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Oxford Scholarship Online - FAQ

Frequently asked questions about how to use Oxford Scholarship Online

Technical and access questions

Frequently asked questions about how to use Oxford Scholarship Online

1) Can I print text from Oxford Scholarship Online?
Yes. You can print content from Oxford Scholarship Online by HTML page unit – each is the equivalent of five print pages. To print any page from the Oxford Scholarship Online site, simply use the Printer Friendly link in the left-hand navigation area. A preview window will appear with the correctly formatted pages, minus the site navigation components. Please note that restrictions apply – see below for guidelines on legal printing and copyright.

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2) How much material can I legally print out from Oxford Scholarship Online?
It is very important that you read the Legal Notice, which includes information on printing, before you print anything from Oxford Scholarship Online.

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3) One of the cross-reference links in the text doesn't work
If a cross-reference link in the text isn't working, please contact us. We cannot correct faulty cross-reference links immediately. However, we will load the corrected data the next time we publish an update to the Oxford Scholarship Online website.

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4) I am having problems with searching
Try looking at our online Help file which gives you lots of information about searching as well as tips on how to avoid common problems. It might be that you need to use a different type of search, or perhaps alter your search term to either cast your net more widely if you have too few results, or narrow your search if you've got more results than you can deal with.

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5) The book I'm viewing has no chapter abstracts or keywords
Some abstracts and keywords are not yet supplied. They will be uploaded to the site at regular intervals. The vast majority of titles on the site have abstracts and keywords.

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6) How can I find out which new titles are being added to Oxford Scholarship Online?
We will post lists of recently-added titles to each subject 'home page' as well as to our What's New page. You can also sign up for a regular, free e-mail alert containing new titles and other site news.
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7) Where are the footnotes and endnotes?
Please refer to Help which explains how simple it is to display footnotes and endnotes. In most cases the footnote numbers are live links in the text.

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8) There is an Oxford University Press book which I would like to see available on Oxford Scholarship Online
Please contact us with your suggestion. We will be uploading new titles to the site every three months. Most will be new current titles, but we will be adding some backlist titles too.

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9) Can I follow links from Oxford Scholarship Online to other online resources?
Links from Oxford Scholarship Online bibliographies and references to other online resources are increasingly 'live links'. Clicking on the link will take you to a page describing the external resource that Oxford Scholarship Online has identified. If you or your institution has full text online access to this resource you will be able to view the resource.

Please note that this system does not appear if your institution uses an OpenURL resolver such as SFX or LinkFinder Plus. In such cases you will see your institution's preferred links on bibliographic pages.
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10) I've spotted an error in the text
If you notice an error in the text, please contact us. We cannot usually correct errors in the text immediately. However, we will load the corrected text the next time we publish an update to the Oxford Scholarship Online website.

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11) Is Oxford Scholarship Online OpenURL-compliant?
Yes, Oxford Scholarship Online is compliant with version 0.1 of the OpenURL specification. To enable this feature in your institution, please access your account information in Subscriber Services. Oxford Scholarship Online also now supports the selection of custom OpenURL resolver icons.

Also note that Oxford Scholarship Online is integrated with Ex Libris' SFX Knowledge Base ensuring that the site operates as both a source and target for OpenURL.
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12) Does Oxford Scholarship Online make use of digital object identifiers (DOIs)?
Yes, Oxford Scholarship Online uses digital object identifiers (DOIs) extensively throughout the database. You'll see them on a table of contents page as well as at the foot of every chapter page - for example: doi: 10.1093/0198296983.001.0001. The DOI is the best way of citing and linking to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon initial electronic publication. The DOI will never change. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document.

The correct format for citing a DOI is as follows:
doi:10.1093/0198296983.001.0001

When adding links to reading lists, first locate the DOI from the foot of the Table of Contents or chapter page of a book. The International DOI Foundation provides a service at http://dx.doi.org enabling users to create a URL from a DOI simply by adding this site address and the DOI together, as with this example:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/0198296983.001.0001
For more information on these features please contact Customer Services through Subscriber Services. The DOI scheme is administered by the International DOI Foundation. Many of the world's leading learned publishers have come together to build a DOI-based linking scheme known as CrossRef.

