Monday 10 November 2008

Emerald and lack of full-text

Another popular query that comes up time and again goes something like this: "When I search on Emerald I always get lots of articles coming up that are abstract only. Why can't I see the full-text?" Here's the answer:

Emerald is not a single database; it's a collection of different products all gathered together and searchable via the Emerald website. We have a subscription to Emerald Management Xtra (don't you just hate that spelling of "Extra"?). If you bothered to click the link above, you'd see it's one of many Emerald products. One of these, Emerald Backfiles, is relatively new, and I think it's being promoted by Emerald. This promotion takes the form of appearing at the top of your search results. Being there, the Backfiles articles are likely to be the first articles that you click on...leading to some frustration and irritation when you see that it's abstract only, because DBS do not have a subscription to it.
Before you contact the library, consider the fact that these articles all date from at the most recent, the early to mid 1990s. It is entirely possible that there are more recent articles on your subject that appear further down the list of your search results. Emerald's marketing has worked to the extent that a DBS subscription to Emerald Backfiles is under consideration for next year

Alternatively, you can remove all articles from Emerald Backfiles, and indeed removed all non-DBS subscribed content from your searches by amending some search options. On the quick or advanced search options page, make the sure the options below are checked thus:



This should remove any articles you can't see the full-text of from your search results.

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