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PubMed LinkOut

What is LinkOut?

LinkOut allows PubMed to act as a gateway to the full-text of many of the e-journals to which the Health Sciences Library (HSL) has a subscription -- whether they are in MD Consult, Blackwell Synergy, Science Direct, EBSCOhost, or standalone titles. It also tells the user whether we have the journal in our Print Collection.

How do I know if the HSL owns a particular title when searching PubMed?

First of all, you must use the following link to access PubMed in order for LinkOut to work (and to take advantage of all HSL customizations):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?myncbishare=nymclib&dr=citation .

This is the link that you are directed to from all of the library's web pages. Be in the habit of entering PubMed through the Library's Database Page. If you are off campus, you need to log on with your barcode, see http://library.nymc.edu/Database/connecting.cfm.

Once you view a record in Abstract, AbstractPlus, or Citation format, you will know that the library has a title if you see either of the two icons below:

	This icon means that the library has the article electronically. If you click on it you should be able to get delivery to your desktop.If you are asked for a password, call 914-594-4210. Not all publishers allow direct access.
	If you see this icon when viewing a citation, the HSL has this journal in print. To view the volume/year coverage of our print holdings, click on this icon. You will need to either come to the library to make a photocopy, or can request a copy via the Library's Photocopy Service.

Is it possible to limit my search to only journals owned by NYMC?

If you come in through the link above or through the Library's Databases page, you should see a tab at the top of your results for "NYMC Library ". Clicking on this tab will limit your results to only NYMC holdings -- both print and online. There is no way to limit to just online holdings.

If you set up your own My NCBI account (which is useful because you can save searches and set up alerts) you will want to set up a profile which creates an "NYMC Library " tab to apply this limit. See here for instructions on how to limit to NYMC holdings using My NCBI.

Can I access online journals from off-campus?

Yes. PubMed LinkOut is currently one of the best methods to access e-journals from outside the NYMC network. Once you log on with your barcode, do your PubMed search as usual. You will have access to the e-journals just as if you were on campus.

Information on obtaining a library barcode.

Is it perfect?

Unfortunately not. For one, not all of the titles that the Library owns are indexed in PubMed. You will need to use a variety of sources if you want to be comprehensive on a topic.

Also, PubMed LinkOut relies on the coordination of three parties -- the publisher, the developers of PubMed at the National Library of Medicine, and the Health Sciences Library staff. If one of these pieces is missing, the LinkOut won't work. The publisher needs to supply the links to NLM, NLM has to post that working link from the database, and we need to give NLM our holdings information. If the publisher doesn't supply the link, the Library may still have e-access to the journal but this information will not be available to the user.

How do I know for sure, then, whether the Library has a title when I don't see a LinkOut?

In addition to the LinkOut buttons described above, you will also see an "NYMC Article Linker" button on each PubMed record. An Article Link button is now found on most records in most of our databases. It looks like this:

This button may help you to identify online holdings (some possibly not identified by LinkOut), will take you to a search of the online catalog to verify print holding, and in addiiton, if the journal is not owned by the Health Sciences Library, will direct you to a pre-filled interlibrary loan (ILL) form using a link with our ILLiad system. See the Article Linker FAQ for more information.

Search the Library's Online Catalog . It's the most complete database of HSL holdings. For online journals only, you can search the E-Journal Portal. For more help call the Reference Desk at 914-594-4210.

See also the following Tipsheets:
Searching PubMed
Finding Full-Text on the Library's Website
ArticleLinker FAQ

Updated 9/26/06, M.Ascher