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Tools for Staying Current in your Field

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Need an easy way to stay current in your field?  Table-of-contents services are a great way to get the tables of contents of your favorite scholarly journals delivered to you via e-mail or RSS reader.  A couple that you might want to explore include:

ticTOCS (Journal Table of Contents Service)  – TicTOCS is a free resource that allows anyone to keep up to date with newly published scholarly material.  The site is simple to use:  just register for a free account where all of the tables of contents you choose will be permanently saved.  Then, search for the titles of your favorite journals.  You can then add them to your list and export them in a format that is easily imported into Google Reader.  The site currently only has about a thousand titles, so your favorites may not be there.

Library databases (if you are not affiliated with DePaul check with your local reference librarian) – Many of the DePaul library databases allow you to create free accounts.  Once you have an account, you can set up issue alerts as well as have saved searches rerun each time the database is updated.  These alerts, depending on the service, can be made available via e-mail or RSS feed.  Some of the better ones to try are Science Direct and Ebsco.

Publisher Web sites – Most publishers allow individuals to subscribe to tables of contents without a subscription fee. If you don’t find the journal you are looking for in one of the above, check out the publisher’s Web site to see if you can get it that way.

These are just a couple of options available to you.  Ask a librarian (or if you are not affiliated with DePaul, check with your library’s reference staff) if you need help setting up an alert or finding a particular journal.

2 thoughts on “Tools for Staying Current in your Field

  1. Roddy-
    Thanks for the clarification – not sure where I got those numbers.

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