WISER Focus on
Keeping up-to-date with
the literature
Ljilja Ristic & Linda Atkinson
Overview of the session
Introduce different ways of keeping up to
date with latest research
Present a range of e-resources of interest
Show different types of Alerts
Demonstrate how to set up updates and
alerts
Oxlip electronic resources
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/
Bibliographic databases
Electronic journals
Information Gateways
Internet resources (quality assessed)
General and reference material
ALERTS
Saved search alerts
SDI, My Profile, Saved searches,
E-mail updates…
Table of Contents Alerts
Current issue alerts, Journal alerts,
journal contents page…
Accessing Alerts
Password registration is required
For remote access - ATHENS password
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/athens/
VPN service registration
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/
Saved search alerts
From subject specific databases
WebSPIRS
INSPEC, Biological Abstracts, GeoRef…
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts – CSA
Materials research, Environmental Sciences
Engineering Village
Compendex
Ovid
Medline, Embase, CINAHL…
WebSPIRS Science and
Engineering databases
This platform covers the main science databases:
INSPEC database of physics, engineering,
 and computing research
GeoRef the main geology database
Biological Abstracts of biology research
Zoological Record – index to zoology literature
Other
CSA Science and Technology
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts portal includes
the following science and technology databases:
Materials Research database with METADEX
Computer Technology for computer science
Biotechnology and Bioengineering Abstracts
Environmental Sciences
Aquatic Science
Other
EEVL – Engineering Village
This platform provides access to the most
comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering
database - Compendex Ei.
To create search alerts you need:
To register on the web site
Conduct a search on a topic
Create alert
You can Edit or delete alerts
Weekly updates will be e-mailed
OVID Medical databases
Most of the big Medical databases are
provided through the OVID platform.
To set up an alert remotely you must go into
OVID using your Personal Athens user-id
and password.
Within the OU network you will need to
register to set up an alert
A useful feature is the ability to suspend
alerts.
Multidisciplinary databases
Web of Knowledge
This platform has the Citation databases
that fully index journals from Science,
Social Science, Humanities
SCOPUS
This platform provides access to medical,
engineering, and environmental databases.
It also includes around 16000 full-text journals
Alerts from e-journals
Table of Contents (ToC) for journals include:
ZETOC – British Library electronic Table of
Contents http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/
TDNet – Oxford electronic journals
 http://tdnet.bodley.ox.ac.uk/
PrePRINT Network scientific or technical
documents circulated electronically
ZETOC e-journals
British Library electronic Table of Contents
• Around 20000 current journals
• 16000 conference proceedings published per year
• Covers 1993 to date/Updated daily
• E-mail Alerts to keep up-to-date
with new articles
E-journals at Oxford -TDNet
http://tdnet.bodley.ox.ac.uk/
TDNet platform provides access to all e-journals
at Oxford:
Around 39000 e-journal titles currently available
All subjects covered
Alerts can be set up for selected journal titles
Alerts limited to journal titles held at Oxford only
For comprehensive update on a topic you
need to search subject specific database.
Database search Alerts
vs e-journal Alerts
Database search alerts:
Provide an update on a topic of interest
Are based on previously conducted search
Search strategy defines the content
Search strategy needs to be reviewed if topic of interest
changes
E-journal alerts:
Alert you to new issues of journals
Limited to selected journal titles
Provide alerts from specific journal collections
Contacts
Ljilja Ristic
Physical Sciences Librarian Subject Consultant
Radcliffe Science Library
Tel.(01865)272816 [email protected]
Linda Atkinson
Reader Services Librarian
Healthcare Library – John Radcliffe Hospital
Tel.(01865) 221936 [email protected]
• NEXT WISER Science: Finding quality information on the Internet.
Monday 20 November 12.30 - 13.30.