The Library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service provides access to materials not held in our collections to current students, faculty and staff of PolyU for their research or private study. The Library will source the requested items from local UGC-funded libraries or other libraries overseas.
Interlibrary loan is integrated into OneSearch. To know more about the service, please refer to the guide below.
There can be more than one way to get the information we need. To find journal articles we can go for both Google Scholar and library databases. However, search results can vary depending on the coverage of sources and their searching mechanism.
Understanding the difference among these platforms can help you choose where to go when you have a specific research need.
You can find articles via OneSearch easily by following the steps:
1. Search by keywords or an article title on OneSearch from library website.
2. Refine results to "Peer-reviewed journals and articles". You may make use of other filters on the sidebar, e.g. Creation Date.
3. Click on Download PDF or Full Text Available
To get the full text of the articles found in Google Scholar, it is recommended to access via Google Scholar@PolyU. For articles within PolyU library subscriptions, the full text can be accessed by clicking PolyU eLinks on Google Scholar.
1. Choose Articles tab from Library homepage.
2. Click on Google Scholar@PolyU. (Login with your NetID and Password for off campus access)
3. Search for your desired topic/ title and click on PolyU eLinks to get the full text for those within Library's subscriptions.
You may also change the setting in your Google Scholar to link it up with Library subscribed databases. This is identical to clicking on Google Scholar@PolyU via Library homepage.
To get the full text for those articles that are not available in PolyU Library, eligible patrons can submit an Interibrary Loan (ILL) request. Here are steps to request an article via the ILL Request on OneSearch.
Step1: Search an article by title on OneSearch and Apply the filter "Expend Results Beyond PolyU Library" when there is no result found
Step2: Click on No full-text to find more details of the article
Step3: Sign-in with your NetID and Password
Step4: Click on Inter-library loan to make a request.
4. Click Logon to ILLiad button.
5. The details of your desired article has been filled out automatically.
6. Click Submit Request button to complete.
Web of Science and Scopus are two large multidisciplinary citation databases. They do not provide full-text articles, but they are very helpful for exploring related articles by looking at citing articles (who cited the article) and references (who have been cited by the article). If you do not have an idea of which databases or journals to go for, you may start with these two.
Searching within a database helps you narrow your search as the coverage of the database can be very selective. Some databases focus on one specific area, which can help you filter out the contents that are not relevant to the subject; some may cover peer-reviewed journals only, to ensure the articles covered are of certain quality. Almost all databases will provide an Advanced Search option, which allows you to search in a more precise way, e.g. search within article title, journal title, or subject terms (that are tagged to each article). This helps you find the most relevant results quickly and effectively. Browse list of databases below:
Follow the steps below to install the bookmarklet to your browser.
Watch a short video to learn how to install bookmarklet in Chrome:
EndNote Click (formerly Kopernio) is a free browser plug-in which helps you to get full-text PDF faster by securely connecting you to the Library’s journal subscriptions and open access content. Follow the steps below to install the plug-in in your browser.
LibKey is a free browser plug-in which provides instant links to full-text content for articles subscribed to by the Library - or open access alternatives - as you do research on the web and come across literature. The service covers thousands of scholarly publisher websites, Wikipedia and major databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science.
Unpaywall is a free browser plug-in which helps you to skip the paywall on millions of journal articles and get permissible full-text PDF. Follow the steps below to install the plug-in in your browser.
