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Oxford Reference Online FAQs |
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If you cannot find the answer to your question, please Contact Us.
General questions about Oxford Reference Online
1) What is available online?
2) How often is ORO updated? 3) Is it possible to have a free trial? 4) Which browsers will Oxford Reference Online run on? 5) Are there MARC Records available? 6) How can I view or edit the MARC Records I downloaded from ORO? 7) How do I subscribe to the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day? 8) How do I unsubscribe to the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day? 9) I do not want to continue to receive additional offers and information about your online products. How do I remove my name from this list? 10) Is Oxford Reference Online accessible to visually impaired users? 11) Can Oxford Reference Online incorporate library holdings information and provide seamless linking to and from online catalogues? 12) Does Oxford Reference Online support federated searching and meta-search?
1) What is available online?
Oxford Reference Online is a huge and comprehensive resource that contains over 175 dictionaries and reference titles covering the complete subject spectrum: from General Reference and Language to Science and Medicine, and from Humanities and Social Sciences to Business and Professional. Premium Collection subscribers can also enhance their collection with the new Western Civilization and Literature Collections. See the full subject listing. [Back to Top] 2) How often is ORO updated? New content and features are added to Oxford Reference Online throughout the year. New editions are added at least three times a year in accordance with print publication schedules, and we review and amend death dates and rewrite entries to reflect key world events throughout the year. New titles and new features are also added to the Premium Collection throughout the year. You can find out all about current and future updates from our What's new page. [Back to Top] 3) Is it possible to have a free trial? Free 30-day trials of Oxford Reference Online are currently only available to libraries or institutions. If you are an individual wanting to try out Oxford Reference Online, why not find out if your library/organization already subscribes or would like a free trial? Librarians/administrators can sign up here for a free no-obligation trial. [Back to Top] 4) Which browsers will Oxford Reference Online run on? Oxford Reference Online is designed to display and function correctly on the following browsers: Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows Internet Explorer 5.0 for Windows Netscape 7.0 for Windows Netscape 6.0 for Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 for Macintosh Netscape 7.0 for Macintosh Netscape 6.0 for Macintosh Firefox Pages will also display reliably on the following browsers: Opera 7.0 for windows (please note that this does not support full Javascript functionality, as in the Cross-Reference feature) Netscape 4.7 for Windows Internet Explorer 4.0 for Windows Netscape 4.7 for Macintosh Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh Oxford Reference Online will display reliably at 800x600, though we recommend 1024x768 as the optimum screen resolution. [Back to Top] 5) Are there MARC Records available? Marc records are available for Premium titles from the MARC Records page. These records are updated in line with content updates. [Back to Top] 6) How can I view or edit the MARC Records I downloaded from ORO? To view or edit our Marc records you will need software which supports MARC21 format, such as MarcEdit, which is free to download at http://oregonstate.edu/~reeset/marcedit/html/. [Back to Top] 7) How do I subscribe to the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day? Just go to the Fact of the Day sign up page and you can sign up to receive Fact of the Day by email. [Back to Top] 8) How do I unsubscribe to the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day? If you have signed up for the Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day and no longer wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe by emailing listserv@webber.oup.com, with the following text in the main body of the message (not in the email subject line): signoff OROFACTOFTHEDAY-L. [Back to Top] 9) I signed up for Oxford Reference Online Fact of the Day and still want to receive this, but I do not want to continue to receive additional offers and information about your online products. How do I unsubscribe? If you agreed to receive additional offers and information about our online products when you signed up for Fact of the Day, but decide that you no longer want to receive this information, please contact us and we will remove your name from our mailing list. If you choose to opt out of receiving this information, you will continue to receive Fact of the Day unless you unsubscribe from it separately. [Back to Top] 10) Is Oxford Reference Online accessible to visually impaired users? Oxford Reference Online has been designed for general compliance with section 508 (1998 amendments) of the US Rehabilitation Act 1973. Oxford Reference Online has also been tested to a limited degree using the screen reader JAWS, and works acceptably well with this software. Long terms plans include further testing of Oxford Reference Online using JAWS and other screen reading software, and to continue to work on improving compliance with accessibility legislation. Please contact us if you believe any barriers remain. [Back to Top] 11) Can Oxford Reference Online incorporate library holdings information and provide seamless linking to and from online catalogues? Oxford Reference Online is OpenURL compliant, and static URLs at subject, book, and entry level offer a wide variety of linking options from library catalogues. In addition, MARC records are also available free of charge, and libraries can add ORO search boxes and banners to their websites. [Back to Top] 12) Does Oxford Reference Online support federated searching and meta-search? ORO currently supports meta-search and can be accessed by meta-search software via HTTP request. ORO supports the method="get" using a base url of: http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SEARCH_RESULTS.html?. After that it is a matter of using the correct combination of the following parameters:
There is also a browser look-up tool which searches Oxford Reference Online from any other website using a downloadable browser link. [Back to Top] OpenURL questions for library administrators
1) Is Oxford Reference Online OpenURL compliant?
