1. Why does the number of links in Find It vary?
2. Why don't I see a Find It button next to a particular citation?
3. Full text isn't always available. Why not?
4. Why isn't full text available when I know Harvard has access to it?
5. Why are there multiple sources for the same full text?
6. I have a complete citation, but Find It only takes me to the journal's homepage. Why?
7. What if I already have a citation from another source? Can Find It create links for that citation?
8. Why do I encounter an error or "not found" message?
9. PubMed FindIT at Harvard

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Find It is context sensitive: it looks at a citation and determines what links it can provide for that particular citation. For example, you may find a reference to an article in a 1998 issue of the journal Nature Alert. Harvard does not have access to issues of Nature Alert published before 2001. So, in this case, you will not see a link to full text in Find It, although you may see a link to the HOLLIS Catalog. Each citation will elicit a different group of links.

Not all e-resources provide the Find It service, though we are adding new resources whenever possible. Bear in mind that the Find It button displays in a location chosen by the given e-resource. The button sometimes appears in the detailed view of the results set rather than the initial brief display. If you do not have the Find It link in a resource, you can enter the citation into Citation Linker to check for full text.

3. Full text isn't always available. Why not?

Sometimes, Find It does not have enough information to lead you to the full text. You may be taken to the table of contents or to the journal's homepage instead. It is also possible that Harvard does not have electronic access to the article or journal or that Find It is not aware that we have access to it. Check the Find E-Journals section of the E-Research at Harvard web site for a particular journal's holdings information. When you click on the Find It button, note the HOLLIS link. If we do not have electronic access to a journal, we may have it in print.

If you need additional assistance, please feel free to contact a librarian through the comment facility.

You can also suggest an electronic resource for addition to the E-Research at Harvard site.

Find It is not always aware of all of Harvard's electronic holdings, though we do our best to keep the database up to date. If you need assistance, please feel free to contact a librarian through the comment facility.

Our electronic journal holdings overlap in some places. Some vendors provide full text in html format, others as pdf's (Adobe Acrobat documents), and some provide both. For the most part, pdf's are more accurate and contain all of the information that was published in the article in print, such as charts, graphs, and images.

6. I have a complete citation, but Find It only takes me to the journal's homepage. Why?

Sometimes, Find It does not have enough information to lead you to the full text of the article. Or, the vendor does not enable linking directly to the full text. You may be taken to the table of contents or to the journal's homepage instead. When this happens, you can still access the article, but you will need to navigate to it.

If you have a citation, say from a bibliography or reading list, you can use Citation Linker to determine whether or not we have the journal or article electronically. Citation Linker will activate Find It with the information you provide.

If Find It is unable to construct a valid search, no links will be retrieved. In some cases, very recent articles may not be accessible from the vendor, yet. Or, the Find It links may be wrong. Please report errant links to the comment facility. We will investigate the problem.

Software has been implemented in the in PubMed that will choose a journal source from the list of choices available on the resulting page (the SFX page) and will automatically open that pre-selected choice in either a new tab or a new window. A screen shot of the SFX page can be seen below:



After clicking the in PubMed a page similar to the one above will appear, either in a new tab or a new window. If you have turned off your pop-up blocking for this page (see instructions below), a new page or tab will appear in 5 seconds that should open the full text document that was sought. (If you do not want to wait the full 5 seconds you can make the choice yourself by clicking on the available link. The choice that the software has made is designated as [pre-selected].) If this mechanism does not take you to the full text of the article it may take you to the web site of the journal where you can browse to the article. If the software does neither of these you can either go back to the previous tab/window and try one of the other choices that may be available or you can click the Hollis Catalog link at the bottom of the page to see where the item is available as a print copy.

Instructions for allowing pop-ups from the SFX page:

• In Mozilla FireFox:
  1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Tools menu, and select Options....
  2. Select the Content panel.
  3. Type (or paste) sfx.hul.harvard.edu in the Address of Web site to allow box and click Allow.
  4. Click Close, then OK, to close the dialog windows.
• In Internet Explorer (IE 7 and above):
  1. At the top of the IE window, click on the Tools menu. Select Pop-up Blocker from the list, then click Pop-up Blocker Settings.
  2. In the Address of Web site to allow box type (or paste) sfx.hul.harvard.edu then click Add.
  3. Click Close.
• In Safari:
  At this time it is not possible to allow pop-ups for specific websites in Safari. To see pop-ups:
  On a Mac:
  1. Click on Safari menu in the upper-left hand corner of the screen.
  2. Pull down to Block Pop-up Windows.
  3. You can toggle the popup blocker on or off clicking Block Pop-up Windows.
  On a PC:
  1. Click Edit in the Safari menu.
  2. Pull down to Block Pop-up Windows.
  3. You can toggle the popup blocker on or off clicking Block Pop-up Windows.
• In Opera:
  1. Click Tools in the menu
  2. Select Quick Preferences from the drop-down window.
  3. Pick the option you prefer in the Quick Preferences drop-down. (Block Unwanted Pop-ups blocks all pop-ups except those that you click from active links in the current window.)
  4. Pop-ups appear as minimized windows within the tab that created them. Click the top of this window if you would like to open the pop-up.
• In Google Chrome:
  At this time it is not possible to allow pop-ups for specific websites in Google Chrome. To see pop-ups:
  1. Click Tools in the menu
  2. Select Options.
  3. Click the Under the Hood tab.
  4. Select the Notify me when a pop-up is blocked checkbox.
  5. Click the Close button.
  Pop-ups appear as minimized windows within the tab that created them. Click the heading of the minimized window to expand the pop-up.