A good way to keep current with research and practice is to monitor recent publications in keys journals in a field, but it can be time-consuming to visit each journal’s website and browse the Table of Contents (TOCs).
JournalTOCs (http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk) is a free one-stop shop for monitoring TOCs from multiple journals. A wide range of subject are covered by this site, such as art, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, life sciences, and health sciences (see the subject page). Below are step-by-step instructions on how to best use this website.
1. Registering an account is required but very easy. All they need is an email address and a password. Just click “Sign In” on the right top corner of your computer screen.
2. Log onto JournalTOCs and use the search box on the left of your screen to find the journal of your interest (see image below). For example, type in Journal of Biological Chemistry and click “Go”.
3. A “SEARCH RESULTS” panel will appear below the search box (see image below). Check the box before the journal you wish to follow, and the journal title will appear on the right.
4. To add more journal titles, repeat Steps 2 and 3. You will see the list on the right side of the search box expanding.
5. Next time when you log in, you will see journals you follow listed in the middle of your screen (see image below). Click on the title to view the TOCs.
6. If you do not wish to have another set of login to remember just for JournalTOCs, you can do either of the followings.
A.) Access JournalTOCs via your email
Make sure to check the box before “Email Alerts is On” at the bottom of the list of followed journals (see image above). When new articles are available, you will receive a message in the email address you used for registration.
B.) Access JournalTOCs via a RSS Feed Reader (e.g. Google Reader).
There are basically two steps here: exporting your mytocs list from JournalTOCs and importing this list to your RSS Feed Reader.
If you have any questions about using JournalTOCs, feel free to contact us at (319) 335-9151 or lib-hardin@uiowa.edu.