Researchers encounter and discover articles in many different places and platforms online. You may have a citation from a syllabus or newspaper article and need to track down the original article, you may have found a record that looks interesting in a research database, or you may be browsing an academic journal website and hit a paywall. This page is designed to help you:
Before we dig in, let's start with a few definitions.
Full-text Complete content of an article or other type of publication. Sometimes you can only search and see basic information about an article, like the title, authors and abstract. Research tools use the term "full text" to refer to the complete article - which could be viewable on-screen or downloadable as a PDF.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) A service that allows you to borrow materials from other libraries through your own library. This service can be used for books, articles and book chapters. We can not obtain copies of electronic books through this service. There is no cost to you for using this service; it is available to all students, faculty and staff.
Here are instructions for checking for full-text access to articles with popular research tools and services:
When you search in a library database, look for the 
button or a 'FindIt with BruKnow' link. When you click this button, you will get a list of links to the article or you will see a link to request the article.
Finding a specific article may require looking for it a few different ways, using information from a citation.
If you found the article in a database, click on 
or a 'FindIt with BruKnow' link. You should see one or more links to the article. If we do not have access to the article, you will be offered a link to "Request Scan/PDF from Another Library." Click this link and we will track down your article and deliver it to you through email within five days.
If you do not see or a 'FindIt with BruKnow' link, use ILLiad to request the article. When making the request, provide as much citation information as you can. You will get an email that your request has been received and an additional email once the request has been processed. The PDF of the article will be available in your ILLiad account. You might also try one of the other techniques described on this page, like connecting Brown University Library to Google Scholar or using LibKey.
When you search BruKnow and select "Articles Only," you will see results that are immediately available online through library subscriptions or Open Access publishing, and articles about which you can see basic information (like title, abstract and authors) but not the full text. For online articles, there will be a link in the results list to view items online.
Articles that are not immediately available to read will say "No Online Access."
Let's look at the record for this article:
Click "Check for Available Services" or "Get it"
Under the "Get It" section, you will see a link to "Request Article." This link will open in a new window and bring you to the Library's interlibrary loan platform called ILLiad.
Information will be pre-populated on the article request form, but you can make any necessary changes to what you see. Click Submit to initiate your request. Article requests are typically filled within a few days and you will receive an email when your item is available.
Google Scholar: Google Scholar uses the Google search engine to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Google Scholar results now include links to Brown University Library resources.
The Brown links appear as:
These links will appear automatically if you are on Brown wireless or the VPN. You may also set Brown as your default library by going to
Settings→ Library Links→ search for Brown→ select Brown University Library→ save.
PubMed's publisher-provided links will often bring you to full text. However, if you are off campus and/or are prompted to pay for an article, make sure to use Brown's custom link (accessed through any library page) to ensure you'll see all the options for our subscriptions and interlibrary loan services. You can also bookmark it:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?myncbishare=brownu
When you are viewing the abstract of an article, click the "Find It" button to connect back to our full text (if we have it), or be prompted to submit an ILL request (if we don't have it).
If you are off-campus (i.e., not on the Brown wireless network), you will need to sign in to the VPN to use this feature (otherwise you'll be limited to those articles which are freely available).
Download and run the VPN F5 Desktop Client.
EndNote can utilize a number of the Brown subscriptions to full-text journal article databases to retrieve the full text of citations in your library. The following instructions are for those on the campus network.
On the left-hand panel, you will see the Find Full Text search results, and paper clips will show up in the records of the items where full text was found.
This method is not 100% accurate. Occasionally EndNote will not be able to locate articles that Brown does have online. For instances where the full text does not come through, check the reference against the library's eJournals list before making an ILL request.
Hilyer, L. A. (2018). Introduction to Interlibrary Loan. In Interlibrary loan and document delivery in the larger academic library: a guide for university, research, and larger public libraries (pp. 1-10). Routledge.
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