SFX at UCL What is SFX? How do I use SFX? Where will I see the SFX button? Which resources can I reach through SFX? Can I use SFX from outside UCL? Frequently asked questions

SFX is an acronym for “special effects”. It is also the name of a linking service which can speed up the use of electronic library resources.

SFX can give you direct access from a reference, in a database or catalogue, to the full text of an electronic journal article.

It can also provide other context-sensitive links to relevant electronic resources, such as a search of another library catalogue.

SFX is available wherever you see the button.
Because it is a linking service, SFX only appears when integrated with other electronic resources, so it does not need to be accessed separately.

Click on the button, and a menu of possible links will appear, for example:

You will see the full citation of the book or article at the top of the menu, followed by a number of links.

Clicking on one of these links opens a new Web browser window of an external website containing the full text or catalogue search of your choice. For example:

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The SFX button (or an “SFX” text hyperlink in one or two cases) appears in:

• MetaLib, the gateway to UCL's electronic resources
• Most of the major indexing/abstracting databases listed in UCL's database list.
• eUCLid, the UCL library catalogue:

1. eUCLid Brief display with SFX button in "Site (Items/Out)" column

2. eUCLid Holdings display with SFX button in the Items section

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The exact options on the SFX menu are dynamically generated, relevant to your search and specific to UCL. Therefore, they will not be the same each time you click an SFX button. The menu can include links to any of the following:

• Full text electronic journals to which UCL subscribes.
  Note: There may be more than one alternative, if the journal is available from more than one provider.
  Note: When accessing SFX from any database except eUCLid, an e-journal will only appear if UCL subscribes to the exact article requested. Our subscriptions do not always cover every year of each journal.
• Full text electronic books from various publishers.
• Library catalogues - instant search for the same item.
  Catalogues available in this way are:
  
  • eUCLid (UCL library catalogue)
  • the Union List of Serials (for journals only)
  • COPAC
  • Senate House Library
  • InforM25
  • The British Library
  • Institute of Neurology/Institute of Child Health joint catalogue
  • Middlesex University catalogue (for Archway site users)
  
  See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/otherlib.shtml for information on using other libraries.
  Note: There is no guarantee that you will find the requested book or journal in any of these catalogues, as they appear in the menu without any pre-check.
• Download to Reference Manager (added April 2006)
  Where full citation information is provided by the source database, you will see an option at the bottom of the SFX menu to "Download Citation to Reference Manager/EndNote". Clicking on this link will automatically open Reference Manager, EndNote, or other similar citation management software, if you have it on your computer, and give you the option to load the citation into the software.

Any of those databases listed above which can be accessed from off-site will show the button under those circumstances.

Most e-journals are available off-site, with your UCL userid and password. This will be indicated in a note on the SFX menu, for example:

If an e-journal has other access arrangements, or is not available off-site, this will also be shown in a note.
See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/ejournal/access.shtml for further information.

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I know that UCL subscribes to this e-journal, but it is not appearing in the SFX menu. Why not?

If you opened SFX from a specific article in a database, SFX will check the UCL electronic holdings. If we do not subscribe to that year/volume, the journal will not appear in the SFX menu. Check eUCLid for details of our electronic and print holdings.

I have clicked on a link to full-text in the SFX menu - why am I not taken straight to the article?

Some e-journal providers do not provide links to the article level of their journals. In some cases, you will be taken to the volume level or the journal homepage, from which you can browse to the particular article you want.

I have clicked on a link to full-text, but the article is not available on the journal's website - why not?

Occasionally, articles are published in print (or indexed in databases) before they appear on the journal's website. For current subscriptions, SFX only "knows" how to provide access to the latest available issue on the journal's website - SFX doesn't know what that issue actually is.

There are no full-text links in the menu - what should I do now?

If you are looking for a journal article and no full-text links are offered by SFX, check the print holdings in one of the catalogues in the SFX menu. If eUCLid, the UCL library catalogue is listed, you should always check that first. If eUCLid is not listed, you can use the M25 Union List of Serials to see if any other university library in London holds the journal.

The SFX menu tells me “no services found for the current record” - why is this?

If no full-text is available, SFX needs enough information to offer a catalogue search instead. If the referring database does not provide a unique identifier (ISBN for a book or ISSN for a journal), SFX cannot offer any services.

Why does the UCL library catalogue not always appear in the SFX menu?

If you have opened SFX from eUCLid (UCL library catalogue), SFX assumes that you don't want to link back to eUCLid, so it won't appear in the menu.

How does SFX work in Google Scholar?

UCL has activated SFX links in Google Scholar. These can only appear as text links rather than the SFX button. If you are using a UCL computer, you should see these links automatically. If you want to display UCL SFX links from a computer outside the UCL network, set UCL in your Scholar Preferences. A large link, labelled "SFX@UCL - Fulltext" will appear if UCL has the item in full text via SFX. A smaller link, labelled simply "SFX@UCL", below the citation, indicates that UCL may have the item in print and the SFX menu will allow you to search eUCLid, the library catalogue.

Can I use SFX in PubMed?

Yes. The easiest way to see UCL SFX links in PubMed is to access PubMed using the special URL http://www.pubmed.gov?myncbishare=iukucllib, or via the entry for PubMed in MetaLib or the Databases lists. Alternatively, you can create or modify a MyNCBI account in PubMed with UCL preferences, as described below.

To set your MyNCBI preferences, sign in to MyNCBI (or register as a new user). In the left-hand menu, click on Search Filters. Select PubMed in the main area of the page, then select the Search for Filters tab. Enter UCL and you should see UCL Library Services. Select this link. To display UCL SFX links on results, tick Add as a link icon. You also have the option to filter the results list by results which are known to be part of UCL's journal subscriptions (historically labelled Add as a result tab). Don't forget, however, that freely available articles may not be included in the UCL filter, only in the full list.

If you encounter any problems using SFX, please report these to ejournals@ucl.ac.uk, stating as much information as possible about the actions which led to the problem and the text of any error messages you see.

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Last modified 13 November 2009