2) What is the service identifier (sid) for OpenURL from Oxford Reference Online? 3) What information should I register for OpenURL? 4) When will I be able to specify OpenURL query parameters in XML format? 5) How is ORO handling book chapters in OpenURL? 6) If a reference contains both an author and an editor, how is ORO handling this? 7) How are spaces in names and article, journals, and book titles, being handled by ORO? 8) How is Oxford Reference Online handling accented characters in OpenURLs? 9) Is ORO handling any DOI (digital object identifier) information in its OpenURL links? 10) Are OUP's products OpenURL targets or referring sources? 11) Can I add my library's OpenURL resolver logo to Oxford Reference Online?
1) Is Oxford Reference Online OpenURL compliant?
Yes, Oxford Reference 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. Please note that in order to do this, your institution will need to have an OpenURL resolver. [Back to Top] 2) What is the service identifier (sid) for OpenURL from Oxford Reference Online? The service identifier (sid) is OUP:ORO. [Back to Top] 3) What information should I register for OpenURL? You should register the following information for OpenURL in Subscriber Services:
[Back to Top] 4) When will I be able to specify OpenURL query parameters in XMl format? Query parameters in XML format will be enabled when ORO supports version 1.0 of the OpenURl standard. [Back to Top] 5) How is ORO handling book chapters in OpenURL? ORO is not currently sending a book chapter as part of an OpenURL, even if it is cited as part of the complete reference. ORO is instead sending the title of the book of which the chapter is a part. [Back to Top] 6) If a reference contains both an author and an editor, how is ORO handling this? If a reference contains both an author and an editor (for instance, an author of a book chapter alongside the editor of the overall work), ORO is sending the name of the editor in preference to the author. This is on the principle that the work will be catalogued according to the editor if one is present. [Back to Top] 7) How are spaces in names and article, journal, and book title being handled by ORO? ORO is substituting the plus character ‘+’ for spaces in OpenURL links. [Back to Top] 8) How are accented characters being handled by ORO? Oxford Reference Online is using ‘flattened’ forms of accented characters in its OpenURLs: these in most cases are the characters concerned minus their accents, so, for example, ‘é’ becomes ‘e’. We do this to provide the simplest solution for resolvers interpreting these characters and interfacing with other systems (e.g. library catalogues). [Back to Top] 9) Is ORO handling any DOI (digital object identifier) information in its OpenURL links? ORO is not currently handling any DOIs in its OpenURL links. We may incorporate these into our OpenURLs at some stage in the future. [Back to Top] 10) Are OUP's products OpenURL targets or referring sources? OUP's online products are currently only referring sources. [Back to Top] 11) Can I add my library's OpenURL resolver logo to Oxford Reference Online? You can add your library's OpenURL resolver logo via your account administration area in Subscriber Services. Please note that your OpenURL resolver logo should be a maximum size of 19 pixels high x 55 pixels wide. [Back to Top] Access questions for administrators
1) I can't access Oxford Reference Online
2) I'm being bounced back to a blank log-in screen 3) Do you offer library card access to Oxford Reference Online? 4) Our institution connects to the internet using NAT, can we access Oxford Reference Online? 5) Users with off-site access to Oxford Reference Online 6) What is your policy on cookies 7) Questions about proxy servers 8) Questions relating to IP addresses 9) Questions about passwords
1) I can't access Oxford Reference Online
First of all, please check that you have sent us your licence agreement. We cannot give you access to Oxford Reference Online until we have received and checked your signed license agreement. a) It is possible that some of your registration details are incorrect on our database. If the IP address/es registered against your account, or the user name and password which your patrons use to access Oxford Reference Online are incorrect in our subscriber database you will not be able to access the site. If you know your administrator user name and password, you can check your account details from the Subscriber Services. Once you have checked whether your IP address details are correct, please use the Contact us form, to say 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 Reference Online. b) Are you seeing any error messages when you try to log in to Oxford Reference Online? Error messages appear in the log in box on the home page. 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 by subscribers who have concurrent user licences of Oxford Reference Online in order to control concurrency-based access to the service. If you see the following error message when you try to log in to the Oxford Reference Online site, then you need to enable cookies and try again: "Error 407 - Cookies required. Please enable them then click here to try again" To configure your browser to accept cookies:
This problem may also occur if you are behind a firewall, in which case you should contact your technical department or Internet Service Provider.
