Table of Contents (TOC) Alerts - using ticTOCs (a free service)
Most scholarly journals publish a "feed" that contains the Table of Contents (TOC) for the most recent issue of the journal. TOC alerts update the feed each time a new issue of a journal is published. TOC alerts provide a convenient way to stay informed about current developments in an academic field. Below are instructions for setting up and using the ticTOCs service, which allows you to select a set of journal titles, view the latest TOCs, and also export your TOC feeds to popular feed readers. To view a video demonstration of setting up the ticTOCs service, click the screencast image on the right.
Would you like help using ticTOCs? Would you like to know about other options for getting TOC alerts from your favorite journals? Would you like a personal consultation on using current awareness tools? Please contact the Cornell Library's Current Awareness team at culaware-l@cornell.edu with your questions.
Viewing a TOC for a single journal
- Go to www.tictocs.ac.uk (If you get the splash screen, click the "Let's get started!" link near the bottom.)
- In the left pane, search for a journal title. Any matching titles will be listed.
- Click a journal title to view the current TOC feed. From here, you can:
- Click the red RefWorks icon to add the item to your RefWorks account.
- Click an article title to view the article at the publisher's web site. (If you are off-campus, and encounter access restrictions, use the Passkey Bookmarklet.)
Monitoring TOCs for several journals
By registering with ticTOCs, you can keep a list of your favorite journals (MyTOCs), and easily view the latest TOC feed for each journal.
- Go to www.tictocs.ac.uk (If you get the splash screen, click the "Let's get started!" link near the bottom.)
- Register for a free account using the link in the right pane.
- Once you are logged in, the right pane will show your MyTOCs list.
- To add journals to your MyTOCs list: Search for a journal title in the left pane and then check the box next to the title you want, and click the "Add" button.
- Your MyTOCs list in the right pane will grow as you add more journals.
- To view the TOC feed for any of your journals, click the journal title.
Now you can easily revisit the ticTOCs web site later to check up on the latest TOCs for the journals that you have selected. (Note that the ticTOCs web site only offers the latest TOC for each journal, and does not archive older TOCs.)
Exporting TOC feeds to your favorite feed reader
ticTOCs allows you to export your MyTOCs feeds so that you can use the more advanced features offered by other feedreaders. For example, Google Reader allows you to view older TOC feeds (not just the most recent), and also allows you to search across all your feeds.
To export your MyTOCs list:
- Go to www.tictocs.ac.uk
- Log in to view your list of journals. (If you don't want to register for an account, you can also build a temporary list of MyTOCs without having to log in.)
- In the right pane, beneath your list of journal titles, click "Select All" (or hand-pick the titles you want to export).
- Click "Export Selected".
- Save the tictocs.opml file to your computer.
This OPML file is basically a list of your TOC feeds, with the journal titles and web addresses. This file can be easily imported into many different feedreaders. For example, to import into Google Reader:
- Log in to reader.google.com (You will need a Google Account to use Google Reader.)
- In the lower-left corner, click "Manage subscriptions".
- Click the "Import/Export" tab.
- Click "Choose File", and browse to the OPML file that you saved. (see above)
- Click the "Upload" button, and soon your journal titles will appear.
For more help with Google Reader, view these introductory videos.
Trouble accessing an article?
If you ever run into access restrictions when trying to view the full journal article, try using the Passkey Bookmarklet.
Exporting TOC feeds to your e-mail
At this time we can not recommend a service to convert feeds to emails. However, many publishers offer the option of subscribing to TOC via email. To do this, visit individual publisher sites and sign-up for TOC.
Need More Help?
Would you like help using ticTOCs? Would you like to know about other options for getting TOC alerts from your favorite journals? Would you like a personal consultation on using current awareness tools? Please contact the Cornell Library's Current Awareness team at culaware-l@cornell.edu with your questions.