Accessing RCOT ejournals: an overview

This information sheet will provide an overview of the three different ways to access ejournals the RCOT makes available through the RCOT website

If you wish to search for ejournal articles please see additional guides on our Information skills webpage at: https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/information-skills

To access the ejournals you will need to be signed into the RCOT website https://www.rcot.co.uk/ with your email address and self-selected password.

RCOT members have access to a suite of over 60 ejournals accessible through RCOT ejournal service. You’ll need to know the citation details of the article you wish to access (title, journal title, volume, issue number etc.). You can then ‘drill down’ to the particular article you wish to find.

You must access the ejournals via the RCOT website (not through a Google search) otherwise you may not be able to gain full access.

Titles are accessible in three ways:

1. Directly through the RCOT journals and ejournals webpage https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/journals-and-e-journals Occupational therapy titles accessed directly from this webpage are:

British Journal of Occupational Therapy (BJOT) American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) Australian Occupational Therapy Journal (AOTJ) Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy (CJOT) Selected features from OTnews

To read articles full text from any of the four titles click the relevant title link on the webpage (circled in black in the screenshot below) and navigate to the issue and article you’re interested in. To read selected articles from OT news, again click on the relevant link and navigate through as directed

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2. through the RCOT Library ejournal platform accessed through the ‘Additional RCOT ejournals’ link (shown circled in blue in the screenshot below). The majority of additional ejournal titles are available through this link

Follow the steps below:a) Click the ‘Additional RCOT ejournals’ link (circled in blue in the screenshot above)b) browse the A-Z index (circled in black in the screenshot below) or enter the ejournal title in the

search box (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below) If you are not sure of the exact title, just enter a word from the title. Due to technical reasons trying both of these options is recommended if trying to search for an ejournal title.

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c) Once you have found the ejournal title you are interested in, and would like to browse articles from issues in that particular title, click on the blue publisher link (examples shown highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below) This should link you out to the relevant publisher website where you should be able navigate to the specific article, or browse all articles in that particular ejournal.

If you wish to view another of the ejournals available, follow the options suggested at point 2 above again.

If at any time when using the RCOT Library ejournal platform, a yellow bar at the top of the webpage with the following words loads: Go to Full Text Finder Results / If the page does not display, then open the page in a new window – please wait a few moments to see if the journal article or webpage loads, rather than immediately clicking on the link open the page in a new window (circled in blue in the screenshot below. If the article still doesn’t load in a few seconds, then click Go to Full Text Finder Results and navigate through the links to access the full text of the article.

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3. through the RCOT library catalogue at: https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/search-library-catalogue

Select the link shown circled in black in the screenshot below

Occupational therapy ejournals, and ejournals of relevance to occupational therapists, can also be identified through the RCOT library catalogue. The library catalogue includes details of key ejournal titles (not all ejournals) to which RCOT members have access.

Through the catalogue you can search for an ejournal title and ‘link out’ to the relevant website to access articles. To do this:

a. Once you have selected the link to the catalogue shown above at point 3, type in the title of the ejournal (in the title field) with and ejournal, for example Journal of Occupational Science and ejournal. Click the search icon (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below) to run the search

b. In the record which appears, click on the link in the ‘Website’ field circled in black in the screenshot below

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c. After clicking on the link in the ‘Website’ field, navigate through the volume and issue numbers to access the ejournal issues and articles

If you wish to view another of the RCOT ejournals follow these steps again to access another title through the library catalogue.

On occasion the library may run an ejournal trial and, in such cases, there may be many more ejournal titles available through the RCOT ejournal service than listed on the catalogue). For the most comprehensive listing of ejournals please visit the RCOT Library ejournal platform, accessible via our Journals and ejournals web page Select ‘Ejournals access >’, then click the ‘Additional RCOT ejournals’ link. You can: 

search for a title by entering the first few words  browse an A-Z list of titles by clicking on the initial letter 

It’s helpful to search for, and access titles through, both the journals and ejournals webpage and the RCOT library catalogue

Obtaining articles not available through the RCOT ejournal service

A link to the current A-Z Journal and Ejournal Holdings List can be found on the RCOT library photocopy and document supply webpage (see link below). The list provides details of print and electronic journals made accessible by the RCOT (except any ejournal titles which may be available on trial).

Photocopies of articles can be requested from the RCOT journals collection. If the journal title you require is not on the list, it is possible for the Library to request an article on your behalf from the British Library. Full details of these services, including prices, are available at https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/photocopying-and-document-supply

Searching the ejournals – is it possible?

It is possible to carry out a basic search for journal articles on a particular topic/subject through the RCOT Library ejournal platform accessible through the Additional RCOT ejournals link, using the ‘search ejournal

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articles’ link (circled in black in the screenshot below). This search will only search the additional ejournals the RCOT makes available full text and currently will not search for journal articles in AJOT, AOTJ, BJOT or CJOT. This search may be useful if you are looking for only a few articles on a topic and are not interested in a full or comprehensive search.

For a full subject search you would need to search the electronic journal databases such as CINAHL, AMED, PsycINFO, Medline etc. on one of the platforms such as EBSCOHOST, OVID or Proquest which may be made available to you through your university, health or hospital library.

RCOT members can search CINAHL and Medline through the EBSCOHOST platform on the RCOT website at https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/search-cinahl-and-medline

RCOT Professional members (not on award bearing courses) can also request a literature search from the RCOT Library. Full details are at: https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/library-resources/library-literature-search

Contact us

If you experience any difficulties, one of our team of information professionals will be happy to help.

Telephone: 0207-450-2320/ 2316/ 2303/2343 Email: library@rcot.co.uk

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