Using RSS to Keep Up with Scholarly Research
Keeping up with professional journals can sometimes feel like a full-time job: a lot of paper, checking of websites, using a library's subscription resources. RSS is one way to make tracking professional literature a little easier.
What is RSS?
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a flexible format that feeds frequently updated Web content – such as academic journal articles – to subscribers. Rather than checking several places to keep up with various journals, you can have all of their content "pushed" to one place where you can easily access it.
The presence of RSS is usually indicated with this symbol: 
.
Reading RSS Content
In this guide, the "place" where you can access the articles from journals that interest you is an "RSS reader". The screen shot below shows recent listings from the journal Advertising & Society Review as they appear in a subscriber's RSS reader, this one provided by Google.
To get access to scholarly journal articles delivered to you in this manner, you must take four steps:
- Create an RSS reader account.
- Find electronic versions of journals that interest you and feature RSS feeds ().
- Add each journal title to your RSS reader.
- Log in to your RSS reader regularly to find new content.
1.Create an RSS reader account.
The examples in this guide use Google Reader, which is Web-based and, therefore, does not require downloading of any software.
If you are not familiar with RSS and RSS readers, here is a guide to using Google Reader.
Click here to create your Google Reader account.
2. Find electronic versions of journals that interest you and feature RSS feeds ().
Most of the journals should be freely available to you via the Library's database subscriptions. Use the journal lookup tool (see screen shot below) to find the titles that interest you and to make sure:
- that the holdings for each title are current; and
- that an RSS feed () is available for each title.
The following is a screen shot showing the result for a search of the journal New England Journal of Medicine, showing the databases which make it available in full text and the years of coverage.
Click on the database name to get information about the journal title (see screen shot below).
3. Add each journal title to your RSS reader.
How to add a journal title to your RSS reader depends on the database that indexes that journal. Click on the links below for specific instructions:
EBSCO / Project Muse / Proquest / ScienceDirect / WilsonWeb
Important Note: If your journal is in JSTOR, you cannot track it using RSS. JSTOR does not currently support RSS feeds.
4. Log in to your RSS reader regularly to find new content.
Every time new content is available, it will appear at the top of your results page. You can skim the titles and click on those that you wish to access in full text.
You also might consider downloading the Library Research Toolbar, which helps connect your online research to Library resources.