Exploring the Chemical Literature

Literature references listed in an article's bibliography can be a bit cryptic.  Say you're confronted with this one:

Brown, A.S.; Milton, M.J.T.; Cowper, C.J. J. Chromatogr. A. 2004, 1040, 215-225.

What does it mean? First separate the reference into its component parts:

AUTHORS:  Brown, A.S.; Milton, M.J.T.; Cowper, C.J.

SOURCE (usually a journal, typically abbreviated):  Journal of Chromatrography A.

YEAR:  2004

VOLUME NUMBER:  1040

PAGES:  215-225.

Note that in chemistry bibliographies the article title is usually not given. This is basically the minimum amount of information you'll need to actually FIND the article.

Many modern references also include the article's DOI (Digital Object Identifier).  If you have this, all you have to do is follow that link to the article's version of record.  The DOI for this article:

Next, you have to determine if YOU (as a student at UT-Austin) have access to this article from this journal or not, and if so, whether it's available electronically or just in print. There are several ways to do this, and it's not always straightforward.

1. Search for the reference in Google Scholar.   Enter words from the reference, such as author surnames, journal title, volume number, a word from the title, etc. With luck it will pop right up and you can link to the full text from there. Example: "brown milton journal chromatography 2004 215" If you're on campus you can click on the title to go to the publisher version of record. If you're not on campus, use the FindIt@UT link.

2.  Search in our Library Catalog or Journals database by the title of the journal in question (no abbreviations).  This will tell you if we have the journal in print, or online, and what years/volumes we have.

Just because you can find the article on the web doesn't mean you'll have access to it. Most of the published scientific literature lies behind publisher paywalls and is open only to those at institutions that subscribe to the journal in question, or who are willing to pay a fee to see it. If you hit a paywall, keep that credit card in your wallet. 

One reason you might hit a paywall is if you're not physically on campus.  Access to our licensed subscriptions is controlled by IP address, and you need a UT Austin campus IP address to be recognized as an authorized user.  If you start out on our web pages or in our catalog, you'll be asked to authenticate with your UT EID and Duo when you click a link to a licensed resource.  This will establish a proxy session in your browser and you'll be temporarily assigned a UT IP address. (see below)

If we don't subscribe, here are two options:

1. Look for an Open version of the article.  The best place is to search the title in Google Scholar, and see if there are multiple versions listed.  Some might be open copies deposited by the author or publisher as part of Open Access mandates, e.g. in PubMed Central. 
2. You can use our Get a Scan service to request a free scan of any article.  We may scan it from the hardcopy if we own it, and if not we'll get it from another library. Depending on the journal, you'll usually get the PDF within a day or two, sometimes within hours.