Many databases contain tools to assist you in keeping up to date with advances in your chosen area of research. Once alerts are established you will receive regular information via email or RSS Feeds.
Receive the Table of Contents of each issue of your favourite journals as they are published
Have a specific search run at regular intervals with the results emailed to you
Be notified when an article of your choosing has been cited by a new article
RSS feeds may be used as an alternative to email, to receive alerts from some databases and web-sites. They can be used for news items, academic research or personal interest. RSS is a subscription mechanism that delivers new content to your chosen 'feed reader' as an XML file.
Many RSS readers now require a subscription and the RSS reader function is often part of a larger suite of services.
Feedly and Netvibes are two products with free RSS readers.
Learn more about RSS feeds... or read about popular free RSS readers
Databases which offer alerting systems usually require you to become a registered user. This is a free, one-off process to be completed on the database homepage and it commonly involves creating a user name and password. Users need to be logged into the database to establish alerts.
Attend a library workshop to identify which databases offer alerts, what types of alerts these are and how to set up alerts for literature in your research area.
Library Guides may help you to identify which databases index literature relevant to your research topic. Some of these will have options for setting up alerts. You may like to start with:
