Thomson Scientific provides the solution to Information Overload:
The alerting capabilities within ISI Web of Knowledge
Renny Guida
Director of Product Development
Thomson Scientific
The amount of information available to researchers today is unprecedented—and so is the time taken to manage it. Getting access to relevant, high-quality information is just the first part of the challenge; it’s just as important to be able to quickly sort through it. One of the best tools available to combat this challenge—alerting—is often under-used.
The resources within ISI Web of KnowledgeSM offer three distinct types of alerting services that add convenience and customization to the research process — and some innovative ways to use this capability that will add even more options and power to users’ research efforts.
Table-of-contents alerting, subject alerting, and citation alerting all deliver the relevant data users need, automatically via e-mail:
- Table-of-contents alerting delivers the broad view — complete tables of contents from journals selected by the user. Instead of managing multiple alerts from disparate publishers, users can receive one comprehensive table-of-contents list that contains all the journal information they need. Available within Current Contents Connect®.
- Subject alerting enables users to target key topics, using their personal search preferences. Available within Web of Science®, Current Contents Connect, and hosted databases available on ISI Web of Knowledge.
- Citation alerting digs even deeper — allowing researchers to easily track citation activity and be notified whenever a paper from any ISI Web of Knowledge product they’re interested in is cited. Available within Web of Science.
Promoting alerting as a crucial research tool
Many librarians help users take maximum advantage of this valuable, free search capability. They:
- Monitor the results of usage reports, so that they can determine whether users are aware of alerting options
- Provide alerting sections on institutional Web sites that show the types of alerting available, and instruct users how to customize alerts to their specific areas of research
- Encourage users to set up alerts for multiple recipients, so that colleagues who are working on the same areas also receive the results
- Seek feedback from users that serves to share innovative uses of alerting
ISI Web of Knowledge personalization bar (on right) alerts researchers to key new and saved information
Alerting brings added value to the resources within ISI Web of Knowledge — assuring researchers that they will discover all the critical research information they need, without having to re-create a search. Users and librarians can work together to ensure they are using this capability to its fullest capacity.
Additional information
Saving searches and alerting in Web of Science
Saving searches and citation alerting
Did you know...
...that researchers are currently using 84,000 table-of-contents alerts within Current Contents Connect?