With OpenAthens, you can find our institution directly on publisher websites and gain access to our subscription content. The benefit of this new feature is that if you happen to find something online, you can quickly log-in and determine if we have access. The drawback of this feature is that you only see the content on that particular publisher site. If we have access to a resource in another database, you won't know that unless you use the library site.
If you plan to search online, check out the details below for an overview of logging into publisher sites. Also, we highly recommend installing the LibKey Nomad browser extension if you search online. It can determine if you are viewing a resources we have access to in the library and helps ensure you don't miss a chance to access full-text.
You can log-in to publisher sites (with whom we have subscriptions) before you start searching or at the point at which you want to access a resource. Keep in mind that our subscriptions don't include access to everything on any given publisher's site. You will find works you can access and others which are unavailable as they are not part of our collection.
Each publisher will offer a slightly different interface, but you want to look for an option to sign in through your institution.
For example, on the public Sage Journals website, you can click on 'access profile' in the top right of the screen and then select options. On the next page, you can choose to log in via your institution:
On the next screen, you can search for and select Fielding. Upon doing so, if you already have an active log-in you'll simply be connected to the database. If you don't have an active log-in yet, you'll see Fielding's log-in screen where you can enter your credentials:
Once you've signed in, you'll have access to anything we subscribe to in the database. In many publisher databases, either on the 'advanced search' screen or on the results list, you will find an option to limit results only to content you have access to. This can be useful if you just want to see immediately accessible items included in our subscriptions.
If you attempt to sign in to access an article and are unable to, it is either 1) not part of our collection or 2) available in another of our databases but not the one you're searching. We highly recommend using LibKey Nomad or checking for the work in the library to confirm.
LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that lets you take advantage of our library when surfing the web. Once installed, if you are viewing an article on the open web, it will alert you if the article is in our library and provide a link to access it. If you know you might not always start your research in our library, it's a wonderful tool to use in your workflow. View our set-up guide to learn more.
LibKey Nomad is a nice complement to OpenAthens, because it will let you know if an article you're viewing is available via another database in our library, even if it's not in the one you're currently searching. For example, an article may be unavailable to you on the Emerald website, but could be part of our subscriptions via another provider, like ProQuest. LibKey Nomad will help you make sure you're not missing any opportunities to access journal content if you're beginning your research on the web instead of in the library.