Keeping current with the literature of the biological sciences can be a daunting task, but there are convenient services and technologies that can help you gather and organize the information that you need. Most online resources give you the option to have newly added content sent to you via a variety of methods: email, RSS, and others.
Stop by the Bioscience Library reference desk or email us if you would like help.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that delivers frequently-updated content on the web. Websites that change often, such as article databases, news sites, and blogs, almost always have an RSS feed available, which brings the updated information to you. Subscribe to the RSS feeds of sites that you visit frequently using an RSS feed reader, a web or desktop application that allows you to view all of your RSS feeds in one, convenient location (e.g. Google Reader or Netvibes). Get more information about RSS feeds and RSS feed readers.
Most databases allow you to perform a search once, then receive alerts when new materials that match your search are added to the database. You can receive these alerts as emails or as RSS feeds. The following guides and tutorials will help you get started.
Database |
Links to guides & tutorials |
| BIOSIS | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
 Movie (3 min) |
| PubMed | Email Alerts | Movie (3 min) | RSS Feeds |
| Agricola | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
| Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
| CAB Abstracts | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
Movie (3 min) |
| Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
| GeoRef | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
| Inspec | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
Movie (3 min) |
| Oceanic Abstracts | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
| Web of Science | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
Movie (3 min) |
| Zoological Record | Email Alerts & RSS Feeds |
Movie (3 min) |
Web of Science (available on the Web of Knowledge platform) includes references from over 7,000 publications and is currently the most comprehensive source of cited references on the web. It can be useful to set up alerts to see when your own work or the work of others is cited.
Stay current with the latest issues of journals by subscribing to table of contents (TOC) alerts. Two ways to do this are using a TOC aggregator and going directly to the website of your favorite journals.
ticTOCs is a free service from a non-profit consortium of universities and publishers. It provides an easy way to subscribe to tables of contents from many journals all in one place. Go to www.tictocs.ac.uk to sign up. See step by step instructions for using ticTOCs.
Below is a list of several major journals and journal publishers. Both RSS and email alerts are available for most journals. Just complete a quick, free registration in order to set up email alerts. You can search our e-journals page or do a Google search for the journal title to locate a journal website, then look for links to email alerts or RSS feeds, frequently labelled with the following images:
icon).
Following notable bloggers can also be a good way to stay informed on newsworthy topics. Using a blog search engine, like Google Blogsearch, makes it easy to find blog posts on your topic of interest.
Individual blogs generally provide RSS feeds. When you find a blog that you want to follow, use these instructions for adding feeds to your RSS feed reader.
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02/06/12
