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University of the West of Scotland


Guides and Online Help
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SFX FAQ

WHAT IS SFX?

SFX helps you find full-text journal articles. You can use SFX to:

  • check if a journal is available online.
  • get the full text of articles found via database searches.
CHECKING ONLINE AVAILABILITY

    SFX lists most of the electronic journals purchased by UWS Library. You can find this list at http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/paisley/az SFX covers journal titles, but not the content of journals: if you need to find journal articles about a subject you should use an online database.

    GETTING JOURNAL ARTICLES FROM DATABASE SEARCHES

    In online databases click on the "full text" or "PDF" link to read journal articles.

    If there is no full text/PDF link in the database use the SFX button to check if the journal article is available from a different source.

    SFX button

    SFX full text search box


    ARTICLE NOT AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY

    SFX no full text available

    The message “no electronic fulltext available for this item” means that UWS does not purchase electronic access to the article. You should click on the “Holdings in University of the West of Scotland catalogue” link to check for paper copies of your article.

    If the article is not available electronically or on paper university staff, postgraduates and some undergraduates can use the Inter Library Loan service to obtain copies of articles.

     

    COMMON PROBLEMS

     

    I AM BEING ASKED TO PAY FOR AN ARTICLE
  • Check the available years for the journal (use the electronic journals list at http://sfxhosted.exlibrisgroup.com/paisley/az ). Is the date of your article included in the available years?
  • Look for an option to log in with your Athens account. This might be a link that says “Athens”, “UK Higher Education” or “Log in”.
  • Contact the Library for more help.
I AM GETTING A BLANK WHITE SCREEN INSTEAD OF THE JOURNAL WEBPAGE

Turn off your pop-up blocker. Advice on how to do this is available on the library blog.

SFX IS UNABLE TO FIND MY ARTICLE

Try using the electronic journals list to find the journal homepage, and navigate to your article from there.


I NEED HELP FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES ABOUT MY SUBJECT

Contact your Subject Librarian for help.

ANY OTHER SFX PROBLEMS

Either use the “link not working” option on the SFX webpage, or contact the Library.