Skip to page content

Worldwide (English) Change

13 FirstSearch per-article purchase

Per-article purchase lets you provide access to the full text of journal articles included in FirstSearch but not covered by your FirstSearch subscription or by other full-text billing methods.

Benefits of per-article purchase

With the per-article purchase feature, you can increase the amount of full-text information available to your patrons without increasing your subscription costs.

Per-article purchase can provide the following benefits to your library:

  • Access to journals that complement your existing subscriptions, including journals not used enough to warrant the expense of annual subscriptions
  • Access to electronic journals if your library has no subscriptions
  • Statistics to support future subscription decisions
  • More "just-in-time" information to satisfy the needs of your library users
  • More online information to serve growing numbers of remote-access users
  • Increased access to full text from FirstSearch databases that link to the full text of journal articles in other databases
  • Another document delivery option for interlibrary loan departments using online services to fill document requests in a timely manner

What users see for per-article purchase

Users see little or no difference between accessing full text available through per-article purchase and accessing other full text available through FirstSearch. In FirstSearch, they click the same full-text icon and link used to access other full text. For direct article access, they click links that you supply on your library's web pages just as they do for other full text available through FirstSearch.

You can use features in the administrative module to affect how users access full text:

  • For per-article purchase, you can display the purchase price of the article within the full-text link in FirstSearch.
  • For per-article purchase and other full text, you can require that users enter a full-text password to view the full text.
  • You can create a custom message to be displayed to users along with the prompt for the full-text password. An example of a full-text password message is Please check at the Reference Desk about access to this article.

Availability of per-article purchase

Your library can use per-article purchase if your account includes a full-text database that offers it. A Per-Article Purchase section appears in the main menu of the administrative module if your library can use per-article purchase.

For databases that offer per-article purchase, the name of the database is highlighted and underlined on the Database Access screen. You can click the name of the database to go to the Journal Settings screen for the database.

To use per-article purchase, you must turn it on in the administrative module:

  • Check the box in the Access column on the Database Access screen for a full-text database that offers per-article purchase, and
  • Check the box in the Enable Purchase column of that database's Journal Settings screen for one or more journals.

Cost of per-article purchase

Your library is billed monthly for each viewing of an article available through per-article purchase. Article prices vary by journal. Current year and backfile prices for each journal are listed on the Journal Settings screen of the administrative module.

Because article prices for per-article purchase differ from prices for other full-text billing methods, full text available through per-article purchase is not available through other monthly billing methods or the per-search billing method. Prices for those billing methods do not apply to per-article purchase.

Databases offering per-article purchase

Currently, per-article purchase is available only for journals included in the Electronic Collections Online database. Even if you do not subscribe to any Electronic Collections Online journals, you can use per-article purchase if the ECO_FT database is included in your FirstSearch account.

Journals available through per-article purchase

Journals available through per-article purchase in your FirstSearch account are listed on the Journal Settings screen of the administrative module. Each available journal has a box in the Enable Purchase column of the screen. If you check that box for a journal, articles from it are available to your users for per-article purchase.

Publishers participating in per-article purchase

A list of the Electronic Collections Online publishers providing per-article purchase from their journals is available here .

Information about available journals

The Journal Settings screen of the administrative module contains the following information about each journal available through per-article purchase:

  • ISSN
  • Journal title
  • Billing method
  • Current year price
  • Backfile price

Statistics for per-article purchase

Reports in the OCLC FirstSearch Usage Statistics service include per-article purchase data by journal. This data helps you determine when subscribing to a journal is more economical than purchasing its articles individually. The data is included in reports of journal details about full text used. In these reports, the Full Text by Purchase Method column contains data about subscription and per-article purchase usage.

Direct article access and per-article purchase

Direct article access links can be created to articles available through per-article purchase. Per-article purchase charges apply for those articles:

  • When you view full text to get the information needed to create a direct article access link
  • When you view full text while testing a link
  • When someone views full text after clicking a link

More information about direct article access is available here.

Turn on and customize per-article purchase

The following features in the administrative module let you turn on and customize per-article purchase:

  • The Journal Settings features let you turn access to full text on and off by journal.
  • The Purchase Settings features let you control the cost of per-article purchase.
  • The Account Information, Full-Text Password and Database Access features are also related to per-article purchase.

Adding per-article purchase to your FirstSearch account

Contact your OCLC regional service provider if you want to add to your FirstSearch account a full-text database that offers per-article purchase.