Lafayette College Library

This guide is designed for faculty who want to create links from a course Web site to images and full-text articles available in library subscription databases.

Some of the library's full-text subscription databases allow you to create links to an article simply by using the URL you get when you retrieve the article (see the list below for resources that support this method).

In other resources, including Academic OneFile and FirstSearch databases, URLs contain session information that will expire after a period of time so cannot be used to create stable links. However, these and other databases provide methods for generating stable URLs (a.k.a. persistent URLs) that can then be used for creating article-level links. Details for creating stable links to articles and images in various databases follow.

Note that many stable URLs are long and often not human comprehensible. It's always a good idea to copy and paste URLs to avoid typographical errors.

For additional assistance creating links to articles in these or other databases, please contact a reference librarian.

Resources for which the browser URL can be used

When viewing articles in the following full-text resources, the URL that displays in the browser's address/location bar is stable and can be used to link to the article.

Resources that require a little more work

ABELL / Literature Online

Stable URLs are available for citation pages as well as full text. Either can be obtained by following the "Durable URL..." link. To get the URL for the full text:

1. Follow a link to the full text of an article.
2. Click the "Durable URL for this text" link. A new window will open.
3. Copy the URL from the new window. (Depending on your browser, the URL may already be selected when the window opens.)

Academic OneFile

Academic OneFile provides full text for some of the citations in its database. All full-text articles have stable URLs. To find one:

1. View the full text of the desired article.
2. Click the "Bookmark" link near the top left of the page. This will generate a new window that contains the stable URL for the article (you will need to scroll to the right to see the entire URL).
3. Copy the URL and paste as needed, or use the "Email the Bookmark URL" link to email the link.

Note: Academic OneFile has some odd "cookie-ing" in place that affects how these URLs work. Sometimes the stable URL will not work on a computer unless Academic OneFile has already been accessed through the "front door" at least once. (The "front door" is accessible from the link on the library's home page.)

ACM Digital Library

The ACM Digital Library provides full text in a variety of formats. Stable URLs exist for an article's main page, and not for the text itself.

1. Go to the main page for an article.
2. Find the line that says "DOI Bookmark".
3. Either select/copy the URL that follows "Use this link to bookmark this article" or right-click/copy the link itself.

APS Journals

1. Go to the abstract page for an article.
2. Find the line right after the abstract that says URL:.
3. Copy the URL.

ARTstor

The Libraries' ARTstor license allows ARTstor images to be uploaded to course sites to which access is restricted (e.g., a course site on Moodle). An alternative is to link to images on the ARTstor site–an uploaded image will be just an image, but a linked-to image will open in the ARTstor Image Viewer with full ARTstor functionality.

ARTstor provides stable URLs for individual images, image groups, and OIV presentations. Instructions for obtaining the URLs can be found in "Integrating with courseware and local systems."

Note: in order to see the stable URLs you must be logged in to ARTstor as a "registered user".

ASCE Research Library

ASCE Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Unfortunately, DOIs for articles prior to 2001 are still being added, and ASCE articles that do have DOIs just display the DOI and not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:

1. Go to the abstract page for an article or the first page of its PDF.
2. Find the doi:
3. Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere.
4. Add the following before the DOI:
   http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/

Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.

Cambridge Journals Online

Cambridge Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Articles display the DOI but not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:

1. Go to the abstract page for an article or the HTML version of the full text.
2. Find the doi:
3. Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere.
4. Add the following before the DOI:
   http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/

The link will lead to the abstract page, from which the full text can be accessed as HTML or PDF. Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.

FirstSearch

Full text is available for a small percentage of the citations retrieved from FirstSearch databases.

1. View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
2. Click the Link Pickup icon (at the top right).
3. Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."

Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.

Institute of Physics

The URLs behind the links to IoP full text are stable, but the URLs that result when you follow the links are not. The best bet is to link to an article's abstract page, whose location/address bar URL is stable.

JSTOR

Browser URLs in JSTOR are stable but not predictable, and often contain extraneous information. When copying a URL for an article, it's advisable to copy the URL from the PDF's window (assuming you want to link to the PDF). If you prefer to link to something other than the PDF, copy the Stable URL from the "Bibliographic Info" tab on the "Article Information" page; although the URL in the browser's location/address bar is stable, each separate page view has its own stable URL.

LexisNexis Academic

Stable URLs per se do not exist for LexisNexis articles, but a search string can be constructed that will do essentially the same thing for most LexisNexis content. To create a URL with a search string for a specific article, use the LexisNexis durable link tool.

PsycARTICLES

Full text is available for all of the citations retrieved from PsycARTICLES.

1. View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
2. Click the Link Pickup icon. The icon will appear at the top right if viewing the PDF or on the left above the document title if viewing the HTML version. (The URL will go to the same place regardless of what version of the article you were viewing when you "picked up" the link.)
3. Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."

Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.

Wiley InterScience

Wiley InterScience Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Articles display the DOI and not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:

1. Go to the abstract page for an article.
2. Find the DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI).
3. Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere. (Avoid copying the "About DOI" link immediately following.)
4. Add the following before the DOI:
   http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/

Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.

WilsonSelectPlus

Full text is available for all of the citations retrieved from WilsonSelectPlus.

1. View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
2. Click the Link Pickup icon (at the top right).
3. Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."

Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.