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How to use Search Alerts

Subject alerts may be of interest to academic staff, researchers and postgraduate students who will be conducting research over an extended period of time.

Many databases provide the option to save subject searches.

Note: these saved searches do not save the search results, only the search strategy (ie keywords, operators [AND] and selected fields) that you have entered. Databases will vary as to the number of searches that can be stored and the period they are stored. Check the database Help menu for details.

Also, some databases such as Expanded Academic do not provide Subject Alerts.

The following databases do provide search alerts.

EBSCOhost

Follow the steps (How to Select a Databases in these guides) to select the EBSCOhost database
Note the search defaults to Academic Search Premier, which searches across all databases unless more specific databases are selected, and Academic Search Premier is deselected.

At Advanced Search Enter your search terms in the search boxes
eg:
tai chi
elderly
benefits

  1. Click Search and citation results list will display
  2. Click Search History/Alerts
  3. Click the box Add to Search
  4. Click Save Searches/Alerts
  5. If you are a New User click this option
  6. Fill out Create a New Account Details
  7. Click Submit
  8. At the Saved Searches/Alerts screen fill in details of the search name and comments
  9. At Save Search as click Alert
  10. Click Save
  11. Fill out the next screen including your email address, frequency of the search etc.
  12. Click Save

Saved Alerts
  1. At Advanced Search
  2. Click Search History/Alerts
  3. Click Clear Search History to clear all searches
  4. Or click Delete to clear one search


Emerald

Using The Alert Services

This feature provides personal email notification of new articles published online, ensuring that you are kept up-to-date with the very latest research. You can receive these updates in three ways:

Saved Search Alert

After each search from within Emerald you will be given the option of adding it to your alert profile.

  1. Simply click on the "Save search" option.
  2. The screen will display your current search along with any saved searches you have previously set up. Please enter a name for your saved search in the box provided, so that you can easily identify it in future.
  3. Select the maximum number of articles that you will see in each alert by altering the box marked "Hits".
  4. Once you are happy with the alert details click on "Add" to add it to your alert profile.

Each time new articles are added to the database, you will be sent the brief citations of any new articles that match your search criteria.

Managing Saved Searches

In the left hand menu click on "Manage saved searches" on any search results page. The next page lists all your current saved search alerts. Here you can update, test or delete your alerts.

  1. Click on "Edit".
  2. You can alter the name of your saved search here.
  3. You can also alter the maximum number of articles that you will see in each alert by altering the box marked "Hits".
  4. Click on "Update" to save any changes.

Once you have finished your amendments you can test the search by clicking on "Test".

If you decide to remove the alert, simply click on the "Delete" option next to the relevant alert, or select "Clear All Previous Searches" to delete them all.

Table of Contents (ToC) Alert - will e-mail you the contents page of any chosen journal whenever the latest issue becomes available online.

Weekly Digest alert - will e-mail you a summary of all the Emerald Fulltext journals updated each week.

Georef Database (CSA platform)

The CSA platform contains more than 20 databases that will follow the same procedure for setting up subject alerts.

Follow the steps to select a database (How to Find a Databases in these guides). At the Georef search screen click Advanced Search.

Enter Search
  1. Enter your search terms. If they are all keywords, ensure you select keywords from the pull down display for the bottom two search boxes (these are pre-set to Author and Title).
    eg.
    geotextiles (in the first search box)
    erosion (in the second box, change Author to Keywords)
  2. Click Search

Save Search as an Alert
  1. At the display of citation results screen, click Save/Search Alert
  2. Screen displays your search strategy for this search
  3. Click Save as Alert
  4. Enter your email address and a password (record this for future use).
  5. Click Continue
  6. Your Alert Preferences will be displayed. Select the display format, name of search or comments.
  7. Click Save Alert

Saved Alerts
To view previously saved Alerts, or to edit or delete them
  1. Click Search History/Alerts from the initial search screen.
  2. Click List Saved Alerts

Ingenta

Ingenta database provides subject or keyword alerts to be established. These search results are run weekly with citations matching your keywords delivered to your email. 25 keyword (or author) searches are permitted per user. The full text of the articles can be obtained from Ingenta by the user. Payment is by credit card or by arrangement with the Macquarie University Division using a Library deposit account.

