Yuki Fujishima

I am a walrus.

2 minute read

Journal Article Tracker

A Feedly-like page to track and display articles from your favorite scientific journals. Articles are automatically fetched from RSS feeds and updated daily via GitHub Actions.

How It Works

1. Configuration (_data/journals.yml)

Defines the list of journals to track, including:

  • Journal name
  • Journal website URL
  • RSS feed URL
  • Display color

Add or remove journals by editing this file.

2. RSS Feed Fetcher (scripts/fetch_articles.rb)

Ruby script that:

  • Reads the journals configuration
  • Fetches articles from each journal’s RSS feed
  • Extracts title, authors, publication date, and description
  • Saves articles to _data/articles.yml (max 20 articles per journal)
  • Sorts articles by date (newest first)

3. GitHub Actions Workflow (.github/workflows/fetch-articles.yml)

Automated CI/CD pipeline that:

  • Runs daily at 12:00 PM UTC (customizable via cron syntax)
  • Can also be triggered manually via GitHub’s UI
  • Runs the fetch script
  • Commits updated articles back to the repository
  • Automatically triggers Jekyll to rebuild your site

4. Display Page (_pages/journal-tracker.md)

Jekyll page that:

  • Renders articles grouped by journal
  • Shows title, authors, publication date
  • Links to the full article
  • Updates automatically when articles are fetched

Setup Instructions

First Time Setup

  1. Push this code to your GitHub repository
  2. Ensure GitHub Actions is enabled (Settings → Actions)
  3. The workflow will run automatically on schedule OR you can manually trigger it:
    • Go to Actions → “Fetch Journal Articles” → Run workflow

To Test Manually

On GitHub:

  1. Go to Actions tab
  2. Select “Fetch Journal Articles” workflow
  3. Click “Run workflow” button
  4. Wait for it to complete and check for commits

To Add/Remove Journals

Edit _data/journals.yml:

- name: "Journal Name"
  url: "https://journal-website.com"
  feed: "https://journal-website.com/rss.xml"
  color: "#FF6B6B"

Find RSS feed URLs by looking for RSS/Atom links on journal homepages.

To Change Update Schedule

Edit .github/workflows/fetch-articles.yml, line with cron:

- cron: '0 12 * * *'  # Daily at 12:00 PM UTC

Cron syntax reference

File Structure

.github/
└── workflows/
    └── fetch-articles.yml      # GitHub Actions workflow
_data/
├── journals.yml                # Journal configuration
└── articles.yml                # Generated article data
_pages/
└── journal-tracker.md          # Display page
scripts/
└── fetch_articles.rb           # RSS fetching script

Troubleshooting

Articles not updating?

  1. Check Actions tab for workflow errors
  2. Verify RSS feed URLs are correct and accessible
  3. Try running workflow manually to see error messages

Missing articles?

  • Some journals may have feeds that don’t include all metadata
  • The script extracts up to 3 authors per article
  • Articles are limited to 20 most recent from each journal

Page shows “Articles are loading”?

  • The workflow hasn’t run yet
  • Manually trigger it via Actions tab
  • Wait for the workflow to complete

Dependencies

The GitHub Actions workflow automatically installs Ruby and required gems. No additional setup needed on your end.