Frequently Asked Questions about UC-eLinks

Getting to your articles

• The Melvyl Catalog or my local campus catalog indicates an online subscription to the online journal, why doesn't it appear in UC-eLinks? answer
• How can I get to the full text of my article from off campus? answer
• Why can't I get to the full text of my article? I am on campus or successfully logged into my campus proxy or VPN service. answer

Article is not found on site

• Why can't I get to the journal supplement or special edition via UC-eLinks? answer
• Why do I get the message that the citation was not found when I click the selected full text link in the UC-eLinks window? answer
• Why didn't UC-eLinks take me directly to the article? answer
• Why can't I use the journal links in PubMed; why do I need to use UC-eLinks? answer
• UC-eLinks used to give me links to full text for this journal, but now the links are gone, why? answer

Problems with downloading or printing PDFs

• Why can't I print the PDF from the web site? Why does only part of the PDF print from the web site? answer
• Why can't I download the PDF version of my article? answer

The UC-eLinks menu is confusing

• Why doesn't the UC-eLinks menu display after I click on the UC-eLinks button? answer
• Why does the link to my campus catalog give me the wrong item? answer
• Why doesn't UC-eLinks have a link to online full text or to my library catalog? answer
• Why does the export feature only supply the first author? answer
• Why do I get multiple links for a journal article? answer

About UC-eLinks

• What does UC-eLinks do? answer
• How does UC-eLinks work? answer
• Where does the information to build a link come from? answer
• Why aren't all of the UC-eLinks menu options offered for every record? answer
• What database providers offer UC-eLinks services? Which services do they support? answer
• Show the e-journal vendors with titles in UC-eLinks. answer

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Getting to your article

The Melvyl Catalog or my local campus catalog indicates an online subscription to the online journal, why doesn't it appear in UC-eLinks?

• If the article falls outside the available online dates indicated in the Melvyl Catalog or your local campus catalog, the UC-eLinks menu will not display a full text option. Online journals that are marked "Selected Full Text at …" e.g. "Selected Full Text at Expanded Academic ASAP" do not include full text of all articles under the available online dates; some articles will not be available online at these sites. Click the Melvyl or local library catalog to locate a print copy on your campus, or click the "Request this item" link to request a copy of the article from another library.

  If your article does fall under the available online dates, please use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu, or contact a librarian at your campus.

How can I get to the full text of my article from off campus?

• If you are off campus and trying to access UC licensed materials you will need to use your campus proxy server or VPN service to access UC licensed databases and ejournals. If you are signed on to your campus proxy or VPN service and cannot get to the resources that you normally access from on-campus this indicates that you are not being recognized as a valid UC user.

  If you are having difficulty logging in to your campus proxy or VPN service, you will need to check with your campus proxy or VPN support service for assistance. Please see Off-Campus Access: Questions and Answers for Users for more information about off-campus access and links to campus specific support pages.

Why can't I get to the full text of my article? I am on campus or successfully logged into my campus proxy or VPN service.

• If the article falls outside the available online dates indicated in the Melvyl Catalog, local campus catalog, or UC-eLinks menu, the article will not be available to you.

  Online journals that are marked "Selected Full Text at …" e.g. "Selected Full Text at Expanded Academic ASAP" do not include full text of all articles under the available online dates; some articles will not be available online at these sites. Click the Melvyl or local library catalog to locate a print copy on your campus, or click the "Request this item" link to request a copy of the article from another library.

  If the article does fall under the available online dates, please use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu, or contact a librarian at your campus.

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Article is not found on site

Why can't I get to the journal supplement or special edition via UC-eLinks?

• Many publishers do not include supplementary or special issues as part of their regular online content. If these materials are online, they very often have unusual pagination or volume issue numbers. If the material is available online UC-eLinks may have received incomplete or incorrect citation information, such as multiple page numbers in the start page field that prevents UC-eLinks from creating a direct link to the item. You can get to the information in two ways:

  1. If UC-eLinks gets you to the journal page, you can browse the journal web site to navigate to the item.
  2. If UC-eLinks does not link to the journal page, click on the "See if a UC campus has this. Select Details/Location on Melvyl" link in the UC-eLinks menu, and then click the "Available Online" link for your campus from the Melvyl record to get to the online journal and then navigate to the appropriate volume/issue and page number for the article you need.

  If you still cannot find the article on the website, please contact a librarian at your campus or use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu.

Why do I get the message that the citation was not found when I click the selected full text link in the UC-eLinks window?

• Selected full text resources do not contain cover-to-cover full text for all of the items in a specific journal title due to copyright or other issues. UC-eLinks matches on the journal title and the date range and not on individual items so you may get a selected full text link to an item that is not available in full text. In some cases the information sent by UC-eLinks may not be an exact match for the journal article citation in the database, for example, UC-eLinks sent an issue number and the database did not index the issue number so the information does not match.

  You can use the search feature on the web site to look for your item by article title, journal title, or author. This may return the fulltext of the item, if the problem was due to the UC-eLinks information not matching the database citation. If you still cannot find the article on the website, please contact a librarian at your campus or use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu.

Why didn't UC-eLinks take me directly to the article?

• If possible the UC-eLinks service links directly to the full text of the article. If this is not possible it links to the journal title level on the journal web page or to the search page of a database with full text. When this occurs, you can find your item in two ways:

  1. If UC-eLinks gets you to the journal page, you can browse the journal web site to navigate to the item.
  2. If UC-eLinks does not link to the journal page, click on the "See if a UC campus has this. Select Details/Location on Melvyl" link in the UC-eLinks menu, and then click the Available Online link for your campus from the Melvyl record to get to the online journal and then navigate to the appropriate volume/issue and page number for the article you need.