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13) Does Oxford Scholarship Online provide MARC records for subscribing institutions?
Machine Readable Cataloguing records (MARC21 records) are available for library professionals to download. Although MARC21-compliant, these records are not NCA level and are not recommended as a replacement for your existing print record. However, the records do provide additional electronic resource information for the titles in Oxford Scholarship Online and can be used to supplement existing print records. Where no print record exists these records will require editing to bring them up to full cateloguing standards.

Click on the appropriate link on our MARC records download page to download a MARC21 format file (.mrc) containing records of books published in the latest content update, or of all the books currently published in Oxford Scholarship Online. Please note that you will require MARC record reader software to load these files to your library system.

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14) Can I receive email alerts regarding news and updates to Oxford Scholarship Online?
As well as posting lists of recently-added titles to our What's New page, you can also sign up for a regular, free e-mail alert containing new titles and other site news.

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Technical and access questions

If you don't find the answer you need here, please contact us.

1) I am a subscriber and I can't access Oxford Scholarship Online
First of all, please check that you have sent us your licence agreement. Unless you are in a free trial period, we cannot give you access to Oxford Scholarship Online until we have received and checked your signed license agreement. Please see the following FAQs for other connection issues.

a) It is possible that some of your registration details are incorrect on our database.
If the IP address/es for your institution or the user name and password which you use to access Oxford Scholarship Online are incorrect in our subscriber database you will not be able to access the site. Check with your librarian or account administrator, and ask them to follow the instructions below.
First of all, you need to log in to the Oxford Scholarship Online site, then select Subscriber Services from the blue toolbar on any page, and then go to 'Subscriber Services Log in for existing subscribers' to enter the Subscriber Services page for your territory. From there you can check that you are using the correct user name and password or that the correct IP addresses have been entered for your institution.

Once you have checked whether your IP address details are correct, please use the contact us section in Subscriber Services to tell us whether:

- your IP address/es need to be corrected (if so, please supply the correct address/es)
- your IP address/es are correct, but you still can't get access to Oxford Scholarship Online.

b) Are you seeing any error messages when you try to log in to Oxford Scholarship Online?
Error messages appear beneath above the login box on the Log in screen. These give some suggestions about why you may not be able to access the site. They may direct you to either your network administrator or to the contact us page.

c) Could your account be on hold?
Occasionally an account is put on hold if we have not received your subscription payment, or if your subscription or free trial has expired. In both of these cases we would usually have been in touch with you about this. Do contact us for more information about this.

d) If your institution holds a concurrent user licence, it may be that your browser is not configured to accept cookies
Cookies are required for subscribers to Oxford Scholarship Online in order to control access to the service. If you see a cookie-related error message when you try to log in to the Oxford Scholarship Online site, then you need to enable cookies and try again.

To configure some popular browsers to accept cookies:

Netscape 6: Select Edit from the menu bar in Netscape, and then choose Preferences, Privacy and Security, and then Cookies, and then check the box beside "enable all cookies".

Internet Explorer: IE5 Select Tools: Internet Options on the menu bar, then choose the Security tab and select the Custom level button and enable the cookie options; Other Select View from the menu bar in Internet Explorer, and then choose Internet Options, Advanced, and then check the box beside "always accept cookies".

For more information, please contact us.

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2) After I enter my user name/password and click on "log in" and then try to search or use the site, I'm often viewing pages or search results that I did earlier in my session
It is possible that you are seeing an old page and need to alter your cache settings:

Netscape 6: Select Edit from the Netscape menu bar, and then choose, Preferences, Advanced, Cache, and select "every time I view the page".

In Internet Explorer: IE5 Select Tools: Internet Options on the menu bar, on the General tab select the Settings button and select "every visit to the page"; Other Select View from the menu bar in Internet Explorer, and then choose Internet Options, General. and then Settings, and under "check for newer versions of stored pages" just select "every visit to the page".

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3) Do you offer library card access to Oxford Scholarship Online?
We don't offer library card access to Oxford Scholarship Online.

