The University of Adelaide Library

Engineering information resources

Some hints on using Web of Science

This index is based on the premise that the references to previously published material which an author cites in an article, indicate a subject relationship between that article and the cited papers. If you have a useful reference for your topic, you may be able to trace other articles which cite, or refer to, the same paper.
The notes below offer some suggestions for basic, effective searches on Web of Science from an engineering perspective.
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Web of science. 1980-
Web of Science is comprised of 3 databases,

Science citation index expanded (SCI), emphasis is on the pure sciences and medicine, but includes an increasing amount of applied science and engineering

Social sciences citation index (SSCI), includes social impact of technology, city planning, sustainable development, urban studies

Art & humanities citation index (A&HCI), includes ethics, aesthetics, design

Starting

The same search strategy applies to all sections. At the Web of Science home page click on Full Search, at the Full Search page, click the box next to the database name(s) for the database most suitable for your topic, then select the period to be searched, or leave at the default for All years.

Searching

Click on CITED REF SEARCH to search for articles that cite an author or article that you specify.
In the AUTHOR: bar, type the person's last name, a space, and initials (with no space between the initials). followed by an asterisk, eg - YOUNG IR*
Click on SEARCH to bring up the first ten of the references to your author's work, showing the number of Hits (references to the work) and the Cited Work (abbreviated title of the journal or conference name), Volume and Page number. The results are arranged alphabetically by the abbreviated title of the journal or conference name, eg -

YOUNG IR 2 INT C AIR SEA INT
YOUNG IR 2ND M SOC MAGN RES S
YOUNG IR AIR SEA INTERFACE
YOUNG IR AM J NEURORADIOL
YOUNG IR APPL OCEAN RES 16 283
YOUNG IR APPL OCEAN RES 16 235
YOUNG IR APPL OCEAN RES 16 283

NOTE - the list does not distinguish between authors with the same name from different disciplines.
NOTE - often there is more than one entry for the same reference; compare the first and third lines above, and compare the last three lines.

Click in the check box to the left of each line to select specific references from the list. From the bottom of the screen, click on the page number or click the right arrowhead, to move to the next 20 references. When you have selected all desired references (including variants) from the total list, press SEARCH to find articles that cite the selected references.

Cited Reference Search Results

Click on the title of a paper to get the Full Record, including an abstract where available. For papers from journals to which the Library has a subscription, you will be able to link to the full text of the article.
Above the details of the article citing your author, are links to Cited References (the list of references at the end of the paper, (including the paper by Young IR) and Times Cited and a button to FIND RELATED RECORDS, that is a list of other papers which share references in common with the paper citing your author. You may want to follow these links to see what else has been written that is related to your topic.

Alternatively, from the list of results, Mark relevant references by clicking in the box to the left of each title. When you have finished selecting records, click on SUBMIT MARKS to show the set of selected references. For details of individual papers, follow the procedures above.

Click on NEXT, PREVIOUS, go back to SUMMARY or RETURN TO SEARCH.

Output

Click on MARKED LIST to create a set of selected references. The PRINT, SAVE or EMAIL options along the top of the screen are then activated, click on the appropriate button.

Web of Science offers some additional search options, use with care and consider that a specialised database may give better results for searching for engineering topics.

Use GENERAL SEARCH to search for articles by subject term, author name, journal title, or author affiliation. Enter individual search terms or phrases separated by search operators such as operators, AND or OR then press SEARCH.

To find articles on a TOPIC: Enter terms to find from the article title, keywords, or abstract.
Click in the small box at the end of the TOPIC: search bar to restrict the search to words from an article title only.
Mark relevant references by clicking in the box to the left of author name. When you have finished selecting records, click on SUBMIT to create a set of selected references.
Click on the title of a paper to get the full record. At an individual record follow the links from RELATED RECORDS as above, or click on NEXT, PREVIOUS or Cited References or go back to SUMMARY.

To find articles by a particular AUTHOR: Enter one or more author names as SMITH AB

To find articles from a particular journal use SOURCE TITLE: Enter words from journal title or select from list. Click on list, select all versions of the abbreviated title for the relevant journal(s), then SEARCH.

To find articles by authors from a particular institution use ADDRESS: Enter words from an author's affiliation (abbreviations list). Click on (abbreviations list), select all versions of the abbreviated name of the institution, then SEARCH.

Please click on LOG OFF to end the search session.

For citation searching for earlier years

Science citation index. 1970-1993
Reference collection 505 S41045
Science citation index consists of three separate indexes, the Citation Index listing the cited articles (by author), the Source Index a listing by author of the articles from which the citations are collected, and the Permuterm (subject) Index based on significant words in the titles of source articles.

If you need help with either of these versions, see the Engineering Librarian.