Scholar's Research Toolbox (FACULTY): Autoalerts

Most subscription databases provide RSS feeds and e-mail alerts to the table of contents of journals or a search strategy. Such feature will regularly run the search in a database and alert the patron to new articles published in response to the saved query. 

In our EBSCO databases:

1. perform your search
2. click on Search History (found under the search term entry area)
3. click on Save Searches/Alerts (found just above the combine buttons)
4. enter your user account information
5. enter name of search and then preferences 

You can schedule searches to be run automatically against the 5,000 journals covered in the SCOPUS database.

After you run your search in SCOPUS, select "Set alert" near the top left of the page.

See an image of this option. 

The Central Index allows a user to save a search strategy for later use, and to set an email or RSS notification of new results.

To Save a Search Strategy

• login to Central Index
• run your search
• click the Save query (Pin) option at the top center on your results screen
• An option will appear at the top of your screen "Turn on notification" or DISMISS 
  • If you select Turn on, you will be prompted for an email address.
  • It will disappear quickly if you do not turn it on.
    • to find this option again use the Save query option later, or go the top right of the screen
      • select under your name the Search History option
      • choose the Pin to the right of your desired search strategy

To Set (or remove) an Alert for a saved strategy

• login to Central Index
• go the top right of the screen
  • select under your name the My Favorites option
  • go to the Saved Searches option
    • select the radar icon to create an RSS feed
    • select the bell icon to create an email alert

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.

RSS --- Rich Site Summary,    sends automatic alerts of any frequently updated content such as, articles published in a journal, new websites or blogs content. 

You can receive the RSS feeds to your desk computer or to a RSS reader.  RSS readers, e.g., iPad or other mobile apps, are web-based and allow accessing the information from any computer. This short video clip explains the concept of RSS and how to go about it.

An interesting test is being offered by the Researcher app. This tool provides both journal table-of-contents browsing and artificial intelligence aided keyword search alerts. We are unclear on exactly how the coverage compares with Google Scholar and other free journal indexing tools.