SAGE Journals Online: Saving searches

Registered users of a specialist site are given a personal search results archive.

The Site

SAGE, a publisher of academic and professional journals, gives registered users of its online publications site a personalised search history archive.

SAGE Journals Online covers 485 publications and has Quick Search and Advanced Search options available to all users of the site. Search terms, qualifications and the number of results are automatically listed in a Search History that can be accessed from a tab in the main navigation bar. Only the 10 most recent searches are listed but each saved entry has five options for further use, one of which is ‘Add to Saved Searches’. Clicking this saves the result in a Primary Folder that can also store articles from Journals Online.

The folder and contents can be managed at any time via a ‘Saved Citations/ Searches’ tab in secondary navigation. Site users who are not registered or signed in are prompted to do so if they try to add a search to Search History. Registration is free and takes immediate effect.

The Takeaway

Personalised features have a mixed history of take up in non-retail areas or sites. BBC News abandoned its customised home page option several years ago, though it is now testing a display options tool that revives the offer. As with other attractive-sounding features – such as blogs or video – much comes down to how appropriate and useful they are to the target audience. SAGE Journal Online’s Search History looks to score on both counts.

The specialist nature of the content and its regular updating as new issues of journals are published means academics and industry professionals are likely to have the site bookmarked as a research resource. The facility to return to previous strands of research is a valuable aid whether it be for a train timetable or, as here, a particular topic or article.

First published on 14 February, 2008