Keeping Up-to-date with New Research (#30)

If you are carrying out your project over a period of time, you might want to make sure that you are kept up-to-date with any new articles or published research that matches your search criteria and will be relevant to your topic.

There are a wide range of tools that can help you to keep up-to-date:

• Bulletins – these can be useful for topic-specific latest research. Check whether any exist within the area you are interested in.
• TOCs or Table of Contents – many journals allow you to sign-up to receive their TOC or Table of Content. You will need to identify the key journals which publish articles in your topic area. When a new issue is published you will be notified of the contents and you can check whether there are any new articles on your topic.
• Database Alerts – many healthcare-specific databases allow you to set an alert on your saved search strategy. Thus when new content is added to the database and it matches your search criteria, you will be notified and can check whether you want to add it to your project.

Keep up-to-date on a regular basis - don't let your in-tray overflow

You can learn more about tools that can help you to keep up-to-date by completing our Current Awareness etutorial.