Research Support: Keeping up to date

Keeping up to date in your subject area is an important element of academic study. Some of the tools available to help you with this will also be valuable beyond university in your career and continuing professional development.

There are a variety of methods and resources you can use to find the latest information on a subject. By using some of these tools, you will get automatic updates when new information is added, saving you time and effort.

You can set up alerts in many databases (and in Google Scholar) to receive notifications when new articles are published that match your search terms, when an article you are interested in is cited in another work, or when an author you are interested publishes something new.

The following guide will show you how to set up a citation alert using the Web of Science database.

You can sign up to a variety of alerting services which can email you details of newly-published journal articles in your area of study or research. Here are a few examples.

Zetoc is a service that provides access to the British Library’s electronic table of contents. There are more then 50 million records for articles and conference proceedings from 28,000 journal titles. The database covers multi-disciplinary material from 1993 onwards and is updated daily.

Journal TOCs is very similar to Zetoc. It is an electronic table of contents that searches about 15,000 journals. The service allows the setting up of feeds much the same as Zetoc. The coverage is slightly different but there is some duplication between the two.

The library provides comprehensive access to a vast archive of British and overseas newspapers, including electronic access to many current publications. Newspapers are an excellent primary source research tool, not only providing reports about events and issues but also editorials and letters that can be extremely useful for deeper understanding. Access the Newspaper guide for further information.

• London Evening Standard Archive

The latest acquisition to our newspaper databases. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues extending from the newspaper’s first publication in May 1827 to effectively the present day (within 1 week), including articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more. Searching facilitated by user-friendly support and indexing tools, with hit-term highlighting, searchable PDFs, and image downloads in PDF format.

Evaluating sources of information

This resource explores the process of evaluating the sources you find to ensure they are relevant and quality assured, equipping you with the skills you need to identify high-quality information to use in your academic work.

View all workshops and online resources in this area on the My Learning Essentials webpages.

You can cultivate your own personal learning network using social media tools to help you keep up to date and stay connected with the people or organisations that are relevant to you. Following blogs, Twitter feeds and other social media is a great way of connecting online both with people you know, and with other students, professionals and organisations, which will give you access to a whole network of people to get information from.

 RSS stands for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds are a way of subscribing to web pages and services in order to keep up with the latest information or ‘headlines’ from that site.

You can also set up RSS feeds in Library databases, Library Search and Google Scholar.

You can subscribe to an RSS reader service which will host a number of feeds in one place, reducing the number of websites you visit regularly. RSS feeds can also reduce your e-mail ‘clutter’ by directing updates to the RSS readers.

Feeds can be subscribed to using a number of different services:

Reading blogs can be a useful way of finding out the latest information and news on a subject, or to keep up with the latest thoughts and ideas of people who are writing on issues of interest to you. 

Searching Google Blogs and sites such as Technorati is a good way to identify blogs you may want to read. A useful blog may contain previous posts of interest so make sure you search the archive. As blog posts are posted regularly it is worth registering to keep up to date with a useful blog. Signing up to receive email or RSS feeds from your favourite blogs is helpful.

It is wise to be cautious when using blogs as a source of information. It is essential to evaluate the content to ensure the validity of any claims if you are going to cite it in your own work.

Online resource - The student guide to social media

This resource explores some social media tools, providing advice on how you can use them in your studies to find information, work with others, keep up to date, network and develop your online presence. Developed in collaboration with Skills@Library, University of Leeds and the University of York Library.

Discussion lists provide access to expertise in a given field, allow you instant contribution to discussion and can provide fast responses to questions you might have.

The following examples are useful ways to get started using mailing lists.

• National Academic Mailing List Service, also known as 'JISCMail', is a service designed specifically for the further and higher education and research communities. JISCMail uses the internet and e-mail to enable groups of academics and support staff to talk to each other and share information. There are thousands of groups covering many categories.

• Google Groups contains the entire archive of Usenet discussion groups dating back to 1981. These discussions cover the full range of human discourse and provide a fascinating look at evolving viewpoints, debate and advice on every subject from politics to technology.

• Yahoo! Groups includes thousands of groups available ranging from personal communication groups to scientific groups.