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RSS Readers, Article Alerts, and New Ways to Keep Up: Setting Up Article Alerts and Feeds

This guide details several different methods for keeping up with new literature in your field, be it through article alerts, RSS feeds, or a combination of the two in new article discovery systems.

Do you read blogs?

If you read blogs, you're in luck: RSS feeds are designed to be used in conjunction with these!

For any blog, such as Scholarly Kitchen, Retraction Watch, or Sociological Images (just to get you thinking), just copy and paste the blog's URL into the box where you add feeds to your feed readers. 99.9% of the time, your RSS reader will find the feed you want.

Finding the Alert and RSS Feed Options

In each database platform, how you find the article alert and RSS generator differs. A database platform can be discipline-agnostic: It is simply the product offered by a vendor to access content. The same database platform (i.e., ProQuest) can have separate citation databases focusing on environmental science, history, sociology, or other disciplines. This page documents two major platforms: ProQuest and EBSCO. It also documents two database products, the Web of Knowledge and PUBMED. You can view screenshot instructions for any of these by clicking on the section title.

For a list of Yale University Library databases (and links to them), please visit http://guides.library.yale.edu/databases.

Here are some commonalities:

  1. For most platforms, you need to create a free-to-you account to manage your alerts. Some systems require accounts to generate RSS feeds, but others do not.
  2. Some vendors will set expiration dates for the alerts or RSS feeds. You need to log in periodically to ensure that your alerts are set up the way you want.

If you are in astronomy or physics, please note that while ADS, INSPIRE, and the astro-ph section of arXiv are not included, you have some options for preprint alerts. ADS indexes all of the arXiv. Aside from using Vox Charta, your best way to create alerts of any kind is to search the ADS and benefit from that additional customization.

ProQuest Databases

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EBSCO Databases

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PubMed

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Web of Science

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Science Research Support Librarian

Kayleigh Bohemier's picture
Kayleigh Bohemier
Contact:
During COVID-19 (and until at least March 31, 2020), library services have moved to online-only.

Please email me or use the Schedule Appointment button. Appointments will happen using Zoom or other videoconferencing software. Zoom has a phone option for those who need to call in.

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