Most library databases and journal publishers provide an alerting service that informs you by email when a new journal issue is published and/or when articles on a particular topic are added to the database. There are several types of alerts:

Topic

You will be notified by email whenever new articles matching your search terms are published.

Table of Contents (TOC)

You will be notified by email whenever new table of contents are published for selected journals.

Citation

You will be notified by email whenever a new article cites a particular journal article. The following databases provide a citation alert feature: Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Scopus.

To set up an alert you will have to first create and run the search you would like to save. You may have to edit your search to make sure that it works well for your topic.  This will help ensure that the alert retrieves relevant results.  When you are happy with your search results, look for a link to "Save search alert", "Search History" or "Share"

To set up an alert on Google Scholar:

• Type in keywords to describe your topic:

• On the Search Results page, click Create Alert on the bottom left hand side of the screen.

• Type in your email address and click Create Alert. A verification email will be sent to your email address.  You will need to open this and click on the link in order to activate the alert.