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Alerting Services

Staying on top of the current clinical and research literature can be difficult and time consuming. In order to simplify the process, consider taking advantage of the many alerting services available through journal vendors and article databases. Alerting services will automatically and directly send you Tables of Contents, Saved Search results, or other sorts of information, depending on what a vendor makes available.

There are a number of different types of alerting services; if a vendor has several options available, choose the service that best fits your needs. This guide mainly covers alert services offered by article and journal databases. To set up TOC or RSS services with specific journals use the resources named in numbers 3 and 4 below.

1. Saved search/Keyword alerts: Develop a keyword search and all articles matching your keywords will automatically be sent to you. This can be set up in many article and journal databases, as you can tell from the table below.
2. Citation alert: This service will alert you when a chosen author or article has been cited by another. For example, the ISI database is the most notable source of citation alerts because of the extent of its coverage.
3. RSS: The RSS feed is a way in which information is delivered rather than a type of alerting service. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and the feed delivers tables of contents, saved search results, or other types of alerts in a form that can be interpreted by RSS feed readers. See What is RSS for information about RSS, and see Science & Engineering Journal Table of Contents vis RSS for information on specific journals that provide RSS alerting services. Several are also indicated in the table below.
4. TOC/Table of Contents Alerting: This service, which the Penn Library offers through its PennAlerts system, delivers journal tables of contents. To find out more about PennAlerts click here. For information on how to set up TOC alerts without using Penn Alerts, see Science, Technology and Medicine Journal and Database Alerting Services.

Amazon.com

1. From the www.Amazon.com site click on the 'Your Account' link at the top of the page.
2. If you have an account you will be asked to log in. If you do not have an account you will be asked to create one.
3. In the ‘e-mail notifications and subscriptions’ area of the following page, select Manage you Amazon.com Alerts.
4. Click on the create a new alert button and then follow the directions to create the search about which you want to be notified.

Anthrosource

1. Sign in or create a profile.
2. Run a search.
3. On the results screen, enter a name for the search and choose the period at which you wish to be alerted of new records that match this search. Click save.
4. If you have not already logged in you will be prompted to do so now.

Blackwell Publishing

1. Log in or, if you do not have an account, register by clicking on the button at the top of the screen.
2. Run a search that delivers results in which you are interested.
3. On the results screen, name your search using the box on the right side of the page, check the Search Alerts box, and choose how often you would like to receive alterts.
4. Click save.

Books in Print

1. Run a search that you wish to be alerted on.
2. Click on the ‘save my search’ button.
3. Log in, or, if you don’t have an alert account, create one now.
4. Follow the directions for having a search alert e-mailed to you.

CSA

1. Run a search that returns the sorts of results upon which you would like to be updated.
2. On the results screen, click on the ‘Alerts’ link that appears to the right of the tabs towards the top of the screen.
3. You will now be prompted to either login using your profile e-mail and password, or, if you do not have one, to create a new profile. If you need to create one, click on the “New User? Create a personal profile” link and enter the requested information.
4. On the ‘Alerts’ screen choose a format and limits for the records that will be e-mailed to you. Also choose whether you would like the alerts search to be run in databases other than the one you have just searched.
5. Click on ‘Save as Alert’ on the bottom of the screen.

Ebsco

1. Run a search that returns the sort of results upon which you would like to be updated.
2. Click on the Search History/Alerts Tab that appears directly above the results.
3. Click on the Save Searches/Alerts link.
4. If you have not already logged into your personal account, you will be prompted to log in. If you do not have a personal account, click on the ‘I’m a New User’ link’ to create one.
5. Enter a name and description and choose to save the search as an Alert.
6. Choose duration, frequency, and e-mail properties for the Alert. Click the save button.

Proquest

1. Run your search
2. Click the ‘set up alert’ link that appears above the results.
3. Select an alert schedule, stop after date, e-mail address, and subject.
4. Confirm the alert by responding to the notification e-mail that is sent to your account.