Keeping Your Research Current

Keeping up with new research and publishing in your field is a critical task that can also be quite time consuming. You need to know about new books and articles being published, about conferences, about the activities of organisations, about informal communication taking place within your discipline community and and even about what is being said in the media. You can use some of these methods to keep up with flow of knowledge and information

• New book alerts
• Contents page alerts from your favourite journals
• Database search alerts (journal articles and other documents)
• Citation alerts
• RSS feeds
  
• Discussion lists
• Scholarly societies
  

Scholarly societies

Most academic disciplines have national and international organisations to oversee their interests. Scholarly or learned societies do things like organise conferences, publish journals, establish and uphold academic and technical standards, provide continuing education, accredit university courses, mentor and support researchers and act as advocates for their disciplines with government, industry and the public.

It is a very good idea to identify the main professional societies in your disciplines and monitor their websites and other channels of communication.

The Scholarly Societies Project sponsored by the University of Waterloo Library is an excellent place to find organisations of this sort.

Discussion lists

Academic discussion lists, often known as listservs, are email-based communities that are used to exchange news, information and ideas. If you find one that is well-moderated and closely related to your research interests it can be a very useful means of keeping in touch with your international community and finding out about conferences, grants and jobs as well as keeping up with the latest thinking in your field.

Catalist is a very extensive catalogue of discussion lists and is worth searching to see if there are any in your area. Be warned that many of the lists you find may be quite small or localised.


JISCmail is a UK-based collection of academic mailing lists, many of which are international in scope.

In the humanities and social sciences H-Net is a US-based collection of several hundred lists.

Many learned societies also operate discussion lists which can be an excellent source of news and views. You should check the websites of the scholarly societies in your discipline.

RSS feeds

RSS feeds are a convenient way of keeping yourself updated with new information from websites and other online resources where the content regularly changes. They are typically used for keeping up with newspaper headlines or blog postings but they also allow you to receive journal contents pages or updates of new content from your database searches. The advantage of receiving your alerts as rss feeds rather than email is that it brings all of them together in one place where you can check for new any new content of interest at a convenient time.


Any of these distinctive orange icons indicates that a feed is available. By clicking on the icon you will be invited to subscribe to the feed.





Both the Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox browsers have in-built rss functionality through Favorites (IE7) or Live Bookmarks.


Using IE7 simply click on Subscribe to this feed




Simply save the feed in the Feeds folder












Using Mozilla Firefox you can use Live Bookmarks to subscribe to feeds.

An alternative method is to use a "feed reader" like Google Reader or Netvibes. You will need to create an account but a reader of this sort will allow you to handle a large number of feeds and also to access them from any computer. Most regular users of rss do so through a reader rather than simply using browser functionality.

For assistance consult your liaison librarian.

Citation Alerts

A citation alert lets you know when an article in a database has been cited by another article in the database and is particularly useful if you are keeping track of citations of your own work for research assessment purposes.

Any of the Web of Knowledge databases (Web of Science, CAB, ISI Proceedings), searched individually or as a group, are able to provide alerts when an article is cited in Web of Science - to create a citation alert you need to register yourself and sign in. Once you have done this you simply open the record by clicking on the blue title link.




Now click on the Create Citation Alert button



An email alert is automatically created




Whilst you could create an RSS feed as well this is probably less useful - citation alerts often produce few or no results.

As well as the Web of Knowledge database, ScienceDirect and Cambridge Journals Online also provide citation alerts.

Database search alerts

As well as journal contents pages you can set up alerts based on database searches - your database search will be run automatically at regular intervals and any records found will be emailed to you or sent through as rss feeds. This is a very powerful way of keeping up to date with your subject as you are able to scan thousands of journals for the latest articles relevant to your research. Providing that your original search was well constructed and not too narrow you should be able to receive regular updates of highly relevant material. You can consult your liaison librarian to fine-tune your search before you save it as an alert. Postgraduate students and academic researchers should have an alert set up for each major research area.

