Library Guides: Keeping Current / Current Awareness Services: Home

It can be a challenge to keep up with the latest research due to the sheer volume of information published each year. This guide will help you learn about the options available to help you keep current with specific journals or an area of interest. The guide is organized by the source of the update.

Do you need alerts from a service that offers some type of pre-appraisal of the evidence for you? Learn about options on the Pre-Appraised Evidence section.
Do you like browsing specific journals? Try Browzine. You can set up a bookshelf of all your favorite titles.
Do you like having updated alerts arrive to your email? Pick the database you most likely search for articles, and set up an alert in that system. Your alert parameters can be by author, journal, or subject.
Do you like social media? Try Twitter or one of a handful of academic blog sites where you can hear from your peers about what's trending.

Setting up Alerts: Email and RSS

Email alert options obvious require that you create a personalized account within a database or service. Registering for an account with PubMed (MyNCBI), Esbco, or Scopus, is easy. Just pick a user name and password. This account is not affiliated with DMU so please don't provide your DMU login password to third parties. You can use your DMU email, just not your DMU password.

Another option to set up your alerts is to try RSS. On Web sites that offer RSS, you might see OR .

Also known as "Really Simple Syndication," RSS is an easy way for the people who create Web sites to send information to you. An RSS Feed is just an Internet address that tells Outlook (and other RSS readers) where to find new information from a particular site, like Pubmed. RSS options are embedded in browsers or you can also add your favorite RSS Feeds as subscriptions in Microsoft Office Outlook,

Introduction to RSS
Outlook and RSS: Internet information delivered to your Mailbox - print directions
RSS Feeds and Outlook - video

The video below talks about RSS feeds in the context of blog updates, but the principles are the same for receiving updates from your favorite websites.