Current Awareness Tools, such as RSS feeds and email alerts, can help you stay up-to-date on the latest publications.

RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds Tutorial. USC School of Medicine Library.

Email Alerts
After you create an alert, you will be notified by email when a new issue of a journal is available or a journal article is published that meets your search criteria.

Our resources offer a variety of alerts:

• Search alert - A database will automatically run your saved search and deliver the latest results to your email.
  
  
• Journal issue or Table of contents (TOC) alert - Delivers the latest TOC of a journal to your email.
  
  
• Citation alert - When your saved citation is cited by another article, you will receive the citation of the new article by email.

Ovid: AutoAlerts

Ovid's Personal Accounts enable you to create and maintain a private workspace for your saved search strategies and AutoAlerts. When you save a search as an AutoAlert, Ovid will automatically run your saved search and deliver the latest results to your email.

View the Creating Ovid AutoAlerts Tutorial.
- This tutorial explains how to create an account and save an AutoAlert. Handout. (PDF)

To set up an AutoAlert:

• Log in to Ovid, click on the "Personal Account" link at the top.
  
• Create a username and password.
  
• Run your search in Ovid, then click "Save Search History."
  
• At the next screen, name your search and select "AutoAlert" as the type.
  
• Select the options you prefer, including how frequently Ovid will run your search, then click "save."
  
• You will now start to receive emails with links to new citations that match your search criteria.

PubMed: My NCBI

Use My NCBI to save searches, create search alerts for new content, and choose filters to apply to search results.

Create a My NCBI account by clicking on "Register" in the upper right corner on the PubMed homepage. Create a username and password.

To create a search alert:

• Sign in to My NCBI.
  
• Run a search in PubMed.
  
• Click on the "Save Search" link to the right of the search box.
  
• Name your search and select "yes" you want to receive email updates of new search results.
  
• Select the the maximum number of citations you want to receive, how frequently you want PubMed to run your search, etc.
  
• Click "ok."
  
• You will begin to receive emails with links to new citations that match your search criteria.

Handout(s):
Customizing PubMed Using My NCBI: Adding a Libraries Filter (PDF)
Customizing PubMed Using My NCBI: Setting Up E-mail Alerts (PDF)

Web of Science Alerts

After creating an account in Web of Science, you can save searches, set up Search History Alerts, and create Citation Alerts.

Register for a free account at the Web of Knowledge homepage.

To set up a search alert:

• After you sign in, "Go" into Web of Science.
  
• Run your search.
  
• Click "Search History" tab at the top of your results page.
  
• Check the box beside your search, then click "Save History."
  
• Fill out the form. Make sure you check the box to "Send me E-mail Alerts."
  
• Click "Save" to save the search history to the server.

• Sign in.
  
• Run your search in Web of Science.
  
• Click on the title of the article to view the full record.
  
• Click the "Create citation Alert" button on the right side of the screen.
  
• You will automatically receive an e-mail alert every time the article is cited.

Journal Issue or Table of Contents (TOC) Alerts

Most journal web sites offer TOC alerts. The process of creating a TOC alert varies from publisher to publisher. At the journal homepage, look for a link to "E-Alert Sign Up" or "Issue Alert."

To set up a TOC Alert:

• Search for your favorite journal through TDNet.
  
• Click "View Holdings" link next to the journal title.
  
• Finally, click on the Publisher Table of Contents box.
  
• Look for a link to "E-Alert Sign Up" or "Issue Alert." Some publishers will ask you to create a username and password, while other publishers simply ask you to provide an email address.

Science Direct Alerts

Science Direct offers a variety of alerts for journals published by Elsevier. After creating a profile, you can create Search Alerts, Volume/Issue Alerts, Topic Alerts, and Citation Alerts.

Keep track of the latest trends and developments in your speciality with ScienceDirect's TOP25. The TOP25 is a free service which provides top 25 lists of most read articles - counted by article downloads on ScienceDirect. You can choose to view lists by journal or by subject. You can also sign-up to receive quarterly TOP25 alerts.

HighWire Press Alerts

Use the My HighWire Press feature to create eTOC Alerts, CITETRACK Alerts, and PDA Alerts for journals published by HighWire Press.

Springer Alerts

The SpringerLink site offers Table Of Contents Alerts, Saved Favorites, and Keyword Alerts for Springer journals.

TDNet: My TDNet

TDNet offers TOC and keyword search alerts for thousands of journals.

Click "My TDNET" from the TDNet homepage to create your username and password.

To create a TOC Alert:

• Use the "Add Titles" feature to add journals to your personal TDNet collection.
  
• You will receive TOC alerts for these titles from TDNet as they become available.

• Use the Define/Change Keywords link to create a search alert.
  
• TDNet will run your search weekly. You will receive emails containing linked contents when articles match your search criteria.