Skip to Main Content
St George's University of London Logo

Medical Professionals NHS Library Guide

This guide is for Medical Professionals working for St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Finding Articles

The following databases are likely to contain material that will be relevant to medical professionals. You will need an OpenAthens account to access most of the resources listed.

Best bets

Finding e-Journals

NHS staff have access to around 7000 full text electronic journals covering clinical medicine, nursing, psychology and healthcare management.

You can browse journals by subject area, or search for a specific title using the options below. You will need to log in with your OpenAthens account to access the full-text of articles.

Search e-journals

 

 

Print Journals

The Library still carries a small number of print titles which are relevant to medical staff, these include:

The BMJ and The New Scientist.

These titles, and some archived editions, can be found in the back of the library in the silent study area.

If you are unable to find a journal article in our collections, we may be able to obtain a copy for you from a different library.

NHS staff can use Hunter to search the University's journal holdings.

  • In the search box, enter two or three key words of the article or topic you are looking for.
  • Select the Articles and more option from the drop-down menu.

While remote access to articles from the University collections is not directly possible for NHS staff, we do offer a request service which enables all trust staff to obtain copies of articles. For more details, or to submit a request, see the library website.

Access to journals in the University collections is also available onsite at St. George’s Library, using the library PCs. Talk to a member of library helpdesk staff for more details, or contact library@sgul.ac.uk

If you are unable to find a journal article in our collections we may be able to obtain a copy for you from another library.

 
Making an interlibrary loan (ILL) request

You’ll find the online form to request an inter-library loan in Hunter, sign in to activate the Request Interlibrary Loan link. The link which can be found in the top right hand corner will remain greyed out until you sign-in. The link will take you to an ILL form where you can submit a request. If you would like an article to be delivered directly to your email inbox, please make sure you select Deliver to me electronically (Articles Only).

 
How much will it cost?

NHS staff are funded for 10 free interloans per year, further requests must be funded by an account code or cash/cheque payment. If you are paying for your ILL by account code, please enter the code in the Comment box. Cash payments must be made at the Library helpdesk (Monday to Friday, 8am-6pm).

 
Receiving and collecting requested ILL items

You can receive your articles by email see the Helpsheet on receiving articles by e-mail - PDF for instructions. If you have requested whole issues of journals you will be notified when your item arrives. They must be signed for and returned by the date shown on the slip inside. Certain items may not be removed from the Library - they will be marked 'restricted access' and kept at the Helpdesk.

 
How long does the request take?

Most journal requests usually arrive within 2-7 days. Please note, however, that supply times depend upon the organisation supplying the request, and this is not within our control.

For more information see the inter-library loans webpage.

Accessing NHS OpenAthens journals in Google Scholar

 

Before you search Google Scholar, you should select a library in the settings menu. Once you set and save your preferences, you will be able to link to OpenAthens resources retrieved with a Google Scholar search.

 

  1. Click the menu icon:

         

 

  1. Select Settings, and then Library links
  2. Search for st george's, select St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - St George's Trust OpenAthens from the list, and save your selection:

        

 

  1. Enter your search terms and look for links to St George's Trust OpenAthens. These links will open a new page.

        

 

  1. Follow the link for St George's Trust OpenAthens. This will link you to the full text of the article - in some cases you may be prompted to enter  your OpenAthens username and password.
How do I save, print, email an electronic journal article?

If you have opened a HTML version, you can use your normal web browser options to print, save or email the article, these options are usually found in the File menu.

If you have opened a PDF version, use the icons on the toolbar within Adobe Reader to print, save or email.

The article I need is not available through OpenAthens?

 If the article you need is not available via OpenAthens then you have two options:

Easy access to full articles- LibKey Nomad

LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that offers one-click access to the full text of journal articles.  

The Nomad extension works whenever you visit one of a wide range of websites dedicated to published research, including individual journal websites, publisher websites and popular search options such as PubMed and Wikipedia. Nomad will match information about the content available through NHS OpenAthens at your trust - and open access content - with any article you find while online, and will provide corresponding access options.

Nomad can be installed in browsers including Chrome, Edge and Firefox, by visiting the download page. Once installed, set your organisation (eg St George's), and enjoy easy access to full text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nomad extension will provide a direct link to an article pdf or the full text online where available, will check access options against OpenAthens (if you need to register for OpenAthens, you can do so online), or will provide you with the option to request a pdf copy of the article from the library.