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Subscribing to RSS feeds can be a quick way to keep up to date with research. Rather than periodically checking websites and journal pages to see if anything is new is, subscribing to the RSS feeds for journals and websites brings the latest content to you. Through using an RSS aggregator, all of the updates come to one place--very efficient.

How does it work?

"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication." RSS is a file format in the XML family that is easily read and interpreted by news aggregators (also referred to as feed readers, RSS aggregators, news readers, etc.).  The news aggregator software keeps track of updates by automatically checking the subscribed sites multiple times per day for new content. When new content is available, the news reader grabs it and links to it.

How do I get started?

1. Pick a news aggregator. There are quite a few, but  many people like Bloglines or Google Reader. Sign up and set up the reader.

2. Subscribe to some feeds. Look for language like "Subscribe in a reader" or "RSS" on a website. Or look for the symbol to know when a feed is available. You can add the URL for the feed to your reader, or your reader may have a widget to make subscribing easy.

Many journals now offer RSS feeds. Go to the webpage for the journal (whether that's on the free web or in a database like Science Direct) and look for a feed.

3. Try it out. See if it fits in your workflow.

Some journals feature email subscriptions of tables of contents. If there are journals that frequently publish relevant material in your area(s) of research interest, it can save you time to subscribe to an alert to find out when the new issue is available. For instance, the journal Mountain and Research Development offers issue alerts via email.