Jun 24, 2025
Full-Text Retrieval
This protocol is a draft, published without a DOI.
- Melanie Gainey1
- 1Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
Protocol Citation: Melanie Gainey 2025. Full-Text Retrieval . protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: June 24, 2025
Last Modified: June 24, 2025
Protocol Integer ID: 220948
Keywords: text retrieval, google scholar, text article, text content, cmu libraries resource, using cmu libraries resource, cmu library, document, content, institution, screening
Abstract
Note: This is a CMU-specific training example using CMU Libraries resources and
terminologies. This can be used as a model to translate at your institution.This document will walk you through how to retrieve the full-text articles that we have included in the title-abstract
phase of screening.
In this process you will learn how to:
● Retrieve full-text content quickly with the LibKey Nomad browser extension
● Configure your Google Scholar account to optimize access to full-text
● Use our interlibrary loan (ILLiad) system to get content that is not freely available or that CMU Libraries does not subscribe to
Guidelines
Note: This is a CMU-specific training example using CMU Libraries resources and
terminologies. This can be used as a model to translate at your institution.This document will walk you through how to retrieve the full-text articles that we have included in the title-abstract
phase of screening.
Configure Full-Text Access
First download the LibKey Nomad browser extension here: https://www.library.cmu.edu/services/libkey-nomad
Register for CMU Libraries inter-library loan system, ILLiad, on this webpage (Step 1 under
Getting Started): https://www.library.cmu.edu/services/illiad
Configure Google Scholar for full-text access to CMU Libraries’ access with these instructions: https://library.cmu.edu/services/gscholar
Retrieving Full-Text for Articles in Sysrev
Click on the Full button on the homescreen of Sysrev. This takes you to all of the articles that
met our inclusion criteria in the title-abstract screening phase.
Next you want to filter this list so that you are only looking at the articles that have not had the full-text attached yet. To do this, click on Add Filte -> Labels. (These filters just change what you are seeing in the project but will not affect the data in there).
Then you will select Full-Text under Any Label and then the Exclude tab. Hit Save.
Put the title of the first article in the list into Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/).
Important: check to make sure that the article title and authors match the record in Sysrev. We want to make sure we are retrieving the right articles.
Click on the [PDF] link in Google Scholar. Now skip to Step 12 to attach the PDF to the Sysrev project.
If there are no PDFs in Google Scholar, click on the title of the article and then click on the LibKey
nomad button (green tear drop icon).
Unfortunately, most scholarly articles are not freely available. In many cases, CMULibraries will subscribe to the journal where the article is published. And sometimes the article will be freely-available (this is called open access). In either of these scenarios, clicking on the LibKey Nomad button will take you right to the PDF and you can download it.
In other cases, CMU Libraries does not subscribe to the article and you will have to use their inter-library loan service to get it. In that case, clicking on the LibKey Nomad button will take you to the CMU Libraries catalog and you can click on ILLiad to request the article.
(Note: you will likely have to sign into your library account with your Andrew ID and CMU password to utilize ILLiad).
One great benefit of LibKey Nomad is that it autofills almost all of the required ILLiad fields - so filling out the request form should be really fast. You will receive an email from the ILL Office notifying you when the PDF is available in your account (the time it takes for this process varies but on average a few business days).
Attach PDFs to Articles in Sysrev
Then, click on the article in Sysrev in the Article list and click Upload PDF (if you have the article now).
Click on Manually Add Labels.
Click on Yes for the Include label.
Now you can select either PDF attached OR ILL requested OR Can’t find article for the Full-Text label. Hit Save. This is how we will keep track of which articles have PDFs attached.
Click on Back to Article List to get to the next article.