Trip tries to link to complete articles where these are available. For many evidence types (eg clinical guidelines and evidence-based synopses) this is fairly straightforward. However, when you look at articles obtained from journals it gets complicated as many are behind a paywall, with only the abstract freely available. But Trip has a few bits of functionality that can help.

Here are the main ways of linking to full-text articles in Trip:

Pro subscription: Working with third-party organisations we identify freely available full text (from places like PubMed Central, other full-text repositories and authors archive copies). If a Pro user searches Trip we always place the full-text, if we have it, as the main link-out. User’s can still find the PubMed abstract via the link to the right of the article:

Approximately 70% of all the journal articles we include in Trip link out to full text versions. In the top example, if the user wishes to see the abstract, they simply click on the abstract icon (the one on the right hand side).

Free users have a different experience as they would see this:

This shows, to the user, that we have the full text in our system and if they were to subscribe they could link out to it directly.

Link resolvers: These are a tool to link articles in Trip to an organisation’s subscription journals. So, if an institution has a subscription to, say, NEJM it makes sense that a user from that organisation can easily access the full-text. Unfortunately, this technology is ‘dumb’ in that it doesn’t know if the institution actually subscribes to the journal or not. So, it’s a bit hit and miss. As such we use this icon to signify that you may be able to access a full text copy:

The title of the document still links to the PubMed abstract, while the icon is displayed to the right of the title and the user needs to click on that to attempt to access the full text. Often, if the full-text isn’t available, there is a library holding page which offers further support regarding accessing the full text.

LibKey: Is certainly not ‘dumb’ as it knows – thanks to the work of an organisation’s librarians – what journals an organisation subscribes to. LibKey is a great tool and the team behind it (Third Iron) are great to work with! When an institution has LibKey we work with them to ensure we seamlessly link out to known subscriptions. But, two things to point out:

  • There is no special icon to signify it’s a LibKey link out – you’ll just see the usual ‘full text’ icon (as mentioned above).
  • If we have the full-text in our repository we link to that, in preference to any LibKey links. So, often (as we have full text links to around 70% of all articles) you’ll not find many link outs via LibKey! Notwithstanding that, LibKey is still a great resource to use and one we know our users appreciate.

If you have any further questions on full-text options then send us an email fulltext@tripdatabase.com.