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Research & Postgraduate Students

A huge amount of research and journal articles are published daily, it is impossible to keep up to date with the amount of information being created. Current awareness services try to help researchers by alerting them about new journal articles in their field.

 

 Email Alerts

Save time by setting up alerts so that the information comes directly to you rather than you having to search for it repeatedly.

In order to receive email alerts you will need to 'Register' a personal account with the service you wish to receive the email alert from i.e. EBSCO, Web of Science, ScienceDirect etc.

 

Saved Search Alerts
  • Search Alerts save valuable research time, they can be set up to provide automatic e-mail notification whenever new search results become available.
  • Many databases allow you to run a keyword search on your topic of interest and save it, the search will be run automatically at intervals defined by you and updates of new articles will then be emailed to you.

 

Table of Contents (TOC) Alerts
  • TOC alerts enable you to identify specific journal titles of interest and receive an email copy of the TOC as new issues become available online. This can be a useful way of keeping abreast of overall developments and identifying articles of interest.
  • TOC Alerts are provided by most electronic journal publishers.

 

Cited Reference Alerts
  • Cited Reference Alerts allow you to identify individual journal articles and then receive notification whenever these articles are cited in a new journal article. This can be useful if you want to monitor how a particular article is being received by the research community.
  • Once you run your keyword search and identify a specific article which you would like to track citation activity for, select the article in full view and select 'Create Citation Alert’ (Web of Science). 

 

 RSS Feeds Image result for rss feeds 

 

Many online databases and general web sites such as news sites offer RSS (Really Simple) feeds, which are a convenient time-saving means of bringing together the latest tables of contents for your favourite journals or web sites into your own personal web page or software tool.

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use. There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. Feedly and NewsBlur are popular web-based feed readers.

Image result for email Mailing Lists

Mailing Lists, Newsgroups and Discussion Boards are also a good source of information to keep you up-to-date with new conferences, calls for papers, and current academic debate.

They can also help you identify the key players in your field and form networks of academic contacts. However it is worth remembering that mailing lists can generate a large amount of information emailed to your inbox so be careful not to over-subscribe!

Keep in Touch With Other Researchers

Useful ways to keep in touch with other researchers and promote your profile

To establish an online presence you many wish to use one of the more popular sites listed here such as:

  • Academia.edu is platform for academics to share research papers.
  • LinkedIn is the worlds largest professional networking site – kind of like a facebook for professionals!
  • ResearchGate is a research network for scientists founded in 2008.

Or,

  • JISCMail provides hundreds of email lists for researchers and to share mutual interests and news.
  • Methodspace connecting the research community.
  • SSRN: Social Science Research Network provides abstracts of user submitted academic papers, networks and profiles.
  • Vitae provides information and advice to help you be a more effective researcher.

Off course you can use social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook too.

Ensuring your research is as freely accessible as possible can help raise your profile online


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