The University of Kansas Libraries

Keeping up-to-date with the current literature : table of contents and saved searches

Various tools are freely available from publishers and database providers to assist students and researchers in keeping up to date with recently published literature in a specific subject, in a specific journal, or by a specific author. 

The following information often can be sent to you via e-mail or RSS feeds:

• Table of Contents.  When a new issue of a journal is published, the table of contents can be sent along with links to subscribed full text content.
• Saved Searches.  Subject and author searches can be saved and run periodically to identify pertinent citations.

If you have questions on using these tools, please contact a subject librarian in your field or Ask a Librarian.

Alerts for a specific journal:

Many journals provide free table of contents and sometimes saved searches alerts to newly published content.  You can access the journal's site by searching the journal title as you normally would in the library catalog or the e-journal search.  You could also search the journal title in quotes in a search engine such as Google and identify a link to alerts.  See example below.  

Alerts by Publisher with links to information on how to register and set up alerts:

• American Chemical Society
• American Institue of Physics (AIP) (go to individual journal titles for e-mail alerts)
• American Mathematical Society
• Cambridge
• Elsevier (ScienceDirect)
• Institute of Physics (IOP)
• Nature Publishing Group (go to individual journal titles for e-mail alerts)
• Oxford University Press
• SAGE
• Springer
• Taylor & Francis
• Wiley

Alerts by Database :

• Proquest databases (e.g. Proquest Research Library; PsycInfo; ERIC; MLA International Bibliography and more):
  • Run a search.  On the results screen, you can save your searches and set up an alert.

   

 

• EBSCO databases (e.g. Historical Abstract; Academic Search Complete; Business Source Complete and more)
  • Run a search.  Click on "Create Alert".

• PubMed : Click on "My NCBI" in the right corner.  Create a profile.  With your saved searches, you can indicate under "settings" when and how often you want to receive alerts.  You can save your searches simply when inputting terms in the search box.

• Web of Science : You can save search alerts plus create a unique citation alert where you are notified when a publication cites a specific article.

If you want to save your search, click on "Search History" after you've entered your terms.  You are taken to a screen where you can now save the search and create an alert.

For more assistance, contact us through Ask a Librarian.