comparison of methods for current awareness alerts

1. The Next Generation
of Auto Alerts
Linda M. Hartman, MLS, AHIP
Andrea Ketchum, MLIS, AHIP
Health Sciences Library System
University of Pittsburgh
Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association
May 2011

2. Objective
 Analyze existing methods of current
awareness
◦ Examine delivery and content of alerts from
bibliographic databases, journal websites,
Twitter and RSS feeds through MyYahoo

3. Background
 Sifting through the literature for pertinent
information gets harder everyday. Is it
easier to pull the information when you
need it or have it pushed to you when it
comes out? Alerts can help strike a
balance.
 What method works best for you and
your patrons?

4. Methodology
• Table of Content alerts
• Chose journals using Journal Citation
Reports 2009 Science Edition
• Selected 22 diverse categories
• Ran Impact Factor and Total Cites reports for
each category
• Selected top 2 and middle 2 journals for each
report
• 156 unique journal titles

5. Methodology
• Chose Databases using Ulrich’s
Periodicals Directory
• Used Academic OneFile, Academic Search Premier,
MEDLINE
• Did not use subject specific databases (e.g.,
CINAHL, BIOSIS)

6. Methodology
• Databases
• Set up email alerts and saved searches
• Journal Web Sites
• Set up email alerts
• Set up RSS feeds
• MyYahoo
• Created RSS feeds from journal Web sites
• Twitter
• Followed 21 journals from January 1 – April 20,
2011

7. Email Alerts: Database vs Journal Delivery
Email TOC alert via Database Email TOC alert via Journal
J Clin Nurs (EBSCOHost) J Clin Nurs

8. Email Alerts: Analysis
RECEIVED VIA JOURNALS
145/156 92.9% Journals offering Email Alerts
73/145 50.3% Successful receipt of Email alerts
57/73 78.0% Content: New Issue Only Alerts
10/73 13.7% Content: Prepub Only Alerts
6/73 8.2% Content: New Issue AND Prepub Alerts
Delivery: Scheduled
Delivery Management: through
Publisher or Journal Web site

9. Email Alerts:
Problems
When signing up for Email alerts through
a journal Web site, the publisher may
manage eTOCs for all of its journals from
a central page. Sounds good!
This was a problem:
10 of the 24 checked
journal alerts/notifications
never arrived via Email.

10. Different journals are updated at different times
1. Journals like The Lancet “lose” content that is older than 2 days old. Click on the
journal title link for older content on journal’s web page .
2. Some publishers (Wiley) package multiple journals in one generic RSS feed.
3. Some RSS feeds do not have journal title as heading of module (“current issue”)

11. MyYahoo: Analysis
RECEIVED VIA RSS TO My.Yahoo
140/156 89.7% Journals offering RSS Alerts
132/156 84.6% Successful receipt of RSS alerts
Delivery: Continuous
Delivery Management: self-managed
via My.Yahoo

12. Methodology - Twitter
• A search was conducted for a Twitter
account for each of the 156 journal titles
• Journal and Publisher Web sites scanned for links
to Twitter
• Twitter search box queried using People tab
• Statistics for each account recorded
• All Tweets (messages) for each account
• 1/1/2011 – 4/20/2011
• Number of Followers
(subscribers)
• Content Tweeted

13. Results
• 21 of 156 journals (13.5%) on Twitter
• Content
• 10 of 21 journals provide new issue TOCs
• Promotional use
• Conferences, internal news, other announcements
• Prepub articles
• Not used for discussion or “breaking news”
• Some journals “follow” a few other Twitter accounts.

14. Tweets by Category 1/1/2011-4/20/2011
400
377
350 Surprise! Not much
Twitter activity in
Computer&Artificial
300
Intelligence category! 280
250
202
200
150
101
100 90
50
45
25 24 31
0

15. 21 journals with Twitter feeds sorted by # followers
Tweets
Impact Twitter 1/1/2011-
Study Category Journal Title Factor #Followers 4/20/2011
Clinical Medicine/CAM New Engl J Med 47.050 22,576 111
Clinical Medicine/CAM Lancet 30.758 12,801 94
Research & Physiology Nat Med 27.136 11,221 218
BioMolecular Cell 31.152 2,695 29
Rehab & SportsMed Phys Ther 2.082 2,472 115
Nutrition & Pharma Nat Rev Drug Discov 29.059 1,832 24
Rehab & SportsMed J Orthop Sport Phys 2.482 1,217 5
Specialty J Bone Joint Surg Am 3.427 1,071 19
Psychiatry Arch Gen Psychiat 12.257 898 10
Specialty CA-Cancer J Clinic 87.925 434 1
BioMolecular Mol Med 5.020 419 60
Computer & Artificial Intell J Am Med Inform Assn 3.974 364 18
Public Health Injury Prev 1.453 310 31
Specialty Ann Rheum Dis 8.111 274 25
Rehab & SportsMed Med Sci Sport Exer 3.707 192 160
Research & Physiology J Exp Med 14.505 136 25
Psychiatry CNS Spectrums 2.197 107 80
Research & Physiology J Physiol-London 4.764 76 14
Computer & Artificial Intell Auton Robot 1.235 59 7
BioMolecular Dis Model Mech 3.304 56 12
Research & Physiology J Clin Invest 15.387 20 120

16. Results
• Difficult to determine which method is fastest
or best for getting latest information
• Articles from one issue can appear in several
different email alerts (weeks apart) in the same
database
• Poor success rate when subscribing to Email Alerts
through a journal Web site
• Better success rate when setting up RSS through
MyYahoo, but publishers sometimes package
journals into a generic feed.
• Lack of archiving/indexing in Twitter
• Journals do not Tweet every article or issue

17. Example
Articles from one issue can appear in several
different email alerts (weeks apart) in the same
database: New England Journal of Medicine

18. Discussion
• Limitations include
• Rapid changes in media – Twitter is not yet
comparable
• Publishers combine some journal alerts, making
those difficult or impossible to include in analysis
• Which method is best?
• May depend on comfort level of user
• Ability to check Twitter and MyYahoo daily
• Keep in mind it may take more than one to get
everything

19. Advantages Disadvantages
Email Email
• Can wait to look at • Inbox can get cluttered
results, citations still there and unruly, requires time
to manage setup and
follow-up
• May arrive in bulky text
files
• Time difference
between databases

20. Advantages Disadvantages
• MyYahoo (iGoogle) • MyYahoo (iGoogle)
• More compact and • Harder to see what
browsable than traditional “came in” 3 weeks ago
RSS readers; customizable • Need to stay current
• Automatically renews
itself
• Can share pages with
patron via email

21. Advantages Disadvantages
• Twitter • Twitter
• Forward to email or post • Limited journal
items of interest to other participation
social media • Journals unsure of best
• Instant access to current way to use at this time
articles or journal news

22. Future Research
• Examine author searches and subject
searches
• Identified using Clustermed to find top 10
MeSH and authors for each journal
• Examine in greater detail differences in
reliability and content between alerts
delivered in various formats.

23. References
 Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory
 ISI Journal Citation Reports
 Academic OneFile
 Academic Search Premier
 PubMed
 Twitter
 MyYahoo

24. Thank you!
Linda Hartman MLS, AHIP
lhartman@pitt.edu
Andrea Ketchum MLIS, AHIP
ketchum@pitt.edu