Current awareness services

There are many services geared specifically to providing 'current awareness'. One of the key services is Zetoc, where you can receive e-mails of the tables of contents of the latest issues of journals chosen by you from the list of 20,000 titles available. Individual publishers often run similar services themselves so you may want to find out which publishers publish journals in your subject area; subscription is made usually via the individual publisher’s website.

Professional bodies and societies

Are you a member of a learned society or professional organisation? If not, consider joining. They can be very useful for conference bulletins as well as in-house publications, often included in the subscription. Don't forget to ask about student rates. Try looking for the websites of learned societies associated with your subject area (e.g. The Royal Society, the Institute of Engineering and Technology). You may have to pay a subscription or be a member of the society to access all of the information on the web but they are very good places to find out about conferences or talks and current research findings in your subject area.