Finding Full Scientific Publications Related to your Topic

by Dr. Lidiya Angelova-Duleva

When you are young graduate or scientist, finding science article related to your project could be overwhelming. That’s not only, because you can get lost in the huge amount of information, but also because the articles quite often are not fully accessible. Fortunately, there’re ways to find what you need.

Start with the basic science paper search engines. Not all papers are free, but you can find abstracts and author’s information:

• ScienceDirect: all science fields.
• GoogleScholar: all science fields.
• MicrosoftAcademicSearch: all science fields.
• Pubmed: biomedical science and related fields.

If you can’t find what you need, try the following lesser known websites:

• Freefullpdf: all science fields.
• arXiv: all science fields.
• InternetArchiveandOpenLibrary: access to over 1100 of public, institutions and university libraries.
• HighWire: all science fields (most are free).
• Taylor & Francis Online: all science fields (many are free).

If the paper that is critical for your project is not in them, there’re still ways to find it:

• Ask a friend or co-worker from another institute/university if they have access and could send you a copy. Make sure that you send the exact link of the article and the name of the article and the authors (you don’t want to waste their time in case the link doesn’t work).
• If you don’t know anyone that could help, ask the author/s directly. Most of the authors would be glad to send you a copy. If you do research in a similar area or will graduate soon (and will need a job), that would establish useful connections.

Good luck and don’t forget that despite highly competitive, scientists are cooperative and you will always be able someone to help you.

About the Author:
Lidiya’s curiosity about “how the life works” led her to complete a Master’s degree in Biology and a PhD in Microbiology. Science gave her more questions than answers and after a few years as a postdoc at the National Institute of Health in Rockville, MD, USA, she decided to pursue her “first” love in writing. Not long after that, she became a mom of a wonderful girl, who is a very energetic toddler now. She loves to travel and has lived in many countries; she is still looking for a place to settle down. Lidiya is thrilled to be a part of the Scientista bloggers team, and loves being able to connect with lots of wonderful young, and already established female scientists, while writing about science, life and everything else.

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