Set Up Automated Alerts (E-Alerts) for Databases and E-journals
how to find, connect, use
A number of databases and collections of electronic journals provide an alert feature. These are automated current awareness services that result, depending on the type of profile or strategy, in table of contents of your chosen journals or a list of individual article citations being e-mailed directly to you. Alert services are very useful in helping one keep abreast of current developments and publications in one’s subject area(s).
RefAware is a current awareness service which provides alerts and RSS feeds for a variety of research data, covering over 8,000 peer-reviewed sources and other non-refereed sources of information.
Another useful alerting service is provided by Web of Science (Science Citation Index; Social Science Citation Index; Arts & Humanities Citation Index), a database of about 8,500 very prestigious and high impact research journals.
When you have accessed one of the databases or journal collections below, the directions for setting up an alert may be located in an obvious place on the page or search for the instructions on one of the Help pages. Setting up alerts usually requires free registration. Also, it is always advisable to read the privacy policy before signing up. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the subject specialists.
IMPORTANT: Some databases and collections of journals promote document delivery services that provide you with articles for a fee (sometimes this is quite expensive). However, the article(s) sought may be available to you for free through the Libraries’ subscription to the journal. Moreover, even if the article is not available at BC, it is highly probable that you may obtain a copy of the article very quickly and at no cost through Boston College Libraries Interlibary Loan.
Automated Alerts via RSS
Automated alerts are available via RSS. RSS is a format that allows the content of a website to be syndicated into a news feed. To consolidate RSS feeds (alerts) from multiple resources, you can use a feed aggregator such as Bloglines.
Some examples of journals and databases that have RSS feeds are:
Database and Journal Alerts
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