[Back to Top] 2) After I enter my username/password and click on "log in" and then try to search or use the index, I'm being bounced back to a blank log-in screen It is possible that you 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". [Back to Top] 3) Do you offer library card access to Oxford Reference Online? Librarians or account administrators have the option to allow their users to access Oxford Reference Online using their library card. Please contact us if you would like to offer library card access to your users. [Back to Top] 4) Our institution connects to the internet using NAT, can we access Oxford Reference 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. [Back to Top] 5) Users with off-site access to Oxford Reference Online. Users who access Oxford Reference Online from offsite need to access the site with a user name and password, even if the subscribing institution has IP access. Please contact us if you would like us to set up a user name and password for someone to access Oxford Reference Online offsite. [Back to Top] 6) What is your policy on cookies? Cookies are required by subscribers who have concurrent user licences of Oxford Reference Online in order to control concurrency-based access to the service. The default policy will be to use cookies for authentication. However, subscribers who have unlimited access licences for Oxford Reference Online may choose to disable cookies and will still be able to use the service, but usage statistics related to user sessions will not be available. [Back to Top] 7) Questions about proxy servers a) Will our proxy server IP address(es) be enough to allow access to Oxford Reference Online? Yes. However, if you are accessing Oxford Reference 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 Reference Online site. b) I've registered my proxy server IP address(es), but I can't access Oxford Reference Online. If you see the user name and password boxes when you access http://www.oxfordreference.com/ then the IP address of your proxy server is not being recognised by the Oxford Reference 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 Reference 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 Reference 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 Reference Online. e) We use EZproxy for off-campus access to Oxford Reference Online, but users are being requested to sign in with a user name and password despite the fact that we can access other Oxford Online products via EZproxy. Caching problems are the most likely cause of the sign in page being presented to remote users. Please ensure that users clear their browser cache before connecting to Oxford Reference Online. To do this:
[Back to Top] 8) Questions relating to IP addresses a) I've tried to set up IP-authenticated access to Oxford Reference Online without success. If, for some reason, you are unable to access Oxford Reference 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.* [Back to Top] 9) Questions about passwords a) I've forgotten my site administrator password. Follow the 'forgotten password' link below that is appropriate to your region: Customers in North and South America: forgotten password reminder Customers in UK/Rest of the world: forgotten password reminder Alternatively, 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 Reference Online for institutions is IP authenticated, your colleagues will be able to access the service without a user name and password. If any of your colleagues requires a user name and password for off-site access to Oxford Reference Online, please contact us. [Back to Top] Access questions for users
1) I can't access Oxford Reference Online
2) I'm being bounced back to a blank log-in screen 3) I have forgotten my username and password 4) Can I access Oxford Reference Online away from my library/institution? 5) Do you offer library card access? 6) Is Oxford Reference Online accessible through Athens?
1) I can't access Oxford Reference Online
Are you a subscriber? Oxford Reference Online is a subscription website and is only available to subscribers. To subscribe to the service, please visit our subscription pages for details of institutional and individual subscriptions. It is possible that some of your registration details are incorrect on our database. If the IP address/es for your institution or the username and password which you use to access Oxford Reference Online are incorrect in our subscriber database you will not be able to access the site. Individual subscribers: check your details online Library/institutional users: check with your librarian or account administrator. Once you have checked whether your subscription details are correct, please contact us. Are you using your correct username and password? If you receive an error message stating a mismatch between your username and password, you may have entered the wrong details. Please try again or contact us for help or to request that a password reminder be sent to you. Remember, only account administrators can reset passwords. If you are part of an institution or library, please see your librarian or administrator for help. 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. Is your browser configured to accept cookies? The site uses session cookies to allow continued access during one session. If your browser is not configured to accept cookies, you will be bounced back to the username/password page. To configure your browser to accept cookies:
This problem may also occur if you are behind a firewall, in which case you should contact your technical department or Internet Service Provider.
