In these busy times it is useful to have simple ways of keeping up to date with the literature coming out in your subject area. Some useful tools are:
Zetoc alert will send you listings of the journals your are interested in by email or RSS feed. It is also possible to set up an alert for keywords, although it is best to choose very specific terms if you don’t want to be deluged with email. A guide to Zetoc is available.
Select a list of journals to quickly check on the latest content. A couple of clicks will take you to the actual article if we have a subscription. You can find JournalTOCs at http://www.journaltocs.hw.ac.uk/.
Database Alerts
Some databases allow you to create alerts so that if you carry out a particularly useful search you can be alerted to new articles on that subject in future. For example,
Web of Science
When you have carried out a search you will see this create alert option at the left of the screen. Note that this only appears in the Web of Science Core Collection, not the default all databases search.
Scopus
These options appear near the top of the screen once you have carried out a search. You can choose to have an email alert or RSS feed.
On Proquest databases such as ASSIA, MLA and British Humanities Index you will see a set alert option as below:
On Ebsco databases such as Cinahl and Medline you need to select Search history to set up alerts.
Browzine
If you have a tablet try the Browzine app which allows you to create your own listing of journals to read in an attractive format. It will also store favourite articles for you to come back to.