Biology 303L: Ecology and Evolution

Locating Articles Based on Citation Information

The following video tutorial is an overview of the different ways to approach finding the full text of an article using citation information via the UNM Library website.

How to use a citation to find the full text of an article

A key part of doing research is being able to find a resource for which you have a citation (for example, from the bibliography of another paper or from a colleague). Depending upon the citation information you have and the specificity of the title of an article that you are looking for, a number of strategies can be used to find a specific article based on a citation.

  • How to Start - Article Title Search: The easiest initial strategy is to do a title search where you search for the article title (or a significant part) as a phrase. If the title phrase that you search is distinctive, the specific article that you are looking for may quickly come up at the top of your search results.

  • Quick Search: You can search for the title phrase (by placing it in quotes) in the Quick Search box on the Library's home page. By searching strictly for the specific title page, the paper of interest should appear in the first page of search results.

  • Advanced Search: If your paper does not show up in the early (or any) search results, you can potentially move onto an advanced search (available from the Library's home page) where you can enter additional elements of the citation to provide more detail and specificity (author, year of publication, etc.) or move on to one of our more specialized search tools or databases where you can do the same.

  • Article Finder Tool: Though it can be a bit picky as to the required fields, the article finder tool available from the Journals tab of the Library home page can be used to perform a more structured journal article search for our full-text electronic holdings.

  • Journal Title Search: If you are having trouble finding a record for the specific article of interest, look back to the citation and find the Journal Title. Search for the Journal Title in the eJournal title search; if unsuccessful, try the general UNM Library Catalog to determine if there are print holdings. When you find a record for the journal, look at the coverage and/or holdings information to determine if the Library has electronic or print access to the Volume & Issue number where the article of interest was published. Use this information to browse (either online, if available, or in the print library collection) and find the article you need.

  • Other Databases: If the above tactics are unsuccessful, you may also want to try an article title search or more structured advanced search in one of our databases, such as Web of Science. Web of Science includes "Find @ UNM" links associated with each search result to connect you with full text, if available.

  • DOI: If you are on campus and connected to the UNM network (UNM computers or Wifi), you can also try locating the article using the DOI, or Direct Object Identifier, if it is included in the citation (at the end). A DOI can be used to access a permalink to an article's publisher platform. If connected to the UNM network and if UNM subscribes to the journal where the article is published, you should be able to download full text at the DOI link. Links are in the following format: http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI alphanumeric string here, without brackets]

Once you find the article and download the full text PDF, you can use the citations in the bibliography of that paper to find additional papers that may be of interest to you in your research.

 

Sample citations to experiment with:

Carrera, Rogelio, Warren Ballard, Philip Gipson, Brian T. Kelly, Paul R. Krausman, Mark C. Wallace, Carlos Villalobos, and David B. Wester. "Comparison of Mexican wolf and coyote diets in Arizona and New Mexico." The Journal of Wildlife Management 72, no. 2 (2008): 376-381. 

Meeus, Ivan, Mark JF Brown, Dirk C. De Graaf, and G. U. Y. Smagghe. "Effects of invasive parasites on bumble bee declines." Conservation Biology 25, no. 4 (2011): 662-671. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01707.x

Try these databases