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Organizing Research & Citations

How to keep your research and citations organized with citation management and database tools.

Instructions for Online Resources

Google Scholar

Search Alerts

You do not need a Google Account in order to create search alerts and citation alerts. You can enter any email address of your choice. If the email address isn't a Google account or doesn't match your Google account, then Google will email you a verification link, which you'll need to click in order to start receiving alerts. 

To create a search alert, search for the topic of interest, and click the envelope icon in the sidebar of the search results page, as shown below. Enter your email address, and click Create alert. Google Scholar will then periodically email you newly published papers that match your search criteria. There's a link to cancel the alert at the bottom of every notification email.

Google Scholar search results screen with the Create alert link highlighted.

Citation Alerts

To create a Google Scholar citation alert, search for the title of your article and then click on the Cited by link, as shown below. Next, click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the search results page. Enter your email address, and click Create alert.

Google Scholar search results screen with the "Cited by" link highlighted.

 

You can get emails when new results for a topic show up in Google Search. For example, you can set alerts for your topic keywords or for researcher names.

Create an Alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. In the box at the top, enter a topic you want to follow.
  3. To change your settings, click Show options. You can change:
    • How often you get notifications
    • The types of sites you’ll see
    • Your language
    • The part of the world you want info from
    • How many results you want to see
    • What accounts get the alert
  4. Click Create Alert. You’ll get emails whenever we find matching search results.

Edit an Alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. Next to an alert, click Edit Edit.
  3. If you don’t see any options, click Show options.
  4. Make your changes.
  5. Click Update Alert.
  6. To change how you get alerts, click Settings Settings and then check the options you want and click Save.

Delete an Alert

  1. Go to Google Alerts.
  2. Next to the alert you want to remove, click Delete Delete.
  3. Optional: You can also delete an alert by clicking Unsubscribe at the bottom of an alert email.

Feedly is an RSS feed reader and news aggregator that allows you to organize, read, and share content from your favorite sites. To create a Feedly account go to www.feedly.com and click the GET STARTED FOR FREE button. You can sign up for Feedly with an existing Facebook or Google account. Alternatively, you can continue with Feedly and register a new account.

For more information on RSS please see our FAQ:
RSS: What is RSS? How do I subscribe to RSS feeds?

For more information on Feedly and RSS please see our quick tutorial:

RSS Tutorial - A short video describing what RSS is and how to use it.​

Talkwalker Alerts is a free an easy alternative to Google Alerts. Monitor the Web for interesting new content about your name, brand, competitors, events or any favorite topic. Talkwalker Alerts makes social media monitoring easy and brings every single mention of your brand across the internet - from websites, blogs, forums and even Twitter to your inbox in one email.

Use Boolean operators to narrow down on the results that matter the most to you. Customize your alerts so you receive only the most relevant ones. 

How can I set up an alert?

Setting up Talkwalker Alerts takes a few seconds. All you need to do is follow the steps below:

  1. Go to https://www.talkwalker.com/alerts
  2. Pick a topic to set up an alert and enter it into our alerts search bar.
  3. Enter the email address where you would like to receive your alerts. You’ll receive Talkwalker Alerts at any email address you wish to use.
  4. Choose where you would like  to receive alerts from: News, Twitter, Blogs or Discussion forums.
  5. Choose the language of your results. They offer results in 22 different languages.
  6. Select how often you would like to receive alerts in your inbox. Select “As it happens” to keep an eye on Twitter in near real-time.
  7. Select whether you’d like to receive all mentions of your favorite topic on the internet or only the ones with the most engagement.
  8. Use our preview feature to check that everything is set up as you would like.
  9. Hit the “Create Alert” button.
  10. Check your email to verify your email address and Talkwalker Alerts will start sending you alerts straight to your inbox.

In order to set up an RSS feed, you have to log in to your alerts account by clicking on Talkwalker Alerts, and then click on the “Manage” tab. Next, you simply have to click on the RSS icon next to the alert for which you would like to create an RSS feed and copy the XML file. Then add it to your feed reader, such as Feedly.

If you’d like to set up an RSS feed for all of your alerts, you can click on the master RSS icon above all of the alerts and then paste it as a new source in your feed reader.

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