Library databases and Google Scholar allow you to create accounts and set up notifications to alert you of newly published articles on a topic/search that you create. The article informaton will be pushed to you, saving you time.
For all of the alerts you will need to create an account with the service you are using. There is no charge for any of these accounts.
Note that some articles will not be readily available. You can use Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) to request them, or contact your subject liaison for assistance.
Some of these alert features can also work with RSS readers if you prefer that to email.
As always, if you have questions don't hesitate to ask for help.
CINAHL Complete*
From the CINAHL homepage click Sign In on the blue toolbar at the top of your screen. Sign in, or if you do not have an account click Create a new Account and set one up.
Once you are signed in and back on the CINAHL homepage run a search on your topic. Click Search History under the search boxes and click the square orange RSS button next to your topic. On the Create Alert form set your preferences and click Save Alert; you can view and modify your saved searches by clicking Folder in the blue toolbar at the top of the search screen.
On the PubMed homepage click Sign in to NCBI in the upper right of the screen; if you do not have an account click Register for an NCBI account and fill in the form. Find Click here to continue to My NCBI to continue to the PubMed homepage. On the PubMed homepage click your user name in the upper right and click Request a confirmation email to register your email; check your inbox to confirm your email address.
Perform a search on your preferred topic; on the results screen click Save search. Enter a name for your search and click Save. (If you have not yet validated your email address you can do that on the next screen.) To receive email updates on your topic change Would you like e-mail updates of new search results? and set your preferences. To see what searches you have saved, click My NCBI in the upper right and look under Saved Searches.
You can watch a video on setting up a saved search here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwMQcNVSBz0
ScienceDirect Health and Life Sciences Collection*
In ScienceDirect (SD) find and click Register in the upper right of the default search screen. Fill in the required information, check Registered User Agreement box, and click Register. SD will give you your username. In the future, log in using the Login link in the upper right.
Click on Search in the green toolbar and run a search on your topic. Above the search results click Save as search alert and fill in the form based on your desired parameters; you will now get updates sent to the email you entered. To view or modify this or other alerts, click on My alerts in the green toolbar. Note that here you can also set up Topic and Journal and book-series alerts.
Go to scholar.google.com. If you already have a Google account (e.g., Gmail), go to Sign in and log into your account. If you do not have a Google account, click on Sign up on the sign in page to create an account.
Back on the Scholar homepage run a search on your chosen topic. On the left menu bar at the bottom click on Create alert, set your preferences, and click the red create alert button. You will be shown your active alerts; you can also view this screen from the Scholar homepage by clicking Alerts at the top of the page.
*Databases are available through the provided link or library.uiwtx.edu → Find Articles/Databases → Nursing & Health
