University of Virginia Library
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Many journal publishers and database vendors offer notification, either via e-mail or now more commonly by subscribing to an RSS feed, when new issues or new articles appear. There are two types of these alerts services:
New Journal Issues with Table of Contents
Get a list of the articles in each new issue of a journal. Many electronic journals offer this service, as do some databases. Often registration is required. A button or tab saying TOC or RSS or sometimes XML is often used as a link to this sort of service. To find a TOC service for a journal
New Articles on Your Research Topics
Set up a search that will be run at regular intervals to identify new items in a given database. Each time it's run, you'll be sent an e-mail with the results. This service may have various names: research alerts, saved search alert, autoalert, SDI, etc. Look for an option to save your search.
IMPORTANT: IngentaConnect and many publishers also provide document delivery options, letting you order, for a fee, specific articles for online or email delivery. The article may already be available to you online through the Library's subscription to a different version of the journal. Use the Find@UVa search to check. If not, the article can probably be obtained almost as quickly and at no cost to you through LEO/Interlibrary Loans.
Ebsco Electronic Journals Service
Tables of contents available for most electronic journals, no limit on the number of alerts a user may have. After registration (click on the "Sign me up" link at the top of the page), browse to find the contents page of a journal, then click on the "Create alert" button.
A large general database. After registration, choose "my e-journal alerts" to be notified of the contents of new issues of up to five e-journals.
Many individual databases provide a notification service. Among the larger database vendors with alerts are
CSA provides databases such as Sociological Abstracts, Metadex, GeoRef, and Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management. After you do a search, click on the "Save search alert" button. Up to 250 new results for your search will be e-mailed to you once a week. Alerts must be renewed every six months.
In Medline, Biological Abstracts, etc. you can save up to 20 searches. Choose the Auto Alert option to have your searches run each time a database is updated and the results sent to you.
ABC-CLIO
In America, History and Life or Historical Abstracts choose the Clio Alert Profile to create up to 10 saved searches. You'll receive an e-mail once a month listing any new articles that match your profile.