Web of Science
From WolfWikis
Available through NCSU Libraries
This page is being updated Summer 2008. The new WoS interface has gone live and I'm updating the wiki to reflect the changes. In the meantime, check Tips on using Web of Science written by NCSU Librarians for common questions, or contact me for help.
Web of Science is a broad database for literature searching and citation tracking in the sciences. It is part of ISI's Web of Knowledge platform. It actually contains three indexes:
- Science Citation Index (SCI) (where most science articles will be indexed)
- Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)
Historically, researchers knew this resource as Science Citation Index, as these were the names of the printed volumes. "Web of Science" is simply the electronic product that allows you to search that data, but also includes the SSCI and AHCI. You do not have to specify which of the Indexes you want to search--by default Web of Science searches all three--although you can deselect SSCI and AHCI if you wish. Typically, the only reason to bother changing the default is if you are searching by author name and are getting too many false hits.
To take advantage of features described below, make sure you are searching only Web of Science, not across databases. You can tell looking at the tabs along the top of the screen. If you see the Web of Science tab and it's selected (white), you're set. Otherwise, click the Select a Database tab to choose it.
Contents |
General search
You can do general searching (normal or Advanced) to find articles. Search by topic keyword, author, title, etc. You may wish to refine results further, particularly if you get too many results to easily review. Some ways to trim your results list:
- Enter more keywords in the refining box to search within the results
- Select particular subject areas or document types (such as review articles)
- Use the Analyze tool
- For author searches, include both initials or an address to more accurately specify author(s). (More help with this.)
You may alternatively wish to EXPAND your results, if you get fewer than expected, or to ensure the most complete search possible. Some ways to do this:
- Use wild cards in your keywords by adding an asterisk onto suffixes. For example, instead of electrochemistry, search for electrochem*. This captures anything with electrochem- as a stem: electrochemistry, electrochemical.
- Use more general keywords that describe the research more broadly.
Getting full text articles
Look for these buttons near each article citation:
- The left button should appear with all articles. You will recognize this button from other NCSU databases. It functions the same way, linking you to any subscription we have to the journal.
- The right button is specific to Web of Science. This should function the same way as the NCSU tool, and in many cases will get you to article text a step or two sooner than the NCSU tool.
Clicking either of these should get you to the actual article in most cases, provided the NCSU Libraries have an online subscription. If we don't, the left button should get you as far as the library catalog. This will help you determine if we've got the journal in print instead. If not, Web of Science should have given you the citation information, which you can use for a Tripsaver request.
Cited reference search
Cited reference searching is a method of obtaining a list of cited papers for a given author within Web of Science.
See Cited reference search for more detailed help and screenshots.
Citation tracking
Citation tracking is one of the key strengths of the Web of Science database.
See this post from the PES News blog for more discussion and screenshots.
Creating citation alerts
Citation alerts enable you to receive e-mail notification when new articles appear in the database that match your search criteria. So instead of returning to Web of Science every week to conduct the same search again to find new articles, you can wait until something shows up in the database and be alerted.
Check this PES News post for details and screenshots.
Search history
The search history feature can help review results, redo recent searches, and combine searches. Click Search History to access what you've done so far in a session.
You can see all the searches you've completed, with the number of results. Click on the results number to redo the search. You can combine results sets on this screen by checking the combine boxes, selecting the type of combination, and clicking Combine. Here I've combined #1 and #5 to create a new set:
You can also use the search history to create citation alerts (see previous section) or save your work (see the next section).
Saving your searches
Check this PES News post for details of some of the ways you can save your search, and screenshots.