Please contact us if you would like to offer library card access to your users.

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4) Our institution connects to the internet using NAT; can we access Oxford Scholarship Online?
Our access control software will work fine with sites firewalled using NAT. In order to give you access, we just need to know which IP address ranges that the NAT software is masquerading as. Please contact us if you would like to do this.

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5) Users with off-site access to Oxford Scholarship Online
We do not allow remote access unless it is by a secure route e.g. referred URL access from an accessed-controlled page on the subscriber's website or access via a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Please contact us for more information.

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6) What is your policy on cookies?
Cookies are required for subscribers to Oxford Scholarship Online in order to control access to the service. The default policy will be to use cookies for authentication. However, subscribers who have unlimited access licences for Oxford Scholarship Online may choose to disable cookies and will still be able to use the service, but note that usage statistics related to user sessions will not be available.

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7) Proxy servers

a) Will our proxy server IP address(es) be enough to allow access to Oxford Scholarship Online?
Yes. However, if you are accessing Oxford Scholarship Online through a proxy server then you need to give us the IP address of the proxy server in order for you to access the Oxford Scholarship Online site.

b) I've registered my proxy server IP address(es), but I can't access Oxford Scholarship Online.
If you are shown as not logged in when you access http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/ and have no access to full-text content then the IP address of your proxy server is not being recognised by the Oxford Scholarship Online site. If this is the case, please contact us, giving us details of the problem.

c) After previously successful IP-authenticated access via a proxy server, why am I now being requested to sign in with a user name and password?
If there is no obvious technical solution to the problem, please contact your Internet service provider (ISP) to check whether they have changed their configuration in a way that might hinder your IP-authenticated access to the Oxford Scholarship Online site.

d) I wish to enable off-campus access via a proxy server
Off-campus access is typically provided via a Remote Access Server (RAS). Ask your librarian or administrator whether there is a proxy server available for this purpose. If there is, enter its IP address into the Proxies section of your browser's preferences, generally located in the Proxy or Connection menu tabs. (In Internet Explorer, this is located in the Tools / Internet Options/ Connections Tab / LAN settings, the second section of which deals with proxies. In Netscape, it is located under Edit / Preferences / Advanced).

You will need a server at your end that is specific to one of the IP addresses you supplied to Oxford Scholarship Online. The degree to which the security of the server is configured is at the discretion of your institution - it just needs to be able to authenticate the end user for access to Oxford Scholarship Online.

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8) Questions relating to IP addresses

a) I've tried to set up IP-authenticated access to Oxford Scholarship Online without success
If, for some reason, you are unable to access Oxford Scholarship Online by IP address authentication, referring URL access may be possible. Please contact us to enquire about further possibilities for your institution.

b) How do I register a large number of IP addresses?
Contact the office appropriate to your region with the list of IP addresses.

North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com

Tip: remember to use the asterisk (*) wildcard character if you are registering an entire class of IP address, and condense IP ranges in the following way, e.g. nnn.nnn.1-30.*

c) How do I change my institution's IP addresses?
Contact the office appropriate to your region with the list of IP addresses.

North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com

Tip: remember to use the asterisk (*) wildcard character if you are registering an entire class of IP address, and condense IP ranges in the following way, e.g. nnn.nnn.1-30.*

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9) Questions about passwords

a) I've forgotten my site administrator password
Please contact us and specify whether you would like to be reminded of your password, or whether you would like to change it (along with details of what you'd like to change it to) and we will send you the details as soon as possible.

b) Can I distribute my site administrator user name and password to allow access for colleagues?
No, this is a restricted ID which should be kept in a safe place for use only by the librarian or site administrator. As access to Oxford Scholarship Online for institutions is IP authenticated, your colleagues will be able to access service without a user name and password. If any of your colleagues requires a user name and password for off-site access to Oxford Scholarship Online, please contact us.

c) I have forgotten my user name and password to access Oxford Scholarship Online
Only account administrators can reset passwords. Please see your librarian or administrator for help.

