What does it mean when a vendor says they can provide “full-text”?
A photocopy reproduces the original print format including photographs, charts and other illustrations. “Full-text” means different things in different contexts. To an article delivery vendor, it may be a word-processed file of the article text and omit illustrations. For some suppliers of electronic subscriptions or articles, “full-text” describes electronic versions of the original publication, including illustrations. These versions may require special viewers, like Adobe AcrobatTM or CatchWord RealPageTM. When “full-text” describes text in its digital form, the text file is searchable, meaning that you can search for words that appear in the article. This is an evolving area, so if you want a particular kind of “full-text” publication, review the vendor’s description or contact its customer support staff.
