Browsing & Searching for OFP Articles

April 2017

Examples on APA PsycNET®, EBSCOhost, Ovid, and ProQuest

Browsing & Searching for OFP Articles

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Databases & Electronic Resources Blog

FAQs about OFPs

• Online First Publications, or “OFPs,” are articles published online ahead of their journal issue.

• Most scholarly journals release new issues once every month or once every quarter.

• Many researchers and publishers want to share their content quickly, rather than wait for the rest of the issue to be ready to publish.

• The OFP will reach “full publication” status later, when it is assigned a particular issue and page numbers.

What is an OFP?

There are few things to look for to determine if an article is an OFP.

• the Publication Type will say “First Posting” instead of just “Journal Article”

• there will be no HTML full text, just the PDF full text

• the citation will not have volume, issue, or page numbers

The following fields are missing in OFPs:

• Cited References • Index Terms • Author Affiliation• Methodology• Grant/Sponsorship• Tests & Measures

The OFP record includes all the information you need to use & cite it.

Is an OFP record different?

APA PsycNET® OFPs

OFP document type is First Posting

OFP citation has no pagination

Regular articles have links to Full-

text HTML and References

Search Results Page

APA PsycNET®

OFP record includes Publication

Type “First Posting”

OFP record doesn’t have Index

Terms

Fields in the Record

APA PsycNET®

Browsing for OFPs

APA PsycNET®

Select Browse from the top

menu, and click on your

desired journal title

Browsing for OFPs, cont.

APA PsycNET®

OFP articles are placed in a

special Online First Publication

section, while regular articles are

grouped by issue number

Click on any section to view a list

of full-text records

EBSCOhost OFPs

Regular articles have links to

HTML Full Text

Search Results Page

EBSCOhost

OFP (left) has date in

Source field in place of

page numbers

OFP has no Subjects

OFP Publication

Status is “Online First

Posting”

Regular article (right)

includes volume, issue

& page numbers, and

References

Fields in the Record

EBSCOhost

Browsing for OFPs

EBSCOhost

Select Publications from the top

menu, and click on your desired journal

title

OFP articles are organized by

date released, while regular

articles are grouped by issue

number

Click on any section to view a

list of full-text records

Browsing for OFPs, cont.

EBSCOhost

Ovid OFPs

OFP has Status “Publish Ahead

of Print”

Search Results Page

Ovid

Regular article has issue & page

numbers in the Source, and

References below

Fields in the Record

Ovid

OFP has Status “Publish Ahead of

Print” and Document Type “PDF

only”

Select Journals from the top menu,

and click on your desired journal title

Browsing for OFPs

Ovid

OFP articles are placed in a

special Publish Ahead of Print

section, while regular articles are

grouped by issue number

Click on any section to view a list

of full-text records

Browsing for OFPs, cont.

Ovid

ProQuest OFPs

OFP has a date in the citation, in

place of issue and page numbers

Regular articles have links to

References and Full text (HTML)

Search Results Page

ProQuest

Regular article (above) has tabs

for Full text (html) and

References

OFP (right) has a date instead of

page numbers in the citation, and

no Subjects

Fields in the Record

ProQuest

Select Publications from the

top menu, and click on your

desired journal title

Browsing for OFPs

ProQuest

OFP articles are organized by date

released, while regular articles are grouped

by issue number

Click on any section to view a list of full-text

records

Browsing for OFPs, cont.

ProQuest

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Electronic Resources Blog.