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Nutrition 499 (Kim): Alerts for Literature Searches

This research guide will point you toward print/online research resources and strategies available to you for your Research Paper Assignment in Nutrition 499. Use this guide throughout the research process to help you have the best support for your thesi

Keeping up with your Literature Review

Because your research projects will continue on for quite some time after doing your literature review search in the Fall, you will want make sure you find any journal articles relevant to your topic that come out between now and your finished project.  Setting up alerts is a great way to automate this process.

Two types of alerts may be particularly useful:

  1. Search Alerts: Database will automatically run your saved search and deliver the latest results to your email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. **you may want to/need to set up several search alerts to capture different aspects of your research**
  2. Citation Alerts: Receive an email when your saved citations are cited by another article. **particularly useful if you've found some seminal and/or great articles and want to see who else is citing to them**
Database/Resource Search Alerts Citation Alerts Must Create Account
PubMed X   Yes
Google Scholar X X No
Scopus X X Yes
ScienceDirect X   Yes

EBSCO (e.g., PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete)

X

  

Yes

 

Below are the ways to set alerts in several different databases.  Please feel free to meet with me to get help and/or contact me for instructions for a database/resource I have not covered below.

Search and Citation Alerts

Search Alert in PubMed

 

  1. Go to PubMed
  2. Sign in to My NCBI from the top right corner. If you don’t already have an account you will need to register for an account to use this service.
  3. Once you’ve signed in, search for your topic in PubMed/Medline
  4. Click “Create Alert”, name your search, and choose "Yes, please" to receive email updates of new search results.
  5. Set up alert frequency and click “Save”

Search Alert in EBSCO databases (PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, etc.)

 

  1. Go to PsycINFO (or other EBSCO database).
  2. Sign in to your My EBSCO account (top right of the web page).  If you don’t already have an account you will need to "Create a New Account" on the Sign In page in order to create a search alert.
  3. Once you’ve signed in, search for your topic in PsycINFO (and/or other EBSCO databases).
  4. Click "Create Alert" on the advanced search page 
  5. Click “Share” on the search results page and then the "Email Alert" link.
  6. Set up alert frequency and click “Save Alert.”
Search Alert in Google Scholar Citation Alerts in Google Scholar

To create an alert for a search in Google Scholar:

  1. Using the basic or advanced search, enter your search terms and click search
  2. Click in the lower left of the search results

 To create an alert for articles citing a particular paper:

  1. Find the paper in Google Scholar.
  2. Click on the “Cited by” link below the search result.
  3. Click in the lower left of the citing articles results

Search Alert in Scopus

  1. Go to Scopus.
  2. Sign in to Scopus (top right corner). If you don’t already have an account you will need to register for an account to use this service. [note: the same credentials work for ScienceDirect and Scopus].
  3. Once you’ve signed in, enter your search terms.
  4. On the search results page, click “Set Alert.”
  5. Name your search, set up alert frequency, and click “Save."

Search Alert in ScienceDirect

  1. Go to ScienceDirect.
  2. Sign in to ScienceDirect (top right corner). If you don’t already have an account you will need to register for an account to use this service. [note: the same credentials work for ScienceDirect and Scopus].
  3. Once you’ve signed in, enter your search terms.
  4. On the search results page, click " Set Search Alert.”
  5. Name your search, set up alert frequency, and click “Save."

Skip to 40 of 75 to watch the portion of the video specifically about setting up search alerts.

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