Researching a topic for education.

Librarians and lecturers say...

It is important to keep up to date with newly published information within your research area. But why do we say this?

It is your choice but it is difficult to see why you would not want to keep up-to-date with literature in a field that you are researching.

Imagine this scenario*

Imagine if today, you fell over in the street and needed medical help. What would your reaction be if instead of an ambulance, two historical medics from a different historical period arrived to treat you?

You may be surprised by the treatment options offered as they are unlikely to be current or found in NHS clinical pathways, guidance or listed on NHS Choices. Would you want to be treated by historical medics?  We think you would not!

We keep up to date with literature to make sure:

• our knowledge is current.
• we are not relying on superseded information.
• we are aware of developments in your field.
• you maintain the continuous professional development requirement of your career.

*The inspiration for this idea comes from the wonderful BBC series - Horrible Histories - which included a recurring sketch related to historical paramedics from many historical periods treating people in modern times.

Alerts and feeds automatically find out about relevant new resources which have been published within an area. 

An alert is an email that informs you when something new becomes available on an electronic resource, for example new sources on a database or new items on a website.

A feed, also called an RSS feed or web feed contains updated information from a web site. You can subscribe to feeds from lots of different web sites and then use a browser or a feed reader to see any new updates from all your feeds.

A citation alert is an email from a resource that lets you know when an article you have specified has been cited by another article.

An author alert is an email from a resource that lets you know when an author you have specified has had an article included in the resource you have set the alert up in.

Many resources or online services like databases have an option to set up alerts. Journal and magazine websites will often allow you to sign up to alerts containing the contents pages of new issues. 

Before you set up alerts or sign up for a new service, we recommend you consider the following questions to make sure you choose the most relevant resource:

• Does it fit with the way you work?
• Does it do what you need it to do?
• Does it have the content you need?

Each of you will have a preferred approach for keeping up to date depending on how you like to work... so choose the one that works for you!

We always recommend that you check the terms and conditions of any service that you sign up for as this is an agreement you have made with the service you wish to use.

You could try using any of the following resources or approaches:

• Saved search email alerts in Library Search or a subject specific database like Web of Science.
• Weekly journal reading.
• Specific alerts for key authors or citation alerts.
• Google Scholar alerts.
• Using email discussion lists or social media.

Lets put some of this knowledge into practice!

   Activity: Set up a Saved Search related to your literature review in Library Search.

• Experiment with search terms and filters.
• Once you are happy with the search and it is returning relevant information then save the search.
• You can delete searches at any time.
• You receive the results as an email once a week with items that have been added to Library Search that match your search criteria.

Congratulations you have completed the tenth step.

Time to take a break - maybe time to relax with a story based book!