Answered By: Sharon Nangle
Last Updated: Nov 20, 2015     Views: 84

There are a few reasons why you may not be able to access a journal article:

You need to sign in

  • If you are on-campus or connected to Eduroam, then you should be prompted to login, or you will not need to sign in at all.
  • If you're off-campus you will need to sign in.  If you're not prompted to login look for an Institutional or Shibboleth or Home Organisation option - our Remote Access to Online Resources guide provides instructions for all the services we have access to.

The University doesn't subscribe to the content you need

  • If you've signed in, but can't access the full-text of the article the most likely problem is that the University doesn't have access to the content you want.  It may be that we have access through another supplier, so for example you may be looking at an article on the Wiley platform, where we don't have access, but we may have access through a subscription to the individual journal title.
  • You can check whether we have access by searching SAULCAT:
    1. Go to SAULCAT and choose the Periodicals and Journals tab
    2. Select the Title tab
    3. Enter the title of the journal (not the article title) into the search box

e.g.

  • From the results select the Journal you want to access (if the journal doesn't appear on the list of results, then we don't have access to it)
  • From the Journal record you'll see what access we have, and on which services

e.g.

We have access to the title above through JSTOR from 1992-2011, and through SpringerLINK from 1997 - present

  • Select the link based on the service which holds the content you need
  • Remember that if you're off-campus you may need to sign in to access the full-text

No online access, but print version is held

Whilst most of our journals are available online, some may only be available in print, or we may have print volumes of older archives which we can't access online.  Check SAULCAT using the journal publication title, print journal holdings will show in the results page with a print icon after the title 

Some print journals are held in the Library Store, in which case you can use the "Recall" option to select the volume/issue you need.  Others are available on the shelves.

 

What do you do if you think the University has access, but you can't get it?

If you're signed in, and you've checked SAULCAT to confirm we have access but you still can't access the article, or if there are problems signing in, email Library@st-andrews.ac.uk with the details of the article you need, and we'll check it out.

What do you do if the University doesn't subscribe, but you need the article?

You can use the Inter-Library Loans service to request articles which the University doesn't have access to.  Please check SAULCAT before submitting a request.

Why can't I access an article on an "Open Access" journal

Most articles in Open Access journals are available for everyone to use without the need for a subscription, however sometimes they are embargoed for a specified period of time, or only a selection of articles in the journal are published as open access, with the rest still requiring a subscription to access the full-text.  This can be very confusing!  Follow the steps above to sign in or check if the University has a subscription which allows you access the article, if not then either get in touch, or try Inter-Library Loans.

Further help

If you have any questions, or experience problems accessing articles online please let us know - email library@st-andrews.ac.uk and we'll get back to you.

 

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