LibGuides: Current Awareness: RSS

Set up your RSS feed

Once you have your RSS reader, you are ready to get RSS feeds. An RSS feed is the URL that you need to copy and paste into your reader.

RSS feeds are available for many sites, just look for the orange RSS icon and follow these instructions to add the feed to your reader:

Navigate to the site that you wish to subscribe to and locate the RSS icon. If you are having trouble locating the icon, then check the location bar of your browser (where the web address appears) or scroll to the bottom of the page and look for a link to the site's RSS feeds. Some sites that publish a lot of material (for example, The New York Times, PLoS and The New England Journal of Medicine) have multiple feeds.
Right-click on the icon and select "Copy Link Location". Paste this link (URL) into Add Feeds section of your RSS reader.
An alternative to the copy and paste method is to click on the RSS icon and choose your reader from the list of options.

What is RSS?

RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, is a method of delivering constantly changing web content to users. An RSS document is called a 'feed' or 'channel'. An RSS reader, or aggregator, allows you to organize and read RSS feeds from multiple sites in one place.

Why use RSS?

Stay up-to-date: RSS allows you to receive the latest content from the sites that interest you. You can receive RSS feeds from specific sections of journals or searches that you have performed in databases.
Save time: Rather than frequently visiting multiple sites, RSS feeds deliver the content that you want to one place.
Note: some platforms no longer offer an RSS option (Web of Science/ Clarivate products). However, RSS is currently available on PubMed and Elsevier and EBSCO platforms including Science Direct and Scopus.

RSS

To get started using RSS, you will need an RSS reader. RSS readers allow you to collect and organize your RSS feeds in one place. Some options are listed below.

	Web-Based	Mobile	Read Offline	Cost	Link
Feedly	Yes	App for iOS and Android	No; need to use one of the supported apps	Free	Feedly
The Old Reader	Yes	No official app; provide a list of apps that support	No; need to use one of the supported apps	Free	The Old Reader
RSSOwl	No, desktop for Windows and Mac	No	Yes	Free	RSSOwl
Outlook	No, but accessible on the web	Yes, through email or OWA app for iOS (requires Office 365 subscription)	Yes	Free for Duke University faculty, staff and students	Outlook
NewsBlur	Yes	App for iOS and Android	Yes	Free for up to 64 feeds; Premium account $24 per year	NewsBlur
Flipboard	No	App for iOS and Android	Yes	Free	Flipboard