  If you still cannot find the article on the website, please contact a librarian at your campus or use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu.

Why can't I use the journal links in PubMed; why do I need to use UC-eLinks?

• The publisher links, e.g., Elsevier Full Text articles or Nature Publishing Group appear for all PubMed users. These links have no relationship to the UC systemwide or campus licenses for electronic resources, so you may or may not have access to the full text of the article. The UC-eLinks menu provides full text links only for the items that UC has licensed, and if the item is not part of a UC systemwide or campus license, the UC-eLinks menus provides options such as searching the local library catalog to see if your campus library has the item in print collection, or interlibrary loan for items not available at your campus.

UC-eLinks used to give me links to full text for this journal, but now the links are gone, why?

• Although UC makes every effort to provide access to as many electronic journals as possible, UC cannot provide access to all of the electronic journals. Many of the larger journal publishers allow UC to license packages of electronic journals for systemwide access to help control costs. Some journals are later sold to publishers that do not have systemwide UC contracts or contracts with individual campuses. In this case, UC may lose access to the electronic copy of the journal. In other cases, as a measure to control costs, some publishers allow UC to trade online access to one journal in exchange for losing online access to another journal each year or when the contract is renewed.

Problems with downloading or printing PDFs

Why can't I print the PDF from the web site? Why does only part of the PDF print from the web site?

• Saving the PDF to your workstation and then printing it from your workstation instead of the web site usually takes care of this problem. If this does not work please contact a librarian at your campus and ask for assitance or use the "Report Problems with UC-eLinks" option on the UC-eLinks menu.

Why can't I download the PDF version of my article?

• This problem is usually due to a version incompatibility of Adobe Acrobat. You can usually fix this by installing the most current version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be obtained from the Adobe website.

The UC-eLinks menu is confusing

Why doesn't the UC-eLinks menu display after I click on the UC-eLinks button?

• Pop up blocker software affects the UC-eLinks menu's ability to display, check to make sure that your pop up blocker is not preventing the UC-eLinks window from displaying.

  The UC-elinks menu window may already be open and hidden behind another window.

  The first time you click on a UC-eLinks button (Window 1), the UC-eLinks menu will open in a new window (Window 2). The first time you choose an item from the UC-eLinks menu a new window (Window 3) opens to display your choice from the UC-eLinks menu, e.g., full text, Request, or Ask a Librarian).

  If you do not close the UC-eLinks menu window (Window 2) it will be reused the next time you click on the UC-eLinks button. Because this window is already open, it may not pop to the front of your workstation screen and it appears that nothing has happened.

  If you do not close the window displaying your choice from the UC-eLinks menu (Window 3), it will be reused the next time you make a choice from the UC-eLinks menu. Once again, this window may not pop to the front, and it may appear that nothing has happened.

  

  When you click either the UC-eLinks button or select one of the options on a UC-eLinks menu and you don't see any action, always be sure to check any other open UC-eLinks windows to see if the data has changed.

Why does the link to my campus catalog give me the wrong item?

• UC-eLinks searches the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for books and the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for journals in campus catalogs. Some campuses show you the closest match if the item is not found. If you are still interested in the item, return to the UC-eLinks menu and click on the Request this item via Interlibrary Loan or Document Delivery link

Why doesn't UC-eLinks have a link to online full text or to my library catalog?

• Usually, this happens when there is not enough information sent to UC-eLinks to provide a direct link to the item, for example in the case where an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) or an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is not included in the citation information sent to UC-eLinks. To find this item, go to your library catalog and search on the information in the reference you have for the item, e.g., title or author. If you still cannot find the item, please contact a librarian at your campus.

Why does the export feature only supply the first author?

• The data sent by the database to UC-eLinks only includes the first author's name. If you want to include all the authors for a particular article in your bibliography, you'll need to add them manually

Why do I get multiple links for a journal article?

• UC-eLinks links to electronic text for ejournals licensed for the UC system and for ejournals licensed just by your home campus. Some ejournal publishers license the full text for their journal to multiple companies. If the journal title is part of more than one UC license, you may see multiple links.

Why aren't all of the UC-eLinks menu options offered for every record?

• You may not have access to the information. For example, if your campus access for an e-journal begins in 1999, and the record is for an item published in 1998, then UC-eLinks does not offer a link to the electronic text.

  It may be that the database provider cannot fully separate the data elements for a citation and passes along only some of the metadata (data elements). This can happen even though the data is contained in the record and is "eye-readable". For example, if UC-eLinks does not receive all of the information required to link to an ejournal, then UC-eLinks does not offer a full text option to the user, even if the UC system has licensed the full text.

About UC-eLinks

What does UC-eLinks do?

• UC-eLinks provides a way to easily move from an article or book citation to the electronic version of the item; to check to see if the item is available on your campus or to Request items not available on your campus.

How does UC-eLinks work?

• When you click on the UC-eLinks icon/hyperlink during a database search session, the database provider sends a URL to UC-eLinks that contains information (metadata) about the item, e.g., author, title, publication date, page numbers, etc., in a structured format. UC-eLinks uses this metadata to determine which services to show in the UC-eLinks window by checking this information against the UC-eLinks data for the campus ejournal subscriptions and the years of coverage for the online subscription.

Where does the information to build a link come from?

• The information comes from the citation in your search result and is drawn from specific fields within the citation using markers within the fields to separate one piece of data from another. Database providers may use a different program for each type of data, e.g., journal articles, books, conference papers, in a database.