To set up a subject (research) alert:

1. Registration
  1. Click Sign Up if you have not previously logged on to Ingenta
  2. Fill out the details required, fields marked with * are the minimum requirement. Select a User ID and password of your own choice. (Keep for future reference).
  3. Click Submit
  4. Check your name appears at the top of Ingenta page.
2. Searches
  1. Click Search Options
  2. Enter your keywords in the search for box eg. Alzheimer's women
  3. Click Search
  4. At the results display on the left toolbar click Saved Searches
  5. Besides the search terms click the box and then click Add to Alerts
  6. Click Search Ingenta to add another search

3. To Delete an Alert
  1. Click Home at the top of the Ingenta page
  2. Click Manage Profile on the left toolbar
  3. Click fax/aerial search alerts
  4. Delete searches from this page

PsyINFO (Ovid Platform)

The OVID Platform contains some 10 databases that use the same procedure for subject alerts. Follow the steps to select a database (How to Find a Databases in these guides).

At the PsyINFO search screen enter in the keywords for the subject search eg. borderline personality AND diagnosis
  1. Click Perform Search. The results will be displayed as citations
  2. Click Save Search History (located below the Search History box)
  3. At Save Current Search - select Auto Alert (SDI) Service
  4. Provide details of a search name, email address, strategy and citation type
  5. Click Save Search

    Saved Alerts
    To return to initial search page click Main Search Page icon
    From the PsyINFO search screen
  6. Click Saved Searches (located below the Search History box)
  7. Scroll down and locate your search
  8. Click Display to show the search strategy
  9. Click Edit to change search strategy

ISI Web of Knowledge (Includes Current Contents, Web of Science/Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index)


  1. At the Home page click Register if you have not previously registered
  2. Fill in the required information and click Submit Registration
  3. Click Continue Select required database: ISI Current Contents Connect or ISI Web of Science (includes Science, Social Sciences & Arts & Humanities Citation Indexes)
  4. Select Full Search
  5. Select database/s required if you are in ISI Web of Science ie Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  6. Click Advanced Search
  7. Enter search terms eg TS=(museum and curator)
  8. Click Search
  9. At search results display Click Save History
  10. Fill in the details on the Save Search History page, including the box beside Send me E-mail Alerts and Alert type Biblio+Abstract, Email format Plain text
  11. Click Save to save this History to the Server, or save to a local drive on your PC.
  12. Click Return at the top of the page to return to the Advanced Search screen.
Note: only the last search performed will be delivered to your PC.

Cited References Search
Follow the steps above but choose Cited Ref Search instead of Advanced Search
  1. Enter keywords in the search fields eg. Smith J* and Year 2000
  2. Click Lookup
  3. Select the references by clicking in the boxes beside the entry
  4. Click Search
The search will be added to the Search History

Delete/Manage Searches
From the initial search page under My Saved Searches
  1. Click Open/Manage Saved Searches
  2. Click the box beside the search terms and click Delete
  3. Click Settings to modify the history.
  4. Click Open to run the search History again.

ScienceDirect

  1. At the search screen click Alerts to login
  2. If you have not previously registered click Register Now
  3. Fill out the required details and click Done
  4. At display of your details click Login Now
  5. Enter your User Name and Password
  6. Click Submit
Your name will be displayed at the top of the screen

Searching
  1. Enter your search terms in the search boxes eg nanotechnology genetics
  2. Click Search
  3. Click Save as Search Alert
  4. Fill out the name of the Alert and click Save Alert

Citation Alerts
Advise when a work has been newly cited by another author
  1. Enter author and title of work in search boxes
  2. Change the drop down menu in the search box to author
  3. Click Search
  4. Open document ie click SummaryPlus
  5. In the green box on the right click Save as Citation Alert
  6. Enter a name for the Alert and click Save Alert

Delete Searches
  1. From the original search screen click My Profile
  2. Click Modify/Delete to change Alert
  3. Click Add Alert to rerun the alert or to return to the search boxes and enter new terms.

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  • Last Updated: Wed, 26 Oct 2005
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