BrowZine includes a variety of features that enable you to search for eJournals in your subject area, create a custom bookshelf and read and save journal articles. The video below demonstrates some of these key features, as well as showing how BrowZine can be accessed via FindIt@Bham.
The key features of BrowZine are also described in the sections below. Please note that screenshots are based on the web version of BrowZine.
There are two ways to search for eJournals on BrowZine - by using the built-in search box or by browsing an A-Z list of journals by subject area.
The search box that is built-in to BrowZine can be used to search for eJournals by journal title, ISSN or subject area. This is particularly useful if you already know the name of the journal you want to search for and would like to browse the journal's contents. Note that you cannot use the search box to search for journal articles.
Browsing the A-Z list of eJournals by subject allows you to identify a particular subject category (and sub-categories, where relevant) and review the eJournals listed in that category. This is particularly useful if you know the broad subject area in which you are trying to identify relevant content, but are not yet aware of the key eJournal titles in that subject area.
Creating a bookshelf allows you to save your favourite eJournals to a personalised space, and also get alerts when new articles are available. To use this functionality you will need to create an account within BrowZine. We recommend you use a password that is different to the password you use for your university credentials. To get started select the My Bookshelf tab in the BrowZine ribbon and follow the on-screen instructions to register for a personal BrowZine account, or to sign-in.
Once you have an account you can begin personalising your bookshelf by adding your favourite eJournals and organising them across multiple bookcases. For example, you could organise them according to subject area. Note that if you are using both the web version and app version your account will sync so that you can always view an up-to-date version of your bookshelf on both versions.
Whenever there are new articles to read within an eJournal added to your bookshelf, a red icon will display on the cover image of that eJournal and the number inside that red icon will indicate how many new articles there are to be read. For example, in the screenshot below the 'Journal of Information Literacy' has 12 new articles to be read, and accessing the contents page for the eJournal reveals those unread articles are for Volume 15, Issue 2.
When using the app version of BrowZine it is recommended that you turn on 'Unread Article Notifications' to receive new article alerts. In the BrowZine app itself go to Settings and select Unread Article Notifications and Allow New Content Notifications. The app may prompt you to make adjustments in the Settings area of your device depending on your device's operating system (iOS, Android etc.). When your device is properly configured you will be alerted to new articles being published via the display of a red icon. So in the screenshot of the BrowZine app on an iOS device below, the red icon indicates there are 19 new articles available to read.
As well as browsing the issues of a particular eJournal, you can also use BrowZine to read, save and share specific journal articles. On the BrowZine app you can read and save the article within BrowZine itself. On the web version, you can either download the PDF of an article you would like to read (where the PDF is available), or link out to the article on the relevant publisher's platform.
To download the PDF of an article you would like to read, simply select the Download PDF option underneath the article in question.
To link out to the article on the relevant publisher's platform, either select the Link to Article button, or select the article title itself.
If you would to save the article within BrowZine you can do so by selecting the Save to My Articles button.
This will save the article to your My Articles space, which is accessible from the BrowZine ribbon.
Note that you will need to be logged in to your BrowZine account to use the My Articles feature. Once logged in you can save articles and organise the space by sorting the articles you save into collections.
If you would like to export an article citation into a reference management tool (for example, into EndNote Online or EndNote Desktop), you can do so using the Export Citation button. From the menu that opens, simply select the option appropriate to the reference management tool that you use (e.g. EndNote RIS, Zotero, Mendeley etc.).
It is also possible to share a link to an article within BrowZine by selecting the Share button. From here you can choose to create a copy of the article link or share a link within Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Please note that it is the article metadata that is linked to and shared, not the full text of the article itself.
Third Iron, the suppliers of BrowZine, have their own KnowledgeBase of support materials to help support users of BrowZine, including Help for BrowZine Users and BrowZine Video Tutorials. Also included are a list of publishers supported by BrowZine.
Screenshots courtesy of the suppliers concerned: products subscribed under license to University of Birmingham.