Alternative Sources for Articles

Students frequently ask me how to get articles that they cannot find in the Walden library. Today I will talk about a few alternative sources. First, make sure that you have checked all of the Walden databases. Some that are frequently missed- on the psychology topic page of databases (psycINFO is the first one listed); go down the page to "Psychology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection." This database has many psychology articles that, for some reason, are typically not picked up by PsycINFO. If you are interested in a health related topic, make sure you check in CINAHL (a nursing database) and Medline, both are available under Health Sciences.

On the Topic page in the library (where all of the different topic areas are listed), look in the left column for "Thoreau: Search Multiple Databases." This often pulls up articles I can't find in individual databases. In the same column on the Topic page is "Database by Name". In here is Academic Search Complete. It brings up some info outside the regular databases.

So, let's say you still cannot find a particular paper you are looking for; if you know the authors and title you can request a Document Delivery, in which the librarian will track it down for you. As a dissertation student, you are allowed 30 free ones, after that they may charge you.

Let's say you have reached your limit on Document Deliveries or the library can't find it. An alternative, check Google Scholar – there is a link on the library website.

Those are the easy sources -there are some other alternatives. If you have a college or university near you, you might check if they have it. If all else fails, you can write to the author, although this will probably require some detective work. If you know what affiliation (college, university, etc.) they listed on the article (it is usually listed in the abstract), go to the institution's website and see if they are still employed there. They usually provide email addresses. You can try the email they listed in the article (also often listed on the abstract page), however, be aware that faculty tend to move around a lot, and it may no longer work. The problem is that you usually do not receive any notice that the person no longer works there, so if you do not get a reply you don’t know if they are just rude or never got it. It is worth checking the institution's website.

If you still can’t find the author, do a Google search on him or her; you may pick up a clue where they work now and can try to track down an email.

What do you say when you write them? Tell them you are very interested in their work on X and ask if they could send you a copy of their article (give the citation for it). Also, ask them if they have any other papers in this area. Be sure to include your mailing address in case they want to send it that way. Here is a sample letter:

Dear Dr. Jones,

I am very interested in your work on fear of pencils. I am a doctoral student in psychology at Walden University and my dissertation is in this area. I have been unable to locate your paper Jones and Smith (2010) "Fear and Pencils: How do I function now?" I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me a copy of this article. In addition, if you have any subsequent papers in this area, I would love to get copies of those too.

Thank you so much for any help that you can provide,

Suzy Student

17 Hopeful Lane

Johnston, NY 98765  

Unfortunately, some people are rude, and you may not get a response. The final step would be to try to track down other authors on the paper. Next time, I will talk about the issues related to using secondary data and where to get it.