Library databases generally allow you to output your search results (authors, title, journal reference and abstract) to email or to a PDF file that you can store on your computer.
However, it is sometimes more useful to store them in a reference manager such as EndNote, which enables you to add notes and generate a reference list. The next section in this tutorial looks at referencing software.
Once you have registered with a university, most academic library databases enable you to register for access using an individual username and password. We recommend that you do this because it will open up extra features of the database, in particular the ability to save your search strategy. This is useful because:
These features all help you to save time.
Most databases, including Google Scholar, will allow you to set up a search alert. This means that instead of regularly revisiting the database to repeat your search, the database will tell you when there is anything new that matches your search criteria, normally by email. You first need to register for an individual username and password for that database.
You can set up alerts across a range of databases to increase your chance of finding something new: no single database provides information about all documents on a given topic and by all authors.
To find out how to set up alerts, either search the help section within the relevant database or ask your Subject Librarian. See the following video for a quick demonstration of how to save searches and create alerts in Scopus - one our popular multidisciplinary databases.
