Database Alerts for Science & Engineering
A number of databases, societies’ and publishers’ web sites offer alert services. An alert or current awareness is a service that sends subscribers e-mails of updates to a database (also referred to as index or abstract) or to a journals’ web site. It is a way of keeping up-to-date with newly published research in one’s chosen field.
Following is a list of major science and engineering databases and societies’/publishers’ journals web sites to which McMaster Libraries subscribe. The alert services are grouped under broad subject headings:
Engineering
|
Database*/ Platform |
Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits |
Details |
|
Scholars Portal (requires registration) |
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
weekly |
Maximum of 250 records from each database Alerts have to be renewed every 6 months |
Databases included:
Electronic journals:
|
| Elsevier ScienceDirect (requires registration) |
ToC for journals, book series, or handbooks
Search alerts
Topic alerts
Citation alerts |
as issues become available; gives option to receive individual e-mails for each volume/issue or for all volumes/issues |
None
Maximim of 10 search alerts
None
Maximimum of 10 citation alerts |
This site includes 1,500 e-journals published by Elsevier. |
|
Engineering Village 2 (requires registration) |
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
weekly | 25 records sent in e-mail; additional available through hyperlink |
Databases included: |
| IEEE Xplore (requires registration) | ToC for IEEE and IEE journals and magazines | as new issues become available | None |
This site includes IEEE and IEE:
|
|
IngentaConnect (requires registration) |
ToC
Topic alerts |
as new issues become available | None |
This site includes electronic journals. |
|
*International Civil Engineering Abstracts (requires registration) |
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
monthly | none | |
| Scholarsportal (requires registration) |
ToC Topic alerts Citation alerts |
daily, weekly and monthly; check Settings to select frequency |
None |
Gateway to major publishers’ journals web sites. |
Astronomy
| Database*/Platform | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
Engineering Village 2 (requires registration) |
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
weekly | 25 records sent in e-mail; additional available through hyperlink |
Database included: |
|
Scitation (American Institute of Physics) |
None; individual journals may offer alerts |
Biology
| Database*/Platform | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
ISI Web of Knowledge (requires registration)
|
Citation alerts
Topic alerts |
daily, weekly or monthly
daily, weekly or monthly |
None
Alerts have to be renewed every 24 weeks |
Database included: |
|
Scholars Portal (requires registration) |
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
weekly |
Maximum of 250 records from each database Alerts have to be renewed every 6 months |
Database included:
|
Chemistry
| Database*/Platform | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
American Chemical Society (requires registration)
|
ASAD - As Soon As Publishable; these are articles on the web before they are assigned a volume/issue number
ToC |
daily or weekly
as new issues become available |
None
None |
|
| The profile (and the query it contains) is re-executed weekly, to provide new answers that match the search criteria. | weekly | |||
|
Royal Society of Chemistry (requires registration) |
ToC | as new issues become available | None |
Computer Science
| Database*/Platform | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits |
Details |
|
(requires registration)
|
Topic alerts ToC |
as new issues become available |
None |
Mathematics
| Database* | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
|
No alerts by e-mail available; journals and books can be browsed online | as new issues become available |
None |
Physics
| Database*/Platform |
Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
Engineering Village 2 (requires registration)
|
Topic alerts (based on search history) |
weekly |
25 records sent in e-mail; additional available through hyperlink |
Database included: |
| Scitation (American Institute of Physics) | None; individual journals may offer alerts | Platform for journals published by AIP, APS, ASCE, ASME, SPIE and other science/engineering societies. |
Science/Engineering (Multi-disciplinary)
| Database*/Platform | Types of Alerts | Frequency | Limits | Details |
|
Elsevier ScienceDirect (requires registration)
|
ToC
Search alerts
Topic alerts
Citation alerts |
as issues become available; gives option to receive individual e-mails for each volume/issue or for all volumes/issues
|
None
Maximim of 10 search alerts
None
Maximimum of 10 citation alerts |
This site includes 1,500 e-journals published by Elsevier. |
|
IngentaConnect (requires registration) |
ToC
Topic alerts |
as new issues become available | None | This site includes electronic journals. |
|
ISI Web of Knowledge (requires registration) |
Citation alerts Topic alerts |
daily, weekly or monthly |
None Alerts have to be renewed every 24 weeks |
Database included: |
| ProQuest (Registration possible after search executed) | Topic alert (based on recent and current searches) |
daily, weekly and monthly, every three months |
has to be renewed after a maximum of 1 year and minimum of 2 weeks depending on option selected Up to 50 results per e-mail for alerts based on recent searches |
Database included: |
|
Scholarsportal (requires registration) |
ToC Topic alerts Citation alerts |
daily, weekly and monthly; check Settings to select frequency |
None |
Gateway to major publishers’ journals web sites. |
|
Springer Link (requires registration) |
ToC (option to select by name of journal or by subject) Topic alerts |
as new issues become available None | None | Includes all journals published by Springer Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publishing. Covers subjects biomedicine, life sciences, physics, engineering, mathematics, computer science. |
|
Taylor and Francis (requires registration) |
ToC
Topic alerts |
as new issues become available
as new titles are added containing that topic |
None
None |
Publisher of science and engineering journals (and other subjects). |
|
Wiley InterScience (requires registration) |
ToC Topic alerts |
as new issues become available | None | Publisher of science/engineering journals.
|
Glossary
Abstracts a printed collection of bibliographic information derived from journal articles, books, patents, conference proceedings, technical reports with a summary of the main findings of the published document. Scope of coverage with regard to type of document, language and subject of included documents varies. Abstracts can be searched by author, subject, keyword or other kind of access point.
Database a computerized collection of bibliographic information derived from journal articles, books, patents, conference proceedings, technical reports. Scope of coverage with regard to type of document, language, subject of included documents varies from database to database. A database can be searched through a number of fields, such as author, subject, keyword, title. Will often include a direct link to the full text of an article.
Index a printed collection of bibliographic information derived from journal articles, books, patents, conference proceedings, technical reports. An index may contain a summary (abstract) of the main findings of the published document. Scope of coverage with regard to type of document, language and subject of included documents varies. Indexes can be searched by author, subject, keyword or other kind of access point.
ToC table of contents
Topic refers to a search that involves a search by keywords, subject headings, descriptors or controlled vocabulary
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