Keeping up to date


Last updated 22 June 2023

Keeping up to date

In these days of rapid publishing and dissemination of research content, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s happening in areas of importance to you. This guide offers some pointers as to how you can be alerted to new research, journal issues and articles as they are published.

Please note: the Library’s eTOC service is being retired as this method of alerting and subsequent access to articles of interest is no longer fit for purpose – for recipients it was a very manual way of keeping up with new journal content and for the library team it was time-consuming to prepare the content each month

 
  • Use a free journal alert service such as JournalTOCS at https://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/ which allows you to create alerts for contents pages for up to 30 titles from a broad range of subject areas and includes BMJ JAMA NEJM and The Lancet
  • Many publishers offer an alerts service for new journal content as soon as it is published – even for non-subscribers. Sign up directly with each journal to receive regular new contents alerts.

Here are some popular journal titles with alerts links to get you started:


If you have completed a literature search for articles on a topic of interest and want to receive new results, most databases have an option which allows you to schedule a search re-run at an interval of your choice.

Here are details of how to set up alerts for some of the databases available via the library:

  • PubMed: To set up alerts, search PubMed via RACGP and register for an MyNCBI account by clicking on the ‘Login’ link at top right of screen. Login or select ‘Other login options’ and select ‘Sign up’ option at bottom of page and follow instructions to complete registration using a third party of choice eg Google Chrome. View an interactive tutorial on  Saving a PubMed search and set up alerts.
  • EBSCOHost databases: Create an EBSCO personal user account (from ‘Sign in / Create account’ link top right of screen). From search screen ‘Create alert’ option next to search boxes or ‘Share’ option from results page to set up email alert. View tutorials on how to create Alerts from searches.
  • DynaMed: Create an EBSCO personal user account (from ‘Sign in / Create account’ link at screen top right, perform search and click on ‘Follow’ icon at top right to follow and receive alerts for new content.
  • ProQuest Health & Medical Collection: Create a ‘My Research’ account at top right of screen, perform search and click on ‘Save search / alert’ button at top of results screen to set up search alerts.

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