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This guide © 2024 by UCL - Library Skills is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
Not all information is freely available on the open web. But there are several ways you can try to link through to the full text of an item, such as a journal article. UCL has extensive subscriptions to e-resources which you can access as a UCL student or staff member.
We recommend linking to full text via UCL's website or services. This is the most reliable and legitimate way to access full text articles. Many items can be accessed directly from Explore, or you can try some of the tools below.
Where you see the Findit@UCL icon, click on it to link to the full text. You might see it on a page displaying database search result(s) for example.
Sometimes you will see a link to the publisher's site. Unless the article is open access, you might find that you can't reach the full text.
Clicking on the Findit@UCL link instead will link you to the full text via UCL's subscription access, if available.
If you're using Google Scholar, the Findit@UCL link will be text, rather than an icon. For instructions on how to enable Findit@UCL links in Google Scholar, see:
Accessing resources via the FindIt@UCL link also helps to assure that you are looking at a legitimate version of the item – see the Staying Legal box on this page.
LibKey Nomad is a browser extension which will link to the full-text articles of journals which UCL subscribes to, as well as open access journals. It is freely downloadable for main browsers.
If you're looking at a web page such as PubMed (example screenshot below), Wikipedia, or publisher pages, you will see the LibKey Nomad icon, giving you access to the PDF or suggesting other access options.
EndNote Click (formerly known as Kopernio) is a browser extension which helps you to access journal article PDFs. It is automatically installed when you download EndNote 20.
When you're on a web page which includes details for a journal article for example a publisher's site or a list of search results, the EndNote Click button will help you to click directly to the full text of the article,.
You need to create an account to use EndNote Click. This is separate to your EndNote online account, but means you can authenticate yourself as coming from UCL and therefore gain access to those resources which UCL subscribes to. EndNote Click will allow you to send the articles directly to EndNote or EndNote online, if you are using those programs.
If you connect to the UCL Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Desktop@UCL Anywhere, you will find you can access the full text of most of UCL’s subscribed resources without needing to log in again, just as you would if you were accessing them on the UCL network. If you are asked to log in, try linking to the resource via Explore to see if we have access.
If UCL doesn't have what you need, there are a number of ways you can try to obtain the item.
Be careful when using sites that provide free access to published research papers.
Some websites provide access to articles which are not officially available as open access publications. However these are likely to infringe copyright and licensing agreements and may be illegal.
Always use Explore or other UCL-subscribed resources to ensure you access legitimate full-text sources.
