I absolutely love that most scholarly journals are now publishing RSS feeds of their content. I currently have more than a dozen journals from various disciplines subscribed in my Bloglines reader, organized right alongside subscriptions for my favorite blogs, higher ed publications, and NPR programs. The effect of this is that I can read titles and even abstracts of new articles as journals publish their on-line editions, appearing ever so smart and well read in the process!
But this is more than just an exercise in academic vanity. I sometimes come across articles that I think may be of interest to a colleague and can forward to her or him a link. Sometimes I come across an article that is directly relevant to my own work and can click through to read and/or print out the whole thing. Over time, I get a sense of the types of articles and topics that different journals tend to publish. In addition, I get a sense of the regular players who publish in them.
This feed-reading is especially useful for me now that I have graduated and no longer attend classes and seminars. What better way to stay current in the field than to regularly taste the intellectual fare served up by the journals? (Even if I mostly do sample just a bite or two here and there.)
UPDATE
I thought I'd address a few questions from my comments here instead of in the comment thread. First, I am not so familiar with other RSS aggregators/readers. But I do know that there are more than just Bloglines. Additionally, I think many universities and colleges now have "custom" pages that allow students, faculty and staff to subscribe to their favorite RSS feeds. Here at Minnesota, I think this can be done through the "MyU" service, although I have not tried it myself.
I do have a list of some of the journal feeds I subscribe to over on my sidebar. (I have more in my Bloglines reader.) One does not have to subscribe to the actual journal in order to get the titles, and sometimes abstracts in the journal RSS feeds. Sometimes you have to have a subscription--either individually or through your institution--to access the entire article. In my case I find that if I am already logged onto my U library account I have no problem getting the whole article. But it does appear that journals are increasingly allowing some on-line access to limited articles and/or for a limited period of time regardless of subscription status.
I have actually been surprised at how many journals now offer RSS feeds. This seems to have changed dramatically from just a couple years ago. Also, with publishing mergers I think that journals that previously were "independent" now may be part of larger publishing entities that are able to offer this service. Do check your favorite journals if you are not sure--You may be pleasantly surprised. And if your favorite journal does not offer this service, contact the editor/publisher and encourage it. A nice, respectfully-worded email inviting them to join 2007 (soon to be 8) should do the trick!
Posted by perry032 at December 13, 2007 01:19 PM