Guide to Web of Science

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What is Web of Science?

Web of Science is a citation database that includes three ISI Citation Databases - Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index* - which cover thousands of research journals across hundreds of disciplines. All three databases are updated weekly. Our consortial subscription goes back to 1990. The citation databases contain full bibliographic information - including author abstracts - for all significant items in every issue of the journal covered including research and review articles, book reviews, as well as corrections, additions, editorials and letters. By following footnotes, you may discover who is citing your research and how it is being used to support current research, track the research activities of colleagues, follow the history of an idea or a method from its first communication to the present day, and find relevant articles on topics that are difficult to express with a few keywords.

Searching

Search Field Rules:

Searches are NOT case sensitive.

Enter words and phrases without quotation marks.

Separate two or more terms by logical operators such as and or or.

Use quotation marks around the words and, or, not or same where these are not search operators.

Wildcards: * = zero to many characters
? = 1 Character
?? = 2 Characters

Truncation = Right and Internal. (Examples: Enzym* or Sul*ur.)
Truncation is entered with punctuation (unless parentheses)

Search words/phrases surrounded by parentheses can be replaced with a space.

Use parentheses when using different operators in the same field. Otherwise operators will be applied in the following order: same, not, and, or.

Searching Options:

Easy Search:

A simplified search based on a topic, person, or place that returns a maximum of 100 results.

• Topic:
  Search for articles based on subject matter.
  Search Field Operators = and, or, not, same
  
  
• Person:
  Search for articles by, about, or referring to the work of a specified person. Search Field Operators = and, or, not
  
  
• Place:
  Search for articles based on author addresses. Search Field Operators = and, or, not, same

Full Search:

2. Cited Reference Search
Find articles from journals that have cited a book, a patent, or another article. Through a cited reference search, you may discover how a known idea or innovation has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended or corrected.

• Cited author:
  Enter the last name of the work's first listed author. If the citation refers to a journal article covered as a source item in the Web of Science published during the times span covered, from 1990 to present, you can enter the name of any of its authors. If the name is longer than 15 characters, truncate after the fifteenth character. Follow the last name with a space and up to 3 initials. It is advisable to use only the first initial followed by an asterisk. Search Field Operators = or.

  Examples for a Cited Author Search:
  Enter "deman p*" to search for references to works where P Deman or PE Deman is a cited author.

  Enter "hambleton g* or Russell r*"* to search for references to works where either G. Hambleton or RL Russel is a cited author.

• Cited work:
  A cited work can be a maximum of 20 characters. Use the journal abbreviation list as a guide and consider other ways a journal may have been abbreviated. For a book, enter the first few characters of significance in the title. Use truncation. For patents, enter the number of the patent in the cited work field. Search Field Operators = or.

  Examples for a Cited Work Search:
  Enter "acad* med*" to look up references containing the journal title Academic Medicine.

  Enter "struc* antr*" to look up references containing the book title Structural Anthropology.

  Enter 3953566 to look up reference containing U.S. patent number 3953566.

• Cited year:
  Enter a four-digit year or series of years separated by the or operator to indicate when the work was published (for patents, use the date of issue). Search Field Operator = or.

  Example of a Cited Year Search:
  Enter "1995" to look up references to works published in 1995. Specify a range of years by using the or operator: 1994 or 1995 or 1996.

Sorting Capabilities

Prior to searching the databases, you can pre-sort your results to create a more focused list. There are 5 options: By Latest Date, By Times Cited, By Relevance, By First Author, and By Source Title.

Marked Records

The Marked Records screen displays a list of the records you have marked during the current session. You may mark records on the Search Results Summary screen by selecting the checkbox beside an article then choosing the Submit button, or the "Mark on a Full Record" screen. You can use the options on this screen to Print, Save, Export, or E-mail records.

*"Science Citation Index Expanded®, Social Sciences Citation Index® and Arts & Humanities Citation Index® : ©Institute for Scientific Information 2000"

For further assistance, please inquire at the Reference desk:
(816) 235-1534