Title

Full Text Article Linking, Where are We Now?

Publication Date

2007

Document Type

Article

Abstract

After finishing the study of Web-based reference linking, Herbert Van de Sompel further refined his research results and developed the OpenURL framework in 2000. Today, this framework has become an international standard widely adopted by the electronic scholarly publishing community. Services built on this standard are taking users seamlessly and instantaneously to full-text articles regardless of which databases they reside in as long as users are authenticated successfully via a subscription login process. In addition, extended OpenURL-based services are continuously evolving. One of the services, article linking, even allows users to directly query multiple databases to retrieve the desired full-text articles without the need to log into individual databases. OpenURL-based services have thus far proven to be a great tool for improving full-text article access. In fact, many have become standard features that must be included in electronic journal subscriptions. This paper will attempt to (1) provide some background information about OpenURL framework development, (2) describe how OpenURL has been used, particularly by the electronic scholarly publishing community, (3) explain the benefits that OpenURL brings to library users of electronic resources, (4) demonstrate how OpenURL-based article linking services can improve access to full-text articles using EBSCO Publishing’s LinkSource service, and (5) discuss the current linking service problems and provide an overview of OpenURL’s ongoing development.

Original Citation

Chang, S. (2007) Full Text Article Linking, Where are We Now? Chinese Librarianship, 23(1). Available: http://www.iclc.us/cliej/cl23chang.htm.

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