Library Transcripts

Video URL: https://youtu.be/WJaA53uEEtM

Narration: What are journal alerts, and how can they help you succeed in your research?

Narration: As a scholar, it's important to keep up with the newly published research in your subject area. You can do this in a variety of ways. This video will demonstrate how to set up a journal alert.

Narration: If you are seeing the same journals popping up in your search results or if you know of a journal in your subject area that interests you, you could set up a journal alert for these publications. The next time they publish a new issue, you will receive an alert via email. The email will contain the table of contents for the issue and links to all of the articles.

Narration: Let's go in the Walden Library and set one up. On the Walden library home page, click on the journals button. If you would like to search for a journal in your field, click on Browse Journals by Discipline. If you know the name of a journal, you can paste it in the search box.

Narration: Let's look for information technology in libraries journal. To set up an alert, I need to go to the Walden Library database that contains that journal. I can do this by clicking on the full text access link underneath the journal title.

Narration: Now I need to choose a database that has the best coverage. I can see that there are quite a few that have this journal through present. I'm going to select Academic Search Complete. Academic Search Complete is a database provided to the Walden Library by Epsco Host.

Narration: EBSCO requires an account before you can sign up for a journal alert. These accounts are free to make and provide other features such as saving searches and articles. However, they are with Epsco, not the library. It is important to remember that you must log into these accounts before you save anything, or those items will be lost when you exit the database.

Narration: Click on the sign in link at the top of the page. If you don't have an account, click on Create One Now and follow the steps to set up an account.

Narration: Once you have signed in, look for the Share button at the top of the page. Click on the Share button and then click on email alert. You can now set up how you would like to receive your alert. It is recommended that you choose HTML format and link to individual articles for convenience. You can provide any email for the alert to be sent to. Once you have decided how you would like to receive your emails, click on Save Alert.

Narration: You can setup journal alerts in almost any of the Walden databases. However, not all the databases look the same. Some things that you should look for to set up an alert are share, sign in to set up alerts, new content alerts, connect with us, and create alert. If you don't find anything right away, you can always click on the Ask a Librarian button. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Narration: So that's how you can stay on top of the literature in your field by setting up a journal alert. Thanks for watching.