2) After I enter my username/password and click on "log in" and then try to search or use the index, I'm being bounced back to a blank log-in screen It is possible that you 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". [Back to Top] 3) I have forgotten my user name and password to access Oxford Reference Online Only account administrators can reset passwords. Please see your librarian or administrator for help. Indidvidual subscribers: Forgot your password? Have a new one sent to you [Back to Top] 4) Can I access Oxford Reference Online away from my library/institution? It is possible to have remote access to an institution's subscription, through either a referrer page on the institution's site, or username/password access with user verification. We suggest that you contact the head of reference at your library for more details. [Back to Top] 5) Do you offer library card access? Librarians or account administrators have the option to allow their users to access Oxford Reference Online using their library card. Please ask your librarian or administrator to contact us about setting up library card access. [Back to Top] 6) Is Oxford Reference Online accessible through Athens? Yes, please ask your librarian or administrator for details. [Back to Top] Questions about Subscriber Services
1) How do I use Subscriber Services?
2) Can I see usage statistics for my library/institution? 3) How do I update my institution's subscription record?
1) How do I use Subscriber services?
Subscriber services are only available to subscribers of Oxford Reference Online who are logged in to the Oxford Reference Online site. Once you have logged in to the site, just choose the Subscriber services link from the blue toolbar on the Home 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 or change your account preferences · View your institutional usage reports · Download Marc Records If you are a subscriber and cannot log in to the Oxford Reference Online site, please contact us. [Back to Top] 2) Can I see usage statistics for my library/institution? Usage statistics are available on a monthly basis to subscribing institutions and library consortia. To access your statistics, please go to the Usage Statistic Report page. You will be prompted for your site administrator user name and password. [Back to Top] 3) How do I update my library/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 [Back to Top] Questions about content
1) Some accented characters will not display properly
2) I've spotted an error in an entry 3) One of the cross-reference links in an entry doesn't work 4) I am having problems with searching 5) What style do the citation examples in Oxford Reference Online follow? 6) Why are some images not included in Oxford Reference Online? 7) Why is there sometimes conflicting information about the same topic in different titles?
1) Some accented characters will not display properly.
Since browsers vary in their support for Unicode, your account administrator might need to alter the extent to which Unicode gets delivered to your institution's browsers. To do this please log in to the Oxford Reference Online site, then select Subscriber services from the blue toolbar on the Home page, choose the option 'View or change your account preferences', and you will then be prompted to enter your administrator user name and password to access your account preferences. There are three options available to you in Account preferences: · FullUnicode · LightUnicode · Latin1Display The FullUnicode option will mean that all your users will be delivered Unicode data. The LightUnicode option is designed to accommodate a reasonably wide range of browsers; for some special characters and gif images or a 'flat' (simplified) form of the character will be displayed. The Latin1Display option only delivers characters from the Latin1 character set to the users; all other special characters are delivered either as gifs or a flattened form. If you choose the FullUnicode option, we advise you to download the Microsoft Arial unicode font, especially if you are using Internet Explorer 5.x. [Back to Top] 2) I've spotted an error in an entry. If you notice an error in an entry, please contact us. We cannot usually correct errors in entries immediately. However, we will load the corrected text the next time we publish an update to the Oxford Reference Online website. [Back to Top] 3) One of the cross-reference links in an entry doesn't work. If a cross-reference link in an entry 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 Reference Online website. [Back to Top] 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 (Remember, you will need to be logged on to the site in order to access the help files). 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. [Back to Top] 5) What style do the citation examples in Oxford Reference Online follow? ORO is MLA (http://www.mla.org/style_faq4) compliant in terms of its ordering of the components, though doesn't adopt the underlining and other styling recommendations. [Back to Top] 6) Why are some images not included in Oxford Reference Online? In cases where the image does not appear in the online edition of a book within Oxford Reference Online, this is typically because of copyright reasons. To view any additional images, please refer to the relevant entry in the printed edition of the book. [Back to Top] 7) Why is there sometimes conflicting information about the same topic in different titles? The many books that comprise Oxford Reference Online are created by different editorial teams, which means that there may be occasional instances where research has supported different conclusions. If you have a comment to make about an inconsistency, please contact us, and we will, where appropriate, refer it to the relevant editorial team for further research. [Back to Top] If you have not found the answer you need here, please contact us. |
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