What is BrowZine?
BrowZine is a journal platform where you can browse, read, and monitor your favourite scholarly journals that McMaster Libraries' subscribes to.
With BrowZine you can:
- Browse or search for journals of interest.
- Find articles by DOI or PMID.
- Easily scan tables of contents and read, save, share, and export articles.
- Create customizable personal bookshelves of journals.
- Save articles to customizable personal reading lists.
- Receive emails when new articles or issues are published in your favourite journals.
- Access and read journal articles via PC, mobile device, tablet, or e-reader
Getting started
Step 1: Access the McMaster University homepage for BrowZine. You can use the BrowZine search bar below to search for a journal or use this URL: https://browzine.com/libraries/281
Step 2: Sign up for a BrowZine account in order to take advantage of personalized, customizable features like "My Bookshelf", "My Articles", and to set up email notifications for when new articles are made available from your favourite publications.
Step 3: Start Browsing! You can browse by listed subject, or use the search function to look up a journal by title, subject, or ISSN.
Note: BrowZine is unable to display journal issues that were published before 2005.
BrowZine has an app that is available to download for mobile devices and tablets that use Android, iOS, or Fire OS.
How to set up the BrowZine app on your device:
- Download the BrowZine app from your device's app store.
- Launch the app and under "Choose a Library" enter "McMaster University".
- Selecting "McMaster University" will direct you to the Off-Campus Access Login page where you can enter your MacID credentials.
- You will then be prompted to sign in using your BrowZine account. If you have not created a BrowZine account, you can choose to sign up and create an account.
- Once you have created a BrowZine account, you will be asked to confirm your email address
- Start using BrowZine to search for journals and read the latest issues!
What is "My Bookshelf"?
"My Bookshelf" is the area within BrowZine where you can organize your favourite journals so you can receive updates on the release of new issues and access them quickly.
In order to take advantage of the "My Bookshelf" feature on BrowZine, you need to create or sign into your account on the platform.
Once you have signed in, you can access the feature by selecting the "My Bookshelf" link in the header menu at the top of the site on the web. For those using the app, the "My Bookshelf" tab is located at the bottom on the screen on the far left side.
How many titles can be stored on "My Bookshelf"?
You can store up to 64 journals on My Bookshelf: 16 in each of the four bookcases available, with a maximum of four on each bookshelf.
Adding journals to "My Bookshelf"
While looking at a journal you are interested in on BrowZine, click on the journal and press the "add to my bookshelf" button below the journal title
Once you click this button the title will be added to the next available open slot on "My Bookshelf".
How to organize and remove journals in "My Bookshelf"
To move a journal on your bookshelf in BrowZine Web, hover your cursor over the journal's cover image until a small icon appears in the top-right corner:
Clicking this should open several options — choose "Move...":
After you choose the "Move..." option, grey boxes will appear showing you potential places you can move the journal to.
Clicking one of these grey boxes moves the journal to that location. You can also click a different bookcase from the menu on the left and should see the same grey boxes shown on the new shelves.
What is "My Articles"
"My Articles" is a feature which allows you to save articles you find on the Web, iOS or Android versions of BrowZine into one or many collections. These collections then sync across all of the devices you are using via your BrowZine Account.
How to save to "My Articles"
To get started, simply find an article you are interested in and click the folder icon below it to save it to "My Articles":
You will then be shown a menu where you can choose which collection you wish to save it to:
Note: if you are not currently signed in with your BrowZine Account, you will first be asked to sign into (or create) your BrowZine Account and will then be returned to the "add article" screen.
By default, the "General" collection is always selected and every user has one. The "General" collection can be renamed to whatever the user would like, but cannot be deleted as it acts as the default collection.
You can also create a new collection when saving an article (and save the article to that collection) using the "Add Collection" option at the bottom of the list. You may need to scroll to see it depending on the number of collections you have.
Once saved, the article, in expanded form, will always note which collection(s) the article is saved in the for the user and will provide a quick link directly to that collection.
Additional information on how to use "My Articles" feature on BrowZine web and app
Email alerts in BrowZine both deliver a proactive alert and a summary of which journals have new articles available.
How to set up email notifications in BrowZine:
For BrowZine on a web browser: settings can be found on the right side of the screen in the top corner. You will see your email account beside a settings icon.
On the BrowZine app:settings can be found on the right bottom corner of the screen. You will see a menu tab called "My Settings".
On the BrowZine User Settings page, the email notifications setting will be at the top of the list of options. Notifications by email can be set to by selecting the drop down menu on the right side of the menu. Notifications can be set to either be received daily, weekly, or can be turned off.
