Which databases allow
linking? |
All major full text e-journals databases enable direct linking to individual articles.
There are, however, different methods.
Original publishers (e.g. Cambridge, Sage and ScienceDirect) use Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to
uniquely identify articles and to help forge permanent, stable
links to them. The DOI is the standard
for this purpose and produces the best results.
We recommend you use these DOI-based
article links where you can!
Database services who do not own their own content, licensing in from
original publishers (e.g. EBSCO, Heinonline, JSTOR
and Project Muse), have
developed in-house methods for providing links to
articles in their databases.
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Post-linking management |
Keep up to date with your links! They will only last as long as
an e-journal is available through a database (or an individual
subscription). The Library maintains a high level
of continuity in our e-journals service and, but there may be
instances where individual titles cease to be available.
Check
links occasionally to make sure they are still live. If you
have any queries, contact your
Subject Librarian.
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Where's
the best place to put links? |
Web page
You may wish to set up a reading materials web page through:
- Moodle;
- a web authoring tool like Frontpage; or
- a simple html file.
Word document
You may prefer to put up a MS Word file for student access on
the N-drive. Any persistent link you put into a Word document
should translate into a hotlink which will open up directly to the article
for you both on and off campus.
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What
information should I put in my links? |
There may be occasional problems
anywhere along the chain from the publisher database to the
end-user's desktop. Accordingly, rather than a link simply
stating, for instance, "See Murphy on globalisation" it might be
worth providing summary source information (the whole
bibliographic reference is not necessary) with each link, e.g.:
Author surname - Journal title - Volume - Issue - Page
- [Source database]
This will enable users to directly follow up in the relevant
database themselves should the link itself
be down.
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... and if an electronic version
is unavailable? |
Journals from some
Irish and other smaller publishers are not available online. If
you want to make articles or extracts from these available,
you'll have to go through the normal procedures - i.e. getting
publisher
permission. The same procedure will apply to extracts from books. |
