Online journal articles held by the Library are only available to University members, via their Managed Windows Service (MWS) username and password. This is the username and password you use to log in to the University computers.
Online journal articles can be accessed via the Library webpages (Library Search, Databases A-Z list, Library Guides).
A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a unique identifier which provides a permanent link to an article's location on the Internet. All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. It might look like this doi: 10.00000/000000000000 or http://dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000.
The DOI, when available, can be found:
- On the first page of an eJournal article (often near the copyright notice)
- In the database record for an article
- From an Internet search for the journal. Sometimes the journal's website will have the DOI.
You can see if an article has a DOI by searching CrossRef, the official DOI Registration Agency of the International DOI Foundation.
Not all articles have DOIs. Articles published prior to 2000 are less likely to have DOIs. Also, not all publishers will be registered for the DOI system so bear this in mind.
If you know the DOI of an article the quickest way to access it is by entering it into the search box in Library Search . This will retrieve both articles fully published and ahead of print if the latter have had DOI numbers already assigned. If you cannot locate a DOI then and enter the details of the article you have located using the other fields eg. journal title, volume, issue, date, author name, page numbers.
For further help and advice contact your Liaison Librarian.
If you wish to be notified about new journal articles or additions to websites in your field of interest you can often set up alerts. Choose the appropriate alert systems depending on what type of information you wish to be notified about.
Journal Contents alerts
For updates on new journal content:
Web page alerts
Look for an RSS icon 
or similar eg, XML or Subscribe, to see whether a website or database has activated alerts settings.
Saved Searches alerts
Once you have carried out a search for journal articles in Library Search and Google Scholar you can save the search and be alerted when articles are added which meet the search criteria. This avoids having to search again in individual databases. Major academic databases and eJournal collections such as ProQuest, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Springer Link etc. also enable you to set up and activate alerts. You may be required to register and login before receiving alerts.
Citation alerts
For journal article or author alerts:
Citation databases such as Scopus and Web of Science enable you to set up alerts when someone cites a specific journal article or author.
For website alerts:
Both TOCs and Current Contents Connect (Web of Science) offer advice for web based publishers wishing to receive alerts when their web site/publication is cited.
For Google Scholar you can add web based publications a number of ways eg. through indexing in an open research repository or journal index - such as DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).
Individual users could then log into one of the above platforms and add the website to their alert preferences.
Alternatively, basic URL alerting, or RSS could be used to set up alerts.
If you require further information or assistance please contact your Liaison Librarian.
For many of our eJournals, our subscription entitles us to access articles online from a certain date of publication. Many publishers have now digitised their archives of older volumes (also known as backfiles), but often these are sold separately.
We have bought many journal backfiles but not all of them. It's worth doing a title search on Library Search using the journal title. This tells you which years we have online, or in print. It may well be that we have older issues available in print in the library.
If the article is not available, use our Get It For Me service.
Sometimes when searching for a journal article you will see a message saying that access to the most recent volumes is restricted. This is is commonly known as an 'embargo' period. This is generally because rather than having a subscription to that specific journal, our institutional subscription is via a multi-journal provider such as EBSCO, and the publisher is only allowing full access to to all content to individual subscribers.
Where you see this message you have the following options:
- Check whether we have online access via an alternative provider. With many journals we have access via two or more providers, and any time restrictions may not be the same for all providers. Information about providers of each journal is available via Library Search.
- Check to see if access to a print version of the journal is available.
If neither of these apply you can apply for the article through Get it for Me service.
In most cases, images do not appear in an online article if the supplier of the database only holds an agreement with the Publisher for only the text of the article.
Other agreements allow for the PDF version of the article, which is more likely to contain the same information as the print version.
Your Liaison Librarian may be able to investigate this for you.
If you are on a networked computer on campus, or you have logged on to the University of Liverpool on a device off campus, you will often find that clicking on the article link will take you directly to the full-text, if we have the rights to access that article.
We recommend searching for articles through Library Search from the Library homepage or other pages, or search for it via one of the Library's key databases. This is particularly recommended if you are off campus. Note that if we don't have access to an article you need, we can usually still get hold of it for you through our Get It For Me service.
Google Scholar seeks to bring together academic results of searches and can be more reliable than using Google itself. See our FAQ on using Google Scholar off-campus.