ScienceDirect

Advanced features October 2011
Registering /
Creating a
personal account
Managing your
searches
ScienceDirect
Registration allows you to personalise and use a number of extra
features such as:
Saving searches
Setting e-mail alerts
Creating a favourite journal or book series list.
To register click on the “Register” link in the top-right of the screen.
A registration form will be displayed.
Fill in the sections marked with an asterisk and then “Register”.
If you are already registered with Scopus then this username and
password will work with ScienceDirect as well.
To login, click on the “Login+” link displaying in the top-right hand
corner to display the login box. Enter your username and password
in the boxes that appear and then Login.
Saving a search:
From the results page click on “Save this Search” to save the search
request for future use.
When using the Advanced and Expert searches there will be an
option to Edit this search.
Recalling a search:
A saved search request can be recalled and run again to retrieve
documents which have been added since the last time you did the
search.
From the Advanced Search page click on “Recall Search”. This
link is next to the Search button on the search form.
Select a saved search request from the list in the box.
Click on “Retrieve New Articles Only” to retrieve only those
documents which have been added since you created the search
request. Selecting this option automatically starts a search. If
the search returns any new documents, the search results page
appears.
Click on “Retrieve All Articles” to retrieve all available documents
using the original search.

Advanced features October 2011
From the “Recall Search” screen you can also Modify a saved search,
for instance you could change some of the search terms, fields used
etc. To save your changes, you must save this search request
separately. Your original saved search will still be available.
You can also delete a saved search from this screen.
Search History:
From the Search History table you can view a list of searches you
have run. It will display your search, and the number of documents
retrieved. From this table you can combine up to 5 searches
together using AND or OR.
The search history must be enabled before you run a search for that
search to appear in the Search History table.
To enable the Search History you need to click on “Turn On” which
appears below the Advanced / Expert search form to the right of the
Search History label. Once turned on there will appear an option to
turn it off again.
Your search history can contain up to 20 searches. Once over 20
each subsequent search removes the earliest search request. Once
a search history has more than 10 requests you can either collapse
the table to see only the last 10 or expand to see all.
Saving a Search History:
You can save the search requests listed in the Search History table
and recall them at a later date.
From the Search History table click “Save history as”.
Give the Search History a name in the “Save search history as”
field (names are case-sensitive and must be less than 20
characters long)
Or you could “Select a Saved History to Overwrite” which will
replace the saved history.
Click on “Save History”

Advanced features October 2011
Recalling a Search History:
Make sure that the Search History box is turned on.
Click on “Recall History” located above the Search History table.
On the “Recall Search History” page you have the option to save
the current search history. If you do not want to save this, leave
the field blank. If you do want to save the current Search History
table you can give it a name in this box.
You then need to select the Search History you want to recall.
Then click on “Recall History”
You also have the option to delete a Search History from this page.
Setting up Alerts To access alerts click “My Alerts” on the navigation bar.
The following types are available:
Search Alerts – this will notify you by e-mail when new
documents matching a stored search become available.
o Conduct an Advanced or Expert Search
o From the search results page click on “Save as search
alert”.
o Complete the fields on the “Save as Search Alert” page.
o Click “Save Alert”
If you click on “My Alerts” on the navigation bar your Search
Alert should be listed there. From this screen you can modify
and delete an Alert or add another.
Topic Alerts – these are predefined searches on a specific topic,
you are notified by e-mail when new documents are available.
o Click on “My Alerts” from the navigation bar.
o In the “Topic Alerts” section click on “Add/Delete topic
alerts”.
o Select a broad category of interest from the pull-down
menu.
o Scroll down the page to select a more specific category
o Click on “Save”.
Volume / Issue Alerts – this alerts you by e-mail when a new
issue of a particular journal becomes available.
o Click on the “Browse” option on the navigation bar.
o You can browse the list of titles alphabetically if you
know what you are looking for.

Advanced features October 2011
RSS feeds
Personalisation
o Once down to the list of journals and books select the
titles you are interested in by clicking in the check box in
the “Vol/Issue Alerts” column (the ones with a green
book icon by the title are the ones that we have a
subscription to the full-text).
o Then click on “Apply”.
You can create RSS feeds from ScienceDirect wherever you see the
orange box icon. You will need to have access to an RSS reader (e.g.
from within RefWorks or Bloglines etc.) to be able to subscribe to an
RSS feed.
The RSS feed provides links to new articles that match your criteria.
You can subscribe to an RSS feeds from:
o The search results page (after using Advanced / Expert) for a
search criteria (“Search Feed”)
o My Alerts page
o The Browse page for a journal issue (“Article Feed”)
My Settings:
From the My Settings page you can review or change your profile
information, for instance:
o Add / Remove Alerts
o Modify Personal Details and Preferences
o Change your passowrd
o Create a report of currently available journal and book series
titles.
Quick Links:
You can link to your favourite journals, frequently used features and
web-sites from the ScienceDirect homepage.
By browsing the journal list you can select titles to be displayed as
favourites.
To set up a Quick link to a ScienceDirect page, click on “Add to my
Quick links” from that page.