Overview of Auto-alerts


What are auto-alerts?

Auto-alerts are emails that are sent to you from citation databases or the publishers of journals. Alerts help keep you updated on the research in a particular topic, keep you track of your colleagues’ research, or enable you to receive the table of contents of selected publications. If you prefer, many alerts providers provide the option to receive the alerts via RSS feeds instead of via emails.

Auto-alerts types and how to set them up

Database-based auto-alerts

Alerts based on saved searches in bibliographic databases
The most common type of auto-alert is a Search alert, generated from a bibliographic database automatically, based on the search terms or criteria that you have established. Emails are sent to you whenever the database is updated or on a schedule that you have defined. Most frequently, the search criteria are based on a topic, author, or journal title. If you set up an alert based on one or more journal titles, you are basically setting up a Table of Contents alert.

As alerts from databases are generated when new citations have been added to the database, it is important to consider the frequency that the resource is updated. For example, Web of Science is updated weekly, so this would be a good database in which to set up an alert. On the other hand, even though CAB Abstracts is only updated monthly, you would want to set up alerts in this resource, too, since it offers the most comprehensive coverage of agricultural topics.

Citation-based alerts
Several databases such as Web of Science and Scopus send out citation alerts as well. Every time the article of your choosing is cited, you will receive an alert.

Cost / Registration:
Auto-alerts services are free to users; however in most cases, you will be required to fill in a brief registration, creating an account in order to use the service.

Instructions for setting up auto-alerts from databases
If you have a specific database in mind, such as Academic OneFile, go to the Database-based Auto-alerts: Listed by Database or Catalog page for instructions on setting up alerts.

If you know the name of the database provider or search interface, you can go to the Database-based Auto-alerts: Listed by Search Interface page to find how to set up alerts in that interface.

Publisher-based Auto-alerts

Typically, publishers provide Table of Contents (TOC) alerts. When the entire contents of a new, complete issue is posted on the Web, you will be immediately alerted of the Table of Contents – much faster than the articles appear in indexes such as Current Contents, Web of Science, PubMed, etc.!

Some publishers also provide article alerts. When individual articles are released on the web, you will be notified of its title, author, journal name and usually a link back to the article.

Additionally, some publishers provide auto-alerts that are similar to database-based Search alerts and Citation alerts. It enables you to track the topics, authors and articles important to you.

Instructions for setting up auto-alerts from publisher's sites
Auto-alerts services are free to users. In many cases, you will be required to register an account in order to use the service. You also need to know the publisher's name to use the auto-alerts services. Instructions on setting up from major publishers can be found at the Publisher-based Auto-alerts page. If you have trouble figuring out the publisher for a specific journal, please go to a University of Illinois library reference desk, or contact Katie Newman.