Importing email alerts

Alerts may be imported by clicking on Import at the bottom of the Email Alert list. All alerts to be imported need to be formatted as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, which may be typed, generated or exported from Excel. We recommend you use Excel and to do this, please follow these steps:

  • Open an Excel worksheet (note: only one worksheet is allowed within the spreadsheet document).
  • Define ten columns (also called “fields”) as shown under Column definitions below. Note that column headers are not allowed: column definitions are for guidance only. NOTE: In the first column of the CSV file only lower case should be used (e.g. cit, citabs). This column is case-sensitive.
  • If there are commas in your search strategy, then they need to be “escaped” using quotes to be compatible with the CSV import file. Here is an example:

         e.g. dd_ae,dd_dt     =>           dd_ae”,”dd_dt

        ab,ti                       =>           ab”,”ti

  • We recommend the use of a text editor, such as notepad to construct the CSV file. This will help to ensure no errors are introduced.
  • Within each row, enter the data for a single search. Note you may use any combination of upper and lower case letters, APART from in the first column. Here, you must use lower case.
  • File the Excel spreadsheet in CSV format.
  • Press the Import button in the Email Alerts page and complete the Import Email Alerts Pop-up Menu, noting the option to Deduplicate Alert titles.

Column definitions

Column 1: Content Selection

  • This defines the format that is exported when your Email Alert is run.   Enter one one of the following values: Cit, CitTerm, CitAbs or CitAll, defined as follows:
  • Cit                       :  Citations only
  • CitTerm               :  Citations and index terms
  • CitAbs                 :  Citations and abstracts
  • CitAll                   :  Citations, abstracts and index terms
  • Full                     : Citations, abstracts, index terms and additional information (full record)
  •  
  • For complete definitions of these formats, see Record Display Format. If no export format is defined, the Cit format (Citations only) is used as default.

Column 2: Disabled

  • This defines the status of the Email Alert:
  • True       :  Email Alert is Disabled (Turned Off)
  • False      :  Email Alert is Enabled (Turned On)
  • For further details of changing the Email status, see above.
  • If no status is defined, the False status (Enabled) is used as default.

Column 3: Email Address

  • Enter the email address or addresses to which you wish the Email Alert to be sent.Separate addresses with a semi-colon ( ; ). At least one Email address is required; any number may be defined.

Column 4: Email Format

  • This defines the format of the Email Alert:
  • Text       :  Email Alert will be sent in text format
  • Html      :  Email Alert will be sent in HTML format
  • If no format is defined, HTML will be used as default.

Column 5: Alert Title

  •  This defines the title of the Email that will be sent. If no title is defined, the first 150 characters of the Search Query (Column 10) are used as default.

Column 6: Frequency

  • This defines how frequently the Email Alert is run:
  • Daily                      :  Email Alert will be run every day
  • Weekly :  Email Alert will be run every week
  • TwoWeekly        :  Email Alert will be run every two weeks
  • Monthly               :  Email Alert will be run every month
  • TwoMonthly      :  Email Alert will be run every two months
  • ThreeMonthly   :  Email Alert will be run every three months
  • SixMonthly         :  Email Alert will be run every six months
  • Yearly                    :  Email Alert will be run every year
  • If the frequency is not defined, the Email will be run weekly
  • In some cases, you may define the day on which the Email Alert is run: see Preferred Day (Column 7).

Column 7: Preferred Day

  • Choose a Preferred Day in combination with the Frequency (Column 6), as follows:
  • If Frequency is Daily: the Preferred Day is ignored
  • If Frequency is Weekly: enter one of the values: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed,    Thu, Fri, Sat
  • If Frequency is TwoWeekly: enter one of the values: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat
  • If Frequency is Monthly: enter the day of the month (1-31). See note following.
  • If Frequency is TwoMonthly: enter the day of the month (1-31). See note     following.
  • If Frequency is ThreeMonthly: enter the day of the month (1-31). See note following.
  • If Frequency is SixMonthly: enter the day of the month (1-31). See note following.
  • If Frequency is Yearly: enter the month & day in the format MMM d or MMM-d, e.g. Jan 7 or Jan-7.
  • In Excel, text format should be enforced by the use of an initial quote character, e.g. ‘Jan 7 or “Jan 7.
  • Note: if the day does not exist in a particular month, the Email Alert is run on day 1 of the following month

Column 8: Articles in Press

  • This defines whether Articles in Press are included in the Email Alert:
  • True       :  Articles in Press are included
  • False      :  Articles in Press are excluded
  • If no format is defined, the True status (Articles in Press included) is used as default.

Column 9: Suppress when No Hits

  • This defines whether an Email Alert is suppressed in the event that there are no hits:
  • True       :  Email Alert is suppressed when there are no hits
  • False      :  Email Alert is not suppressed when there are no hits
  • If no format is defined, the False status (Email Alert NOT suppressed when no hits) is used as default.

Column 10: Search Query

  • Enter the full search query to be executed in this column.
  • The search should be expressed as a single query, i.e. separate lines are not permitted.
  • This information is obligatory.
  • After completing the spreadsheet (with one email alert defined on each row), save it as a CSV file using the Save As option in Excel.

Correcting Email Alert errors

  • Embase reports the overall import result as number of email alerts imported, with duplicate titles, or failed.
  • Email alerts with duplicate titles are not imported if the Deduplicate Alert titles option has been selected on the Import Email Alerts Pop-Up Menu.
  • Failed email alerts generate an Overview of Failed Alerts, with Details of Errors or Warnings (field names are as specified in the column descriptions above). Failed Alerts may be resubmitted for import after correction by Downloading the Error File, correcting the error as advised and Resubmitting the Alert.
  • Please Note: If, when saving or editing a CSV file using Excel, empty columns disappear, it may be corrected by ensuring that specific values are entered in each column for at least one row (email alert).