What is Article Linker?
Serials Solutions Article Linker™ is an Open URL link resolver that links together many of the electronic resources of the Saint Louis University Libraries. When you find a citation or reference to a specific article in an online database, Article Linker provides holdings information and the best available path to the full-text article, wherever it resides in a SLU library's electronic collections. If the libraries do not have online access to a title, Article Linker supplies links to the SLU Library Catalog (to search for print holdings) and to the ILLiad interlibrary loan service on the results page.
How do I use Article Linker?
Selecting an "Article Linker" link within an OpenURL-enabled database produces the Article Linker results page with direct links to one or more of the following:
- Full text of the article
- Table of contents of the journal, which links to the full text of the article
- SLU Library Catalog to search for print holdings
- Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Requests via ILLiad
Why isn't an article link always available?
If the article link is absent from the Article Linker results page it could be due to one of the following reasons:
- The SLU Libraries do not have online access to the article.
- There are not enough data in the search criteria to trigger an Article Level Link
- The provider of the journal does not support OpenURL
Sometimes, why are there many options for full text and journal links?
The same journal is often available in more than one online resource. Article Linker will display the links to all content accessible to the SLU community.
How do I get to the article if there is only a journal or database link?
In cases where Article Linker can only take you to the journal's table of contents or a database home page, you will have to browse the table of contents to locate the issue and article you need; or, search the database to retrieve the full-text article.
Why does Article Linker provide an article-level link even though the full-text of the article is not available?
This can occur for several reasons.
- Some full-text articles are withheld from the online versions of the journal or database by the publisher or author.
- Indexing for an article appears in a database before the publisher makes the full text available.
- Sometimes the coverage dates are not supplied in the library's data and Article Linker will provide an article link with the hope that the library has access to that date range.
Additional Questions
If you have additional questions about Article Linker, please contact your Reference Department.
Medical Center Library
314-977-8801 | Ask a Librarian
Pius XII Memorial Library
314-977-3103 | Ask a Librarian
Vincent C. Immel Law Library
314-977-1447 | Ask a Librarian
[Adapted and used with permission from New York Medical College, Health Sciences Library]
Updated May 12, 2015, by Georgia Baugh, M.A., M.A.L.I.S., Electronic Resources Reference
Librarian