Creating links for ebook, ejournals, online articles, and other resources

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Creating persistent links for articles and ebooks in the Library catalogues

To create a persistent link to an article and ebooks in WorldCat Discovery:

  1. Find the record for the item in WorldCat Discovery
  2. In the record display click on “Share” in the top right-hand corner.
  3. In the pop-up page, click on "Copy Link" button next to the persistent link.
  4. For example, the link for A People's History of Quebec is:
    https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/426221935

               An image of a record with the Share button highlighted

               An image of the pop up with the permalink and the copy link button

 


Creating persistent links to databases

There are two recommended methods of linking to the Library's online databases, article indexes and web resources: Direct linking to the resource with the EZproxy prefix for paid resources; or linking to the stable URL (permalink) for the resource’s bibliographic record in WorldCat Discovery.

Link directly to a resource:

Advantage

  • Seamless link direct to resource

Disadvantages

  • Links are not automatically updated if the vendor or the URL changes
  • A small number of resources have multiple providers, so there isn’t a single direct URL that you can use

Link to the WorldCat Discovery resource record:

  • Find the bibliographic record for the resource in WorldCat Discovery under “Website” in the format facets.
  • In the record, click on “Share” in the top right-hand corner.
  • In the pop-up page, click on "Copy Link" button next to the persistent link. Use this link to create hyperlinks to the database.
  • For example, the link for Compendex is: https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/34130677

              An image of a record with the share button highlighted

Advantages

  • If the provider changes the URL for their resource, the link can be updated centrally in WorldCat Discovery. Link to the WorldCat Discovery record does not need to be modified
  • The user can access the resource via multiple vendors (when available)

Disadvantages

  • Extra clicks and effort for user
  • User has to locate the resource link on WorldCat Discovery record page
  • In the event that the OCLC number for the resource changes the links will have to be updated (this should happen fairly infrequently)

Creating persistent links to articles

Many of the Library's full-text article databases provide persistent link capabilities. Unfortunately however, publishers and aggregators use different means to create persistent links so is not always a simple matter of copying the URL when viewing an article online.

TIP: As a general rule, it is preferable to browse for your article using the Table of Contents rather than using the internal search engine.

Creating links using a DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

The most frequently used permanent link is the DOI or Digital Object Identifier. Similar to ISSNs or ISBNs, a DOI is a standardized method for identifying an electronic object. Publishers are increasingly using DOIs to uniquely identify articles, book chapters, or any other "objects" in their databases.

TIP: When available, the DOI is the preferred method of linking to a document because it is platform independent and will never change.

Look for the DOI or "doi:" in the bibliographic record or the article full text page. The format for a DOI looks something like this:

Not all publishers provide DOIs for their articles. Click below to view a list of some vendors/databases that do.
  • ACM Digital Library
  • American Institute of Physics
  • American Physical Society
  • Annual Reviews
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
  • Blackwell Synergy
  • EBSCOhost
  • Emerald
  • Gale Infotrac
  • Highwire Press
  • Metapress
  • Oxford Journals Online
  • SAGE Fulltext Collections (CSA Illumina)
  • ScienceDirect (including the reference collection)
  • Springer
  • Wiley
  • Xreferplus
 

To create a link using a DOI

  1. Copy the DOI provided on the document
  2. Open the hyperlink dialogue box in Word
  3. Insert the following prefix in the Address box: https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=https://doi.org/
  4. Paste the DOI after the prefix.

For example, if the DOI for your document is
doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2004.07.002
the hyperlink would be
https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2004.07.002

TIP: DOI Lookup

A form which allows you to retrieve Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for journal articles, books, and chapters by cutting and pasting the reference is available at http://www.crossref.org/freeTextQuery/.

Publisher persistent links (PURLs or PPURLs)

Some publishers and database providers provide their own permanent links to articles that can often be found with the citation information for the article. Carefully examine the bibliographic record and look for clues such as "permanent link to this record", "stable URL", "durable link", "linking options for this record", etc. Ovid Online labels its persistent links as "jumpstart". Just remember to be sure to add the prefix https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url= to the PURL.

Not all publishers provide PURLs for their articles. Click below to view a list of some vendors/databases that do.
  • ACM Digital Library
  • American Institute of Physics
  • American Physical Society
  • Annual Reviews
  • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
  • Britannica Online
  • Chadwyck Healey (LION)
  • EBSCOhost
  • EEBO
  • Emerald
  • Gale Infotrac
  • Highwire Press
  • JSTOR
  • Journals@Ovid
  • Proquest
  • WilsonWeb
  • Xreferplus
 

To create a link using a PURL

  1. Highlight the PURL, copy it and add the prefix https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=

    e.g.

    https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/lo...

Other persistent links

Some publishers have simplified the process by creating persistent links that appear in the browser window when the citation or article is retrieved. In this case, you may simply copy the URL and then paste into your Word document or open the Insert Hyperlink dialogue box, create a name for your link, and paste the URL into the Address box. Just be sure to add the prefix https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url= to the URL.

Unfortunately, there is no "sure fire" way to know whether or not these types of links are persistent, but metadata in the URL, such as ISSNs, issue numbers, etc. may provide hints. For example, this URL from Project Muse includes information about the type of document and the article number:

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/369116

So the proxied link for the article is:

https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/369116


Creating persistent links to e-books

Look up the e-book in WorldCat Discovery under “eBook” in the format facets on the left-hand side.

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