Creating stable links to articles, images, and videos
This guide is designed for faculty who want to create links from a course Web site to images and full-text articles available in library subscription databases.
Some of the library's full-text subscription databases allow you to create links to an article simply by using the URL you get when you retrieve the article (see the list below for resources that support this method).
In other resources, including Academic OneFile and FirstSearch databases, URLs contain session information that will expire after a period of time so cannot be used to create stable links. However, these and other databases provide methods for generating stable URLs (a.k.a. persistent URLs) that can then be used for creating article-level links. Details for creating stable links to articles and images in various databases follow.
Note that many stable URLs are long and often not human comprehensible. It's always a good idea to copy and paste URLs to avoid typographical errors.
For additional assistance creating links to articles in these or other databases, please contact a reference librarian.
Resources for which the browser URL can be used
When viewing articles in the following full-text resources, the URL that displays in the browser's address/location bar is stable and can be used to link to the article.
- American Chemical Society
- American Mathematical Society
- Annual Reviews
- Anthrosource
- BioMed Central
- BioOne
- IEEE Xplore
- JSTOR (see below)
- NBER Working Papers
- Oxford Journals
- Project Muse
- SpringerLink
- Univ. of Chicago Press
Resources that require a little more work
ABELL / Literature Online
Stable URLs are available for citation pages as well as full text. Either can be obtained by following the "Durable URL..." link. To get the URL for the full text:
- Follow a link to the full text of an article.
- Click the "Durable URL for this text" link. A new window will open.
- Copy the URL from the new window. (Depending on your browser, the URL may already be selected when the window opens.)
Academic OneFile
Academic OneFile provides full text for some of the citations in its database. All full-text articles have stable URLs. To find one:
- View the full text of the desired article.
- Click the "Bookmark this Document" link near the top right of the page. This will generate a new window that contains the stable URL for the article.
- Copy the URL and paste as needed, or use the "Email the Bookmark URL" link to email the link.
Note: Academic OneFile has some odd "cookie-ing" in place that affects how these URLs work. Sometimes the stable URL will not work on a computer unless Academic OneFile has already been accessed through the "front door" at least once. (The "front door" is accessible from the link on the library's home page.)
ACM Digital Library
The ACM Digital Library provides full text in a variety of formats. Stable URLs exist for an article's main page, and not for the text itself.
- Go to the main page for an article.
- Find the line that says "DOI Bookmark".
- Either select/copy the URL that follows "Use this link to bookmark this article" or right-click/copy the link itself.
APS Journals
- Go to the abstract page for an article.
- Find the line right after the abstract that says URL:.
- Copy the URL.
ARTstor
The Libraries' ARTstor license allows ARTstor images to be uploaded to course sites to which access is restricted (e.g., a course site on Moodle). An alternative is to link to images on the ARTstor site–an uploaded image will be just an image, but a linked-to image will open in the ARTstor Image Viewer with full ARTstor functionality.
ARTstor provides stable URLs for individual images, image groups, and OIV presentations. See Integrating ARTstor with Courseware for details on URLs for image groups and OIV presentation. Stable URLs for individual images can be obtained using either of the two following methods:
- From a search results page, right-click an image thumbnail, select Generate image URL from the pop-up menu, and select and copy the URL.
- From an image's full record, select the File properties tab then select and copy the Image URL.
Stable URLs are not available from enlarged image views.
ASCE Research Library
ASCE Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Unfortunately, DOIs for articles prior to 2001 are still being added, and ASCE articles that do have DOIs just display the DOI and not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:
- Go to the abstract page for an article or the first page of its PDF.
- Find the doi:
- Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere.
- Add the following before the DOI:
http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/
Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.
Cambridge Journals Online
Cambridge Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Articles display the DOI but not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:
- Go to the abstract page for an article or the HTML version of the full text.
- Find the doi:
- Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere.
- Add the following before the DOI:
http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/
The link will lead to the abstract page, from which the full text can be accessed as HTML or PDF. Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.
Films on Demand
- Open the main page for a video.
- Copy the "Title URL" that appears at the bottom of the "Details" tab (below the video viewport).
FirstSearch
Full text is available for a small percentage of the citations retrieved from FirstSearch databases.
- View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
- Click the Link Pickup icon (at the top right).
- Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."
Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.
Institute of Physics
The URLs behind the links to IoP full text are stable, but the URLs that result when you follow the links are not. The best bet is to link to an article's abstract page, whose location/address bar URL is stable.
JSTOR
Browser URLs in JSTOR are stable but not predictable, and often contain extraneous information. When copying a URL for an article, it's advisable to copy the URL from the PDF's window (assuming you want to link to the PDF). If you prefer to link to something other than the PDF, click the "View Citation" link from the article summary view, then copy the "Article Stable URL".
LexisNexis Academic
- View the full text of the desired article.
- Click the Copy Document Link icon. The icon appears at the top right; it looks like a clipboard with a chain link at the bottom.
- In the window that opens, right-click the document title and "Copy Link Location" or "Copy Shortcut" from the resulting context menu.
PsycARTICLES
Full text is available for all of the citations retrieved from PsycARTICLES.
- View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
- Click the Link Pickup icon. The icon will appear at the top right if viewing the PDF or on the left above the document title if viewing the HTML version. (The URL will go to the same place regardless of what version of the article you were viewing when you "picked up" the link.)
- Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."
Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect journals use the DOI for stable linking. However, students cannot access ScienceDirect full text, so article links won't work for them. Our pay-per-view access allows you to place a copy of an article in a Moodle course site.
Wiley InterScience
Wiley InterScience Journals use the DOI for stable linking. Articles display the DOI and not a URL with the DOI embedded in it. To create a URL for linking you'll need to prepend some other code to the DOI:
- Go to the abstract page for an article.
- Find the DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI).
- Copy the DOI and paste it somewhere. (Avoid copying the "About DOI" link immediately following.)
- Add the following before the DOI:
http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/
Note: DOIs don't always work for very recent articles.
WilsonSelectPlus
Full text is available for all of the citations retrieved from WilsonSelectPlus.
- View the full text of the desired article (either HTML or PDF).
- Click the Link Pickup icon (at the top right).
- Select and copy the URL that appears below the text "IP-address recognition URL for direct article access."
Note that these URLs are machine-generated and occasionally don't work.