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10) Can I see usage statistics for my library/institution?
Yes, you can. However, usage statistics are only available to account administrators, who will have an Administrator's user name and password in order to access these pages. To see your institution's usage statistics, please log in to the Oxford Scholarship Online site, then select Subscriber Services from the blue toolbar, and log in to our Subscriber Services area using your administrator user name and password.

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11) How do I use Subscriber Services?
Subscriber Services are only available to subscribers of Oxford Scholarship Online who are logged in to the Oxford Scholarship Online site. Usernames and passwords for Subscriber Services are only available to library administrators Once you have logged in to the site, just choose the Subscriber services link from the blue toolbar on any page. Once on the Subscriber Services page, you will be required to enter your administrator username and password in order to access the following services:

View subscription information and IP addresses
View your institutional usage reports

If you are a subscriber and cannot log in to the Oxford Scholarship Online Subscriber Services site, please contact us.

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12) How do I update my institution's subscription record?
To view your subscription details log in to the subscriber services site appropriate to your region:

Subscribers in North and South America
Subscribers in the UK/Rest of the world

Alternatively you can just e-mail the office appropriate to your region giving details of what you would like us to change and we will contact you as soon as we have implemented the changes:

North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com

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13) Which browsers will Oxford Scholarship Online display on correctly?
Oxford Scholarship Online is designed to display and function correctly on the following browsers or later:

Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows
Netscape 6.0 for Windows
Internet Explorer 5.5 for Macintosh
Netscape 6.0 for Macintosh
Mozilla Firefox 1.0

In addition, limited support is provided for the following legacy browsers:
Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows
Internet Explorer 5.0 for Windows
Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows
Netscape 4.7 for Windows
Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh
Netscape 4.7 for Macintosh

We recommend that you set your screen resolution to 1024x768 pixels for the optimum display and use of Oxford Scholarship Online. However, 800x600 pixel resolution should be acceptable for most pages (with occasional horizontal scrolling).

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14) How accessible is Oxford Scholarship Online and will my screen-reader software work with it?
Oxford Scholarship Online has full W3C Priority 1 and 2 compliance, as well as most applicable Priority 3 items. It is one of the most accessible sites of its kind and should work with most popular screen-reading software. We have worked hard to ensure that all users have an equal level of access to the scholarly content in Oxford Scholarship Online and are happy to answer any questions on this subject as well as receive comments on areas that could be improved.
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15) How are the Oxford Scholarship Online user statistics reports defined?
Oxford Scholarship Online has full ICOLC-compliant statistics available via Subscriber Services. Statistics are displayed under the following headings:

Number of Sessions: The total number of unique sessions. Where users have cookies enabled, a session is an uninterrupted period of use of a site; it does not equal the number of unique users since a given person can have multiple sessions. A user-session will be terminated if there is more than fifteen minutes of inactivity
Total Session Time (hh:mm): The total time of all sessions added together
Average Session Time (hh:mm): The total session time divided by the number of sessions
Average Pages per Session: The number of web pages requested divided by the number of sessions
Full Content Units Requested: the number of full text pages viewed. NOTE: for Oxford Scholarship Online, five print pages viewed online counts as one 'Full Content Unit'. A single HTML page contains five print pages' worth of text
Web Pages Requested: The number of HTML pages accessed
Hits: The number of files served, i.e. counts all the images and other files on a page, plus all html pages
Queries (Searches): The number of times a search request is submitted to the server. Any subsequent activity to review or browse among the records retrieved, or to view an entry from the list, is not recorded as an additional search
Full-Content Units Reached from Browse: The number of entries reached from the browse menu. Please note, this is not relevant to all products
Turnaways: If a subscription is limited by concurrency, the number of turnaways will indicate how often the concurrency limit has been exceeded and users barred from the product

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16) Does Oxford Scholarship Online support meta search software?
Yes; the site can currently be accessed by meta search software via HTTP request and supports the method="get" using a base URL of:
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/search/query?quickSearchText
Followed directly by =x where x is your search term. Separate search terms should separated with the + sign. For example, searching for collisions and culture would be added to the base URL as: =collisions+culture

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