  An appealing direction to change the properties of strongly correlated
materials is to induce nonequilibrium steady states by the application of a
direct current. While access to these novel states is of high scientific
interest, Joule heating due to current flow often constitutes a hurdle to
identify nonthermal effects. The biggest challenge usually resides in measuring
accurately the temperature of a sample subjected to direct current, and to use
probes that give direct information of the material. In this work, we exploit
the simultaneous measurement of electrical transport and magnetisation to probe
non-equilibrium steady states in Ca2RuO4. In order to reveal non-thermal
current-induced effects, we employ a simple model of Joule self-heating to
remove the effects of heating and discuss the importance of temperature
inhomogeneity within the sample. Our approach provides a solid basis for
investigating current-induced phenomena in highly resistive materials.
