Search alerts within databases can be set up to provide automatic notification when new results are available. Instead of having to constantly re-enter the exact search terms into a database each time, setting up an alert is an easy and effective way of gathering information on your subject.
To use the alerting facilities on most databases you will need to create a personal account once logged in.
Aberystwyth University subscribe to a range of databases. some cover all subject areas (such as Web of Science, Scopus), some cover particular types of publication (for instance, Index to theses), and some cover specific subject areas (such as English Poetry via ProQuest).
You will need to establish which are the most appropriate databases to search - see your subject guide for guidance.
You can search databases in Primo.
Search for databases
To search for databases you can do the following:
Scopus is a large bibliographic database covering all subjects which includes selected conference proceedings and over 34,000 journals.
Scopus allows you to set up alerts for particular authors, documents so that you are notified when someone cites a particular article, or searches.
Searches can be for a range of criteria including keywords, journal title, and an author’s affiliation.
https://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/
JournalTOCs is the largest, free collection of scholarly journals Tables of Contents (TOCs).
Google Scholar can be a useful tool. Google Scholar is a Web search engine that specifically searches scholarly literature and academic resources. It searches the same kinds of scholarly books, articles, and documents that you search in the Library's catalogue and databases. The scholarly, authoritative focus of Google Scholar distinguishes it from ordinary Google.
There is overlap between the content in Google Scholar and the Library's individual databases. In addition, many citations in Google Scholar will link to full text in the Library's databases or in publicly available databases.
Searching is as easy as searching in regular Google.
Like regular Google, Google Scholar returns the most relevant results first, based on an item's full text, author, source, and the number of times it has been cited in other sources. Some actions are a little different from regular Google: clicking on a title may only take you to a citation or description, rather than to the full document itself. Google Scholar will not necessarily get you to the full text of every search result.
To find the full document, look for:
In addition, Google Scholar’s Citations facility specifically enables you to track citations to your own papers within the Google Scholar network. To access the Google Scholar Citation facility, login to Google Scholar with your own Google username and password at: https://scholar.google.co.uk/intl/en/scholar/citations.html and follow the instructions given.
Please note that the Google Scholar database is not limited to coverage of peer-reviewed papers and can include magazine articles, websites, blogs and reports.
https://www.google.co.uk/alerts
You can monitor the web for new content by using Google Alerts to get email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Why use electronic resources?
Electronic resources for History and Welsh History can be found through Primo where you can discover individual resources or cross-search a number of them at once. Primo includes key resources such as citation databases, e-journals and e-books, selected websites, subject gateways, data and media resources, news, reference materials and library catalogues. Below and on the above tabs are some key databases for History. You can find hundreds more at Resources A-Z
Examples of databases:
You can find and access Open Access academic material via the University’s library catalogue Primo and the Aberystwyth Research Portal.
Increasing amounts of academic material is also being placed on the internet as Open Access. This means that it is not hidden behind a paywall and is freely accessible by anyone. Sometimes these documents are versions that have the same content as a final published version but are called post-prints or Author Accepted Manuscripts. Sometimes they are final published versions.
Such material isn’t always easy to locate so there are a number of tools and websites available which can help students and researchers find articles, books and journals which have, intentionally and legally, been published Open Access. These are listed on the following tabs. Some are in-built into the University’s system, others may have to be added as browser extensions. Not all work on all browsers.
Aberystwyth University’s research outputs can also be found via these tools and websites.
