How to check licence conditions for eJournals

To find out if you’re allowed to use a copy of an eJournal in a course pack or on the LMS, check the Library Catalogue for information about the licence or terms of use.

  1. Go to the Library homepage and click on the link for the catalogue.
  2. Select Title from the drop-down menu and enter the journal title. Click on Search.
  3. Click on the link for the journal.
  4. On the page for the journal, take note of the database from where you would like to access the journal. Different databases often offer access to the same journal, but the range of dates may vary. Select the database with the broadest year range. In this example, the database chosen is the first option: "American Economic Association".
Screenshot of journal record
  1. Follow the link to the Database Title Search and enter the name of the database in the Database Title Search.
Screenshot of database search
  1. The Terms of Use for the journal will be listed and you will be able to see if you can use the articles in a course pack or on the LMS.

To find out if you can make copies of articles available on the LMS, check the section titled E-Reserves/LMS. If it states “electronic links only” this means that you can only link to articles. If it states “Yes: reasonable portion” this means that you can make articles available. However, the definition of reasonable portion varies from journal to journal. We recommend that 1 journal article from a journal issue or 2 or more articles on the same topic would most likely be considered a reasonable portion.

  1. Click on the link for further information for more details about the terms of use, including a glossary, if required.

If you have any questions, please contact the Copyright Office.