Introduction to BioMail and PubCrawler: Automated Email Alert Services

What is BioMail?

BioMail (www.biomail.org) is a free alert service.

• Automatically performs periodic searches for recent scientific papers in the PubMed version of MEDLINE database.
• Hosted by the University Hospital and Medical Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
• May be used on the Web, emailed to you as alerts, or you may download the Biomail source code and use it independently.

What is PubCrawler?

PubCrawler (www.pubcrawler.ie) is a free alert service.

• Automatically searches the PubMed version of MEDLINE and Entrez (GenBank) databases at periodic intervals.
• Hosted by the Department of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
• May be used on the Web, emailed to you as alerts, or you may download the PubCrawler source code and use it independently.

Why should you use an email alert service such as BioMail or PubCrawler?

• Absolutely free of charge
• Citations to current literature are provided regularly
• Citations are delivered automatically via email
• Search patterns can be accessed, refined, or deleted at any time

What does BioMail do?

BioMail (http://www.biomail.org/) regularly (the default is weekly) performs a user-customized MEDLINE search and sends all matching articles recently added to MEDLINE to the your email address. PubMed search rules and syntax apply, so you may need to view the search tips at the top or your search page, or use the link to a description of search syntax at the PubMed site. The email can be sent in either text or HTML format, with a frequency specified by you: twice weekly, weekly, twice monthly, or monthly. (NOTE: Hotmail modifies web links in BioMail's messages, ruining all HTML-based functionality. In order to maintain functionality, use an alternative web-based email site, such as Yahoo.) You may enter up to 20 searches per account; if more searches are desired, you need to open a second account. The HTML format gives you a short bibliographic display with live links that allow you to:

1. Collect selected items in your own reference section;
2. View abstracts of selected articles;
3. View article bibliographies in MEDLINE format for import into reference managers such as EndNote;
4. View article bibliographies in CSV format for import into spreadsheets and databases; and
5. View related articles.

If you click on the author's name, you will be able to view a short PubMed display of the abstract for the selected article. You may then use all of the typical PubMed services and features such as changing the display or ordering the article.

What does PubCrawler do?

PubCrawler is a free alert service that searches the MEDLINE and Entrez (GenBank) databases at routine intervals (i.e., daily) using customizable search parameters specified by the user. A separate search form is required to search each database. A user-friendly search setup screen helps you to easily compose personalized searches using predefined search fields and Boolean operators. (Note: Not all fields are included in the predefined fields). You may modify your personal data, your frequency schedule, and your queries and options at any time. You can select to have email updates sent to you daily, only on weekdays, on select days of the week, or every 1-5 weeks. You may choose whether the results are presented in "full" HTML, "slim" HTML, or text format, listing the latest hits that match your personalized search interests. The HTML format provides more functionality than the text format, with live links to a short PubMed display as well as all the typical PubMed features. PubCrawler also maintains a Web service that allows you to view your results daily as a Web page with a specific URL (only accessible by you) that you can bookmark. You can also specify a preferred time range to have your queries run in order to avoid peak network traffic hours. There is no limit on the number of searches that can be carried out. Only the most recent records are shown each day; all previous search results are stored. The results are sorted into groups of entries that are 0, 1, 2, ...days old, etc., up to whatever age limit you specify. PubCrawler's "Neighbor Search" allows you to make use of PubMed's "Related Articles" feature to scan for other articles closely related to a selected article.