Do I Need to Pay for an Article?

If you are EVER asked online to pay for an article, DON’T!

You may have entered a particular database through their commercial site, which they then would require you to pay for the articles they provide. To ensure you do not have to pay for any articles that you need for your research you will have to access them through the Carleton Library webpage.

NOTE: If you are off campus and wanting to access electronic journal articles, you will need to log in through Off Campus Database Access. Alternatively, you can log into the Proxy Server and then choose your database.

To check whether the library has access to the article follow these steps.

1. Search OMNI

Most of our articles can be found in the library database OMNI. It is usually easiest to search by article title; if you know you have the exact title, use quotation marks around it. It may help to add the author's name if you are doing a general keyword search.

If there is a particular article you require that is not accessible through Carleton, it may be requested through OMNI. For more information see: Library Does Not Have What I Need.

2. Search Google Scholar

If you can't locate the item in OMNI, try Google Scholar. If you search on campus, or if you are are searching from home and chosen the Google Scholar with Carleton Library full-text option, you will find the link to the right of the article title.

3. Search in OMNI for the publication in which the article appeared.

If you don't find the article in OMNI or Google Scholar, but you know the journal title in which the article appeared (different from the article title), search for the publication in OMNI. If you locate the publication, you can then search within it for the article.

Do not pay for individual articles - you are already paying for access with your Carleton tuition.