There seems to be a trend emerging amongst US academic libraries. The University of Florida is just one of many institutions trying out a new iPad app, free to students, that could make academic research a far less cumbersome experience.

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Over the past few weeks, a number of new website features have gone live across the BMJ journal platform. Read below for more details on Scopus citation links, email alerts for specific subspecialities and TOC section RSS feeds. more…

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the functionality available to users at article-level across our journal websites. We will be concentrating in this first post on the ‘services’ available in the ‘content box’, which is located on the right-hand side of all articles (see screenshot below).

Email this link to a friend

Fairly self-explanatory, clicking this link on a particular article will allow users to email a link to said article to a friend/colleague/acquaintance with the following message:

“I thought you might be interested in the article I found in the publication: Journal X”

Alert me when this article is cited

Clicking on this link will allow users to enter their email address and then be sent an email when the article in question is cited by another journal on the HighWire platform. For further information on available email alerts, please refer to this previous post which covers the options in detail.

Alert me if a correction/eletter is posted

These links provide users with the option to sign up for email alerts whenever a correction or eletter is posted to a particular article.

Similar articles in this journal

HighWire uses Semio technology to tag and group articles by topic and subtopic enabling users to browse to content and find articles they may not have using a standard search.

Add article to my folder

‘My Folders’ is a personalised online filing system for registered users. Providing quick access to articles that you have viewed previously, My Searches also allows you to save and re-use searches. Articles can be re-organised at any time, according to your needs. Save them to more than one folder using the copy function.

Download to citation manager

We provide a simple and direct method of acquiring article citations in the Medlars format compatible with import into personal bibliographic management software such as RefWorks, EndNote, Reference Manager, or ProCite.

Request permissions

Any one other than the author of a particular paper who wants to reproduce a BMJ article needs to ask our permission. We are usually happy to give permission, though in many cases we will charge a fee. Permission should be sought by following the link [Request permissions] that appears in the right handle panel on every article, or under its entry in a table of contents. This will take you to the Rightslink electronic request system.

Next week: Responses, Google Scholar and PubMed

Similar to the RSS feeds I discussed a few weeks ago, email alerts are a great way of keeping up-to-date with your favourite websites without actually having to check them periodically for updates. Depending on the particular e-alert you subscribe to, you could be notified by email whenever a new issue is published or a particular article is cited.

The BMJ journals have recently added a new email alerts icon to all homepages. This can be found in the third column of each page (near the skyscraper ads). For further clarification, see the screenshot below:

What email alerts can I subscribe to?

• e-TOCs: We offer table of contents alerts for all BMJ journals. By subscribing to this service, you will receive table of contents by email when a new journal issue is published online.
• Online First: We also offer an ‘Online First’ notification, whereby users will be emailed each time a new article is published in this section.
• Topic Collections: If you wish to be informed of any new articles published in a particular subspecialty, simply select the relevant option from a list of options to receive email alerts on that topic.
• Announcements: It is possible to subscribe to a ‘Journal Announcements’ feed, which will keep you updated on all major developments feeding into the BMJ journals.
• Citations: If you wish to be alerted whenever a particular article is cited, simply sign up to the citation e-alert.
• Corrections & eLetters: Similarly, if you have an interest in a specific article, you can track any corrections made or eLetters published in response to that article.
• Keyword/Author alerts: If you keenly follow a particular author or are interested in articles published around certain keywords, simply enter these details into our system and keep abreast of any relevant publications that go online.

How do I sign up for e-alerts?

Simply click on the ‘Register for email alerts” icon pictured above and enter your email address. Then select the type of email alert that you are interested in receiving and click ‘Submit’. You are then subscribed to the e-alert and can use your email address to log-in and unsubscribe at any time. If you wish to make amendments or sign up for more alerts, simply choose the [My Alert Summary & Preferences] option and follow the on-screen instructions.