Skip to Main Content

How to Search the Literature (Advanced)

This guide offers an eight step approach from identifying your topic to managing your search strategy and results

Find the Full Text to Non-English Literature

You may need to include literature published in languages other than English. Below are the steps and tips that can aid in locating them.

Steps:

  1. Access the journal's website.
  2. Look for the Archive, Back Issues, or Back Browsing on the journal's website
    • Use Google Translate to help navigate the journal's website. Keep in mind that Google Translate is not accurate enough for medical translation of an abstract or full text.
      • Google Translate is a literal translation and so, the exact wording of the title can differ. Look for information that will not vary such as the author or drug names to help confirm with the identify resource is the relevant one.
  3. Navigate the website to identify the relevant literature by looking for the appropriate year, volume, issue, page number, and names of the authors.
    • There is often an English abstract along with the non-English abstract, which will aid in identifying your literature.
    • Note: page numbers in the table of contents do not always run numerically. Also, some languages may be read right to left

Examples of Finding the Full Text to Non-English Literature

 

You can access the journal's website by searching ULRICHSWEB or a search engine (e.g., Google) using the title of the journal.

Steps:

  1. Search using the title of journal

 

  1. Click on the appropriate title which will then provide more details about the journal title

 

  1. Look for the journal's website and click on the link

Many non-English journal websites will offer an English version, and if not then Google translate will aid in navigating the website.

Steps

  1. Access the journal's website by following the links in the database record, or by searching Google or ULRICHSWEB.
  2. Look for the Archive, Back Issues, or Back Browsing on the journal's website
  3. Navigate the website to identify the relevant literature by looking for the appropriate year, volume, issue, page number, and names of the authors.
  • When the title differs slightly (i.e., the order of the words are different), confirm that the journal, author, year, volume, issue, and page numbers match. If there is an English abstract included, this should match your citation fully.