You are here

How Do I Access Full Text Articles in BadgerLink?

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Some BadgerLink resources, like Britannica School or Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers, will provide full text of the articles found in your search results. But when you’re using an EBSCO resource, like MasterFILE Complete, you may run into a situation when you find an article but can only see the citation or abstract.

The screenshot below lists the results of searching 'homework' in Explora for Middle & High Schools.

The first result is the Topic Overview and this is generally an encyclopedia article that floats to the top of your search results to give you a broad overview of your search topic. The topic overview will always be a full text article.

Search results in Explora for Middle & High Schools with PDF Full Text and empty space underneath another image circled Click to enlarge

Below the topic overview are the other search results. Result 1 is an article that has full text, and you can tell because there is a PDF Full Text icon (circled). Result 2 is not available in full text and you can tell by the lack of an icon.

Once you open an article, look to the upper left of the detailed record to see what your full text options are. This side-by-side comparison of two articles shows the article on the left only provides a Detailed Record of the article, while the article on the right displays HTML Full Text icon and a PDF Full Text icon. By clicking on either of these icons, you can access the full text of that article. 

side by side of a detailed record with full text and a detailed record that is just a citation Click to enlarge

If you only want to see full text articles in your search results, select the checkbox next to Full Text in the Limit To section found in the left margin of your search results page.

Use the Limit To section of the search results page to limit to full text Click to enlarge

If you find a citation for an article and BadgerLink doesn’t have the full text, request an interlibrary loan for the article through your local library. Interlibrary loan is when your library borrows an item from another library and then lends it to you. If you are not sure how to request this service through your library, please contact us and we are happy to assist you. 

Contact Us if you have any questions!