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PolyU Library

Applied Science

This guide helps you to explore resources relating to the study of Applied Science at PolyU.

Tutorial - How to request articles via ILL & DDS services

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.

Where to Find Journal Articles

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. 

 

  • OneSearch - Library's search engine; covers over 90% of the library collections at item level across disciplines and material types. 
  • Google Scholar - A scholarly version of Google; has the largest pool of scholarly articles. However, it is the least trusted platform because many retrieved articles are not peer-reviewed works.
  • Article Database - Allows you to search within a specific field (e.g. title, keywords), and refine search results using filters - All to help you find what you need quickly and effectively. 
  • Request an article through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services - for articles that are not available in our collection.

You can search for scholarly articles in OneSearch as well. You may search by keywords or title of the article. 

Watch this video to learn how to find and access articles in OneSearch:

You may also refer to the steps below:

  1. Visit Library homepage. Type in your keywords or title of the article and hit the search button. (You may also switch to "Articles" tab which will limit your search to articles only)
  2. Limit results to "Articles" under Resource Type on the right panel of the page. You may further refine results to "Peer-reviewed journals", or "Creation date" (Publication date).
  3. Click on the article title to see more information about the article.
  4. Click "Download PDF" to directly download the full text PDF, or visit other options under "View It Online" to read the article online. 

To search articles in Google Scholar, we suggest that you access Google Scholar via the Library homepage, especially when you are out of campus. By doing this you will be able to directly access the full text of the articles (we subscribed to) through PolyU eLinks.

Follow the steps below:

  1. Visit Library homepage, switch to "Articles" and then click on Google Scholar@PolyU. Sign in with your NetID and NetPassword if you are out of campus.
  2. Conduct a search in Google Scholar. The article within our collection will be provided with the "PolyU eLinks" option. Click to get the full text PDF for free.

Google Scholar setting - link with PolyU Library

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.

Sometimes you may be unable to get the full text of a journal article because the library does not have a journal subscription. In this case, you can request a copy of the article via our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. 

Details can be found at the below guide.

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:

Note that login with NetID is required to access the following databases off campus.

Follow the steps below to find an article in one specific database:

  1. Visit Library homepage, switch to "Databases" and then search the database by name, or browse databases by subject.
  2. Search for the name of the database, or browse from A-Z.
  3. Click on Online Access to access the database.
  4. You may now start your search by typing in your keywords. You may also search in a specific field, e.g. search by article title, keywords, journal title (source title, publication title), etc. The fields offered vary depending on the databases.

  5. Most databases allow to refine search results by Year, Author, Subject Area, Document Type, etc. or sort results by Relevance, Date of publication, Citation counts, etc. These all help you quickly locate the articles you desire. 

  6. To find the full-text PDF, click on PolyU eLinks. This will link you to the options where full-text is available. 

Search in a citation database to find more related journal articles

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.

Tools to Help you Get Full Text Articles

Follow the steps below to install the bookmarklet to your browser.

  1. Enable the bookmark toolbar in your browser.
  2. Drag the following button to the bookmark toolbar area.

  1. Right-click on the bookmark button to rename it as "Connect via PolyU Library".
  2. Access article from publisher website, e.g. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/, then click the "Connect via PolyU Library" button you have just installed. This will prompt you to login your NetID & NetPassword and access this page as a PolyU user. You shall be able to download PDF now.

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.

  1. Go to EndNote Click's page
  2. Click to add the plug-in in your browser
  3. You will be prompted to create a personal account if you haven't done so. Then link your account with the University.
  4. Upon your next visit to a publisher site, you will see "View PDF" button popped up. Click on the button will get you the PDF through Library's subscription.

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. 

  1. Go to LibKey's download page
  2. Choose your browser and add it to your browser
  3. Select "Hong Kong Polytechnic University" from the list. 
  4. Upon your next visit to a publisher site or database, you will see "Download PDF" or "Article Link" button along with article entries. Click on the button will direct you to the options to download PDF through Library's subscription.

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.

  1. Go to unpaywall browser extension page
  2. Click to install the plug-in in your browser
  3. When you visit a publisher site again, unpaywall will try to get you a permission version of PDF, including post-prints in repositories.

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Subjects: Science