Keeping Your Research Current
Using alert services to stay up-to-date with journal publications
There are many ways to stay up-to-date with new journal publications:
- Table of Contents Alerts send you the table of contents each time a new issue of a journal is published.
- Search Alerts notify you when new articles occur that match a search you have saved.
- Citation Alerts notify you when new publications cite a particular work.
- Author Alerts update you when a particular author has a new publication.
Most alert services are offered as emails or RSS Feeds.
Table of Contents alerts
A Table of Contents (TOC) service alerts you each time a new issue of a journal is published. Links to full-text articles are sometimes provided.
You will need to register with the database or journal. This is usually free.
Some major publishers with TOC alerts include:
- Cambridge Journals Online This link opens in a new windowThis is the online content delivery service for Cambridge University Press’s collection of nearly 200 leading journals across the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
- Oxford Journals This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text online access to electronic journals published by the Oxford University Press. Disciplines covered are humanities, social sciences, and the sciences.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowRegister on the ScienceDirect homepage, and then set up alerts for the journals you want to keep track of.
- SpringerLink This link opens in a new windowProvides the full text of over 1000 scientific journals. SpringerLink provides online information services for scientific, technical, and medical (STM) books and journals.
- Taylor & Francis OnlineFind the journal you are interested in and simply click "Alert me" to choose emails or an RSS feed.
- Journals@Ovid (LWW)Scientific, technical and medical journals published in Ovid.
Citation Alerts
Citations are used in measuring research impact. The Library has created a Citations, Altmetrics and Researcher Profiles Guide that you may find useful.
A Citation Alert notifies you when new publications cite a particular work. Sometimes an additional login will be required, either before setting up an alert or as part of the process.
You can set up citation alerts in databases such as the following:
- Google ScholarSearch for the title of a paper. Click on the "Cited by" link at the bottom of the search result. Click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the search results page.
- ScopusAfter creating a Scopus account, click on the Alerts tab at the top of the page. Choose the option to set a new document citation alert.
- Web of ScienceAfter entering the database, search for and enter a document's record and then click on Create Citation Alert.
JournalTOCs - a free alerting service
JournalTOCs is a free service for journal tables of contents (TOCs) alerts. It covers 23,918 journals (including 7,514 selected Open Access journals) from 2159 publishers.
Simply create an account and select the journals for which you want to receive alerts.
Search alerts
A Search Alert notifies you of new articles that match a search you have saved. This can alert you to new articles in a given subject area, by a certain author, or containing specific keywords.
Examples of databases that offer search alerts include:
- Google ScholarSearch for your topic and click "Create Alert" in the left hand sidebar.
- Current Contents Connect (in Web of Science) This link opens in a new windowChoose the option to save your search history as an alert. Web of Science is a platform for searching individual ISI products or multiple products simultaneously. Access is to Web of Science, Current Contents Connect and Journal citation reports
- Ovid DatabasesSelect an Ovid database and conduct a search. Save your search history as an alert with the option Save Search ... as an Auto Alert Search. Fill in the General Parameters and you will receive a Confirmation Message.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowRegister on the ScienceDirect homepage, conduct a search, save the search, and specify how often you would like to be notified.
Author alerts
Some databases can alert you when a particular author is cited or has a new work added, you can also create an alert for your own author profile in these systems. For example:
- Google ScholarIf an author has a Google Scholar Citation profile, click the "Follow new articles" link in the right sidebar under the search box.
- Web of ScienceAfter entering the database, click on the Researchers tab, search for an author and enter their profile. Click on Create an Alert and login to your account when prompted.
- ScopusClick on the Authors tab and search for an author. Enter their profile by clicking on their name in the results list and then click Set Alert.
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