Setting up Alerts by Database Groups

Scopus A large multidisciplinary database with exceptionally good alerting functions

Web of Knowledge (Web of Science, CAB Abstracts, Biological Abstracts)

EBSCOhost (Academic Search Elite, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, EconLit, ERIC, Historical Abstracts, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, SPORTDiscus)

OVID (Biological Abstracts, ERIC, Food Science and Technology Abstracts, Medline, Philosopher's Index, PsycInfo)

CSA (ARTbibliographies Modern, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, Bibliography of the History of Art , DAAI: Design and Applied Arts Index, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts)

Contents Page Alerts

You can keep up with the articles published in your favourite journals by receiving contents alerts, either in the form of emails or rss feeds. Each time a new issue of a journal is published you will receive the contents page, with links to the articles themselves. You can set up alerts through publishers' journal packages or by going to the web page for a specific journal.

Publisher's websites

If you know the publisher of the journal for which you wish to receive contents pages you may be able to receive email alerts or rss feeds directly from their websites - this usually provides a direct link to your Massey subscription rights. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory is a good place to find who publishes a specific title. The Journal Publishing and Ranking Page contains an extensive list of links. Some of the more important publisher-based alerting services are

American Chemical Society
Annual Reviews (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Cambridge University Press (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Elsevier ScienceDirect (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Emerald Journals (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Highwire Press (Select an individual title for email alerts and rss feeds)
IEEE (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Nature Publishing (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Oxford University Press (Select an individual title for email alerts and rss feeds)
Palgrave Macmillan Journals (Select an individual title for email alerts and rss feeds)
Sage Journals (Select an individual title for email alerts and rss feeds)
SciQuest Journals (Register for email alerts)
Springer Journals (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Taylor & Francis (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)
Wiley InterScience (Register for email alerts or select an individual title for rss feeds)


IngentaConnect

IngentaConnect is a freely available database of over 30,000 journals to which you can set up email alerts or rss feeds. To find a journal search for it by title with the Journal or book title option selected.



If you register yourself you can select up to five titles for email alerts under Massey's license. There is no limit on the number of rss feeds you can create - if you cannot see an rss icon click on the Alerting options link at the right of the page.



Warning - often the alert you receive from IngentaConnect will link you to a page offering to sell you a copy of the article rather than to one where your Massey subscription rights are recognised. For this reason it may be preferable to use one of the major databases or the publishers' own websites for your email alerts or rss feeds.

New Book Alerts

Receiving information about new book publishing and the arrival of new titles in the library is an important way of keeping abreast of your subject.

New Titles in Massey Library

While nothing beats coming into the Library and browsing the new book shelves, there are now ways of keeping up with additions to our collections from your computer. The New Titles Page on the Library's website allows you to browse our most recently acquired books by Campus and College.



You can link directly to the collections that interest and even set up rss feeds that will bring library new titles into your feed reader every week.

Albany rss feed
Hokowhitu rss feed
Turitea rss feed
Wellington rss feed
College of Business rss feed
College of Creative Arts rss feed
College of Education rss feed
College of Humanities and Social Sciences rss feed
College of Sciences rss feed
New Zealand School of Music rss feed

Videos & DVDs rss feed
CDs rss feed
Reference rss feed
New Zealand Pacific Collection rss feed
Picture Books & Junior Fiction rss feed
Nga Kupu Ora rss feed
Theses rss feed
All Massey University Library New Titles rss feed


In addition individual rss feeds are available for the following subjects

Computer Science and Information Systems
Technology
Agricultural Science
Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry
Earth Science
Life Science
Veterinary Science


Keeping up with New Book Publishing in Your Area

Many publishers will send you email alerts or provide rss feeds of their new titles. A substantial list of publishers can be found here and you need to check out the website of each publisher of interest.

You can also set up new book alerts by subject through amazon.com or Books in Print - in each case you will need to register yourself and provide your email address, then run a search to identify the sorts of books you wish to be notified of.

Book Reviews

There are some excellent sources for reviews of new books freely available on the Internet

New York Review of Books
Times Literary Supplement
Guardian Books
New York Times Books
New Zealand Listener

The Massey-subscribed Choice Reviews Online is aimed primarily at librarians and contains large numbers of short reviews of academic and scholarly books while the Chronicle of Higher Education also reviews large numbers of relevant titles.

