UNCW - Randall Library

Connecting to ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is available to UNCW students, faculty and staff. From the Library Homepage click on Databases,
then click on ScienceDirect. To begin click on "group-wide login".

If you are connecting to ScienceDirect from off campus, complete instructions for off-campus set up are located at http://library.uncwil.edu/homelist.html.

You can also access an Elsevier online journal via the library catalog. Choose Search library catalog by journal title. Click the link "Full text available..."

Example

Browsing Journal Titles

Click "Browse" on the ScienceDirect menu bar, to view and browse title list of journals. Journals are grouped in subject categories. The default grouping is "All Sciences" to change your subject view select another subject in the Subject View drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Example

Display
Once you have selected a Subject View you can display the type of journal list you want to browse. From the Display drop-down box select the type journal list you wish to browse: (see example below)

Subscribed and Non-subscribed
Lists all journals available associated with the Subject View you selected. This is the Default selection.
Subscribed Journals
Lists the journals in the associated Subject View which are subscribed to and therefore are available full text.
Non-Subscribed Journals
Lists journals in the associated Subject View that are not subscribe to therefore only citations and abstracts are available.
Note: The alphabet bar which appears in the green display option box is related to the type of list you select from the Display drop-down list. Click all to display all the journals titles available for the selected journal list in alphabetical order.

Sort
You can also sort your list. From the Sort drop-down box, select a sorting option to organize the journal list you wish to browse. (see example below)

Select by Title and journals are displayed in alphabetical order.
Select by Subject
Journals are organized according to their subject category. (This is the default selection for Sort.) To display the journal titles which are within a specific subject category, click on the subject category. A subject category may have more than one level (or a hierarchy). For example: Mathematics/Mathematics (General)
Select by Publisher and journals are organized by their publisher.

The example below illustrates which Mathematical/Mathematics (General) journals are available. Remember the green icon means UNCW has full text access to those journals. You can click on a title to browse an issue. For journals that we do not subscribe to you can view only the table of contents.

Example

Searching ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect is not case sensitive. If you use the singular form of a word ScienceDirect will also search for the plural and possessive form of the word assuming it has standard endings. The truncation symbol in ScienceDirect is an !
For more tips click the search tips button at the bottom of the search form. (See example below)

Basic Search (this is the default search mode).
Click the Search button at the top of the page and, then click the Journals tab at the top of the search form.

At the first Term(s) field, enter the search terms which must appear in an article.
From the within drop-down menu, select the fields or segments in which the search terms must appear. Abstract, title, keywords is the default. You can select journal name, full text, affiliation or segments of the record.
You can do a Boolean search and combine terms using the connectors and, or, and not. Select the term from the And drop-down menu.
From the Source drop-down menu, select the group of journals you want to search. (The default setting is "All journals and abstracts database" .) Select "Subscribed journals" to limit your search to full text articles available to UNCW users.
At the Subject list box the default setting is "All Sciences". You can restrict your search by selecting the journal subject group you want to search. You can select more than one subject group by holding the Control (Ctrl), Shift or Apple key and clicking on each subject.
Select Dates and select a date range from the drop-down menu. OR Select Year only and select a year from the drop-down menu.
Optional: Enter the volume number, issue number, and/or page number or page range in the appropriate field(s). (For more information on these fields click on Help.)

Example

Understanding Your Search Results

The articles found which match the search you performed are listed on the Search Results page. The number of hits is listed as is your search string. (See example below)

The search results are listed in the order of the article date (by default), most current first. To arrange the document list according to relevance (based on the greatest frequency of the search terms within your chosen search fields), click the sort by relevance tab which appears above the article list.
To read one of the article documents, click on the appropriate document link which appears at the end of the article citation. There will be up to three links below each citation. SummaryPlus | Abstract | Article | Journal Format-PDF
- SummaryPlus is an outline of the article.
- Abstract is an abstract of the article. If only abstract is listed the article is from a journal that is not a UNCW subscription and you must request it through InterLibrary Loan.
- Journal Format-PDF displays the article exactly as it appears in the journal.
- Article. This is a special format by ScienceDirect. You will see the abstract, the outline and the article text.
To edit your search request, click on the Edit Query link. This will return you to the search form.

You can tag citations to create a shorter list. Click in the box then click create subset to create a new list.

You can also export tagged records to a citation management program, check the records then Click export

Click the check-box to the left of the article citations you want to export.

Example

Printing from ScienceDirect

If the links | Full Text + Links | PDF (261 K) are listed below the citation, you can print out the full text article. If you select the Journal-PDF format click on the printer icon at the top of the Adobe window, for all other formats click on the browser printer of click "File" then "Print".

Emailing from ScienceDirect

Choose the link | E-mail Articles | at the top of the citations page or at the bottom of the full-text page.

The information in this guide was taken from the Help pages of ScienceDirect. The button is located on the menu bar of each ScienceDirect page.
Last Update: December 12, 2005

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