyouareinterested. Asyoureadtheliterature,gobackandtryadditionalsearchesusingthejargonandtermsyoulearnwhilereading. Note:Theresultsofacademicsearchenginescomeintheformofanabstract,whichyoucanreadtodetermineifthepaperisrelevanttoyourscienceproject,aswellasafullcitation(author,journaltitle,volume,pagenumbers,year,etc.)sothatyoucanfindaphysicalcopyofthepaper.Searchenginesdonotnecessarilycontainthefulltextofthepaperforyoutoread.Afew,likePubMed,doprovidelinkstofreeonlineversionsofthepaper,whenoneisavailable.Readonforhelpfindingthefullpaper. HowtoGetaCopyofaScientificPaper Onceyou'vefoundthecitationforapaperthatisrelevanttoyouradvancedscienceproject,thenextstepisactuallygettingacopysothatyoucanreadit.Asmentionedabove,somesearchenginesprovidelinkstofreeonlineversionsofthepaper,ifoneexists.Ifthesearchenginedoesn't,orifyougotthecitationsomewhereelse,likethebibliographyofanothersciencepaperyouwerereading,thereareseveralwaystofindcopies. SearchingforNewerPapers(publishedduringInternetera) Checkthelibraryofalocalcollegeoruniversity.Academicinstitutions,likecollegesanduniversities,oftensubscribetomanyscientificjournals.Someoftheselibrariesarefreetothepublic.Contactthelibrary,orlookattheirwebsite,toseeifyoumayusetheirresourcesandiftheysubscribetothejournalsinwhichyou'reinterested.Often,thelibrary'scatalogofholdingsisonlineandpubliclysearchable. Note:Ifyoudogotoauniversityorcollegelibrarytophotocopyorprintjournalarticles,makesuretobringplentyofchangewithyou,becausetheywon'thaveany! Lookforafreeonlineversion.TrysearchingforthefulltitleofthepaperinaregularsearchenginelikeGoogle,Yahoo,orMSN.Thepapermaycomeupmultipletimes,andoneofthosemightbeafree,downloadablecopy.So,ifthefirstlinkisn'tdownloadable,tryanother. Godirectlytotheonlinehomepageofthejournalinwhichthepaperwaspublished.Somescientificjournalsare"open-source,"meaningthattheircontentisalwaysfreeonlinetothepublic.Othersarefreeonline(oftenafterregisteringwiththewebsite)ifthepaperwaspublishedmorethanayearago.TheDirectoryofOpenAccessJournalsisalsoagoodplacetochecktoseewhichjournalsarefreeinyourfieldofinterest.Thewebsitelistsjournalsbysubject,aswellasbytitle. SearchdirectlyforthehomepageofthefirstorlastauthorofthepaperandseeifheorshehasaPDFofthepaperonhisorherwebsite.Ifso,youcandownloaditdirectlyfromthere.Generallyitisonlyworthlookingupthefirstauthor(theonewhocontributedthemosttothepaper)orthelastauthor(usuallytheprofessorinwhoselabtheworkwasdoneandwhosupervisedthescienceproject). Lookforthepaper(usingthetitleorauthors)inasciencedatabase,likethoselistedbelow,inTable2.Thesedatabasescontainfree,full-textversionsofscientificpapers,aswellasotherrelevantinformation,likepubliclyaccessibledatasets. Table2:Listofdatabasescontainingfree,full-textscientificpapersanddatasets. Database URL Disciplines NASAScientificandTechnicalInformation(STI) www.sti.nasa.gov/STI-public-homepage.html Aerospace SOA/NASAAstrophysicsDataSystem adswww.harvard.edu/ Astronomy,physics arXiv arxiv.org/ Physics,Mathematics,Computerscience,Quantitativebiology,Quantitativefinanceandstatistics CiteSeerX citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ Computerscience PublicLibraryofScience(PLOS) https://www.plos.org/ Lifesciences HighWirePress highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl Lifesciences Purchaseacopy.Dependingonthesciencemagazinepublisher,youmayalsocomeacrossoffersforpurchasingacopyofthepaper.Thisisanexpensiveoption,particularlyifyouhavemultiplepapersyou'dliketoread;trysomeoftheothersearchingmethodsfirst SearchingforOlderPapers(publishedpre-Internetera) Evenwithalloftheabovesearchingmethods,youmaynotbeabletofindafreecopyofthepaperonline.Thisisparticularlytrueforoldersciencepapers,whichwerepublishedbeforeonlinecontentbecameroutine.Inthesecases,thereareadditionalwaystogetthepaperatnoorminimalcost. Contacttheauthorviaemail.Asmentionedabove,thefirstandlastauthorsareyourbestbets.Brieflyexplainyoursituationandrequestacopyofthepaperdirectlyfromhimorher.Ifyoudothis,makesuretobepoliteandbriefinyouremail. Checkthelibraryofalocalcollegeoruniversity.Academicinstitutions,likecollegesanduniversities,oftensubscribetomanyscientificjournals.Someoftheselibrariesarefreetothepublic.Contactthelibrary,orlookattheirwebsite,toseeifyoumayusetheirresourcesandiftheysubscribetothejournalsinwhichyou'reinterested.Often,thelibrary'scatalogofholdingsisonlineandpubliclysearchable. Note:Ifyoudogotoauniversityorcollegelibrarytophotocopyorprintjournalarticles,makesuretobringplentyofchangewithyou,becausetheywon'thaveany! Contactyourmentorandaskifheorshecanhelpyouacquireacopyofthepaper.Usethisasalastresortthough,becauseyoumayfindthatyourrequestfallsprettyfardownonamentor'slengthyto-dolist. 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