In addition to these online sources the quarterly print publication New Zealand Books contains reviews and discussion of local books and writing.

CSA Subject Alerts

It is possible to receive subject alerts from both single CSA databases and from cross-searching a combination of them. You can receive CSA alerts as either RSS feeds or email but you first need to create a personal profile. When you are signed in, carry out your search in the normal way and click on Alert Me.

You can choose to receive your alert by email or as an RSS feed - choose the full format option to ensure that you receive abstracts as well as citations. Click on Save.

Now click on the orange RSS icon

You can now follow your chosen method of receiving a feed.

OVID Subject Alerts

It is possible to receive subject alerts from both single OVID databases and from cross-searching a combination of them. Although OVID offers RSS feeds from subject searches, in practice these do not work so you need to create a personal account in order to receive emails alerts. When you are signed in, carry out your search in the normal way and click on Save Search History

Give your search a name, chosse type AutoAlert and fill in the other details

Choose your required format and click on Save

When you receive your results you will be able to link from the emailed records to the records in the database. You can modify or delete your alerts at any time by clicking on Saved Searches/Alerts

From the database record you can then use MasseyLink to locate the article itself.

Web of Knowledge Subject Alerts

You can only save alerts from individual Web of Knowledege databases, not from using the All Databases option . To create an alert you need to register yourself and sign in. Then carry out your search in the normal way and click on Search History.



Now click on Save History / Create Alert.




Give your search a name and choose the options you want - if you only want to receive rss feeds do not select Send Me Emails. Click on Save.



To receive rss feeds click on the XML icon




You can now follow your chosen method of receiving a feed.





When the records arrives in your feed reader or email clicking on them will open the Web of Science records. Clicking on the MasseyLink icon will allow you to access the full text of the article if it is available.

MasseyLink

MasseyLink is a utility that allows you to move from database records to full articles in the most direct manner possible. To locate the article click on the MasseyLink icon



If there is a link under Full text is available from, clicking on it will take you either directly to the article itself or to a page from which it can be downloaded.





Full text typically exists in the form of a PDF file which is an exact copy of the published article.



Even if MasseyLink tells you that it is unable to provide full text you may still be able to link to electronic articles through the Library catalogue. We are looking for this article in Volume 51 Issue 3 of the journal Computers & Education





When the catalogue link opens we find that the journal Computers & Education is in fact available electronically




Clicking on the link under Connect to allows us to browse to Volume 51 Issue 3 and download the article






If the article is not available electronically the catalogue record will show if the journal is held in print within the Massey system. In this case a database has directed us to MasseyLink for an article in New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics




When we click on Search the catalogue we find that the journal is held by two of the Massey libraries





If the Library is unable to provide access to the article you want, either electronically or in print, you can use masseyLink to connect you to the InterLibrary Loan request form

EBSCOhost Subject Alerts

It is possible to receive subject alerts from both single EBSCOhost databases and from cross-searching a combination of them. Although EBSCOhost offers RSS feeds from subject searches, in practice these do not work so you need to register yourself in order to receive emails alerts. When you are signed in, carry out your search in the normal way and click on Search History/Alerts.



Now click on Save Searches/Alerts.




Select the options you want, making sure you save it as an Alert. To run your search in more than one EBSCOhost database hold down the control key to make multiple selections.




Note that even though you are registered and signed in you still need to enter your email address. (You can in fact set up your alert for multiple recipients). Click on Save.




Your alerts will arrive in the form of emails with clickable links to the EBSCO records

By clicking on the MasseyLink icon you may be able to access the full text of the article.

Scopus Subject Alerts

To receive alerts from the Scopus database is exceptionally simple - to save your search as an RSS feed there is no need to register or sign in. When you carry out a search the RSS icon will appear above the list of results.

If you ignore Save as Alert and click on the icon a new window or tab will open.

Give your feed a name and click on Continue. You can either copy the URL provided to paste into your feed reader or use one of the direct links.

If you prefer to receive your alerts as emails then register yourself and choose the Save as Alert option.