ISI Web of Science

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ISI Web of Science

• Search Notes for the Citation Indexes

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About the Web of Science

• Made up of 3 indexes
• Science Citation Index
• Social Science Citation Index
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index
• Covers 8,500 research publications
• Goes back to 1973 (or earlier, depending on your
  subscription)
• Its big. Its expensive. You will only find it
  at a major research library, but its worth being
  aware of

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Citation indexes whats special

• The significant feature of the ISI citation
  indexes is that each record includes its list of
  cited references - the bibliography - for that
  article.
• This citation information can be searched and
  used in a number of ways

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How are cited reference lists used?

• By searching on who has cited a classic paper,
  you can track the history and development of an
  idea from when it was first published, to now - a
  way to bring research forward, from old to new.
• It is also a way to find a current article - and
  by looking at its bibliography (if the items are
  linked), immediately start tracking the ideas
  back in time.

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How are cited reference lists used? (cont)

• A researcher could use this database to find out
  who is citing their work, and in what context.
• Faculty who are up for tenure can use this to
  show how many times their papers have been cited
  by others - important in proving their worth.

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How are cited reference lists used? (cont)

• Perhaps one of the most intriguing uses ISI has
  built in a feature called Related Records.
  Related records are 2 articles that have at least
  one cited reference in common. Articles that
  share 4 - 5 - or more references - are likely to
  be discussing the same topics. This is a unique
  way to locate relevant papers on a topic, that
  may not have been found with a traditional author
  or subject search.

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One more feature

• The ISI Citation Indexes include an Address
  field for where each author works, allowing you
  to track what a colleague or a competitor! at a
  specific institution is publishing.
• (as you can tell, this is a very academic
  product)

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Nuts bolts operators

• Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT
• Proximity operator SAME
• Phrases are designated with double quotes
• Truncation/wildcards
• - zero to many characters
• ? - substitutes for one character, ?? - 2
  characters, etc.
• Can be used within a word, or at the end
• Order of precedence SAME, NOT, AND, OR. Use
  parentheses to change the order.

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More nuts

• You also have Limit functions
• Specify a Language
• Or a Document Type
• This is really a form of field searching, right?
  By pulling it out and making it a labeled part of
  the interface, it helps you notice it.

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Access the Web of Science

• Today only
• Special link and username/password (so we can all
  get in at once) http//access.isiproducts.com/s
  alesUser ID tbaPassword tba case
  sensitive!
• Click ISI Web of Knowledge next screen, click
  ISI Web of Science(During the week, use the
  link in the your school names library website
  as you normally would.)

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Once you are connected

• When you connect via the libraries you wont have
  to wade thru those extra screens. Usually youll
  start at the screen we see now - where you
  choose
• First button Full Search
• Next screen Leave just Science Citation Index
  selected, (unclick the other 2) and set the years
  to 1973- now.
• Now click General Search

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A simple search

• Acid rain same adirondack? - as Topic
• Select Article as document type
• Search. (you should get )
• Explore the third one - how many references does
  it have? How many times has it been cited?
• Take a look at the Related Records - do they
  seem related/useful to you?

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A search scenario

• You are applying for the position of librarian
  for physics and astronomy at the insert school
  name here. You want to make points when you meet
  the astronomy faculty, so you see if you can find
  out what theyve been writing about. In ISI you
  search
• Topic galax
• Address approp. name same astron same state
  abbreviation

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The weird one searching a Cited Reference

• On the General Search screen, click the Cited
  Ref Search button at the top of the screen.
• You are interested in seeing how many times (and
  who most recently), has cited the classic work by
  James Watson called The Double Helix - describing
  the discovery of DNA.

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Searching a Cited Reference

• Put in
• CITED AUTHOR Watson J
• CITED WORK double helix
• CITED YEAR 1968
• Yikes! A million variations! Is this all the same
  thing? Unfortunately, yes this represents all
  the ways people have cited this work in their
  bibliographies, and every time somebody writes
  their reference little differentlyor just
  wrong!it gets its own entry.
• Select (checkbox) the 2 with the most hits on
  this page, and click the Finish Search button.

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OK, enough science-

• Click the Date DB limits button at the top of
  the screen.
• Switch to the Social Science Citation Index
  (un-check Science, check Social Science)
• Click General Search

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A search in Soc. Sci. Cit. Index

• In AUTHOR local library school faculty name
• In ADDRESS your school name same Lib
• Search!
• Take a look thru the results - what does faculy
  name mostly write about?
• Pick one of the results What articles have
  cited this one? (return to the record for this
  article) What are some of the related records?
  Are they useful or just bizarre?

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Looking up Dr. faculty names article as a
cited reference search

• Say you had simply been handed a copy of Dr.
  faculty names article on topic from article
  specified on previous slide, and you wanted to
  trace the evolution of his/her ideas, i.e. see
  who had cited this article.
• Click the Cited Ref Search button at the top of
  the screen.
• Fill in
• CITED AUTHOR lastname f
• CITED WORK source name - supply approp abbrev
• CITED YEAR year

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Dr. faculty names article as a cited reference

• On your results page, click the checkbox next to
  the (one) result, and click Search.
• This will jump you directly to articles that
  cited Dr. faculty names article.

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Emailing, printing results - 1

• Hang on to your hats - this is how it goes
• Click the checkboxes for the records you want to
  email/print/etc. on the page youre looking at
• Click the Submit Marks button
• Go to the next page of results, repeat. You must
  click Submit Marks on each page as you select
  records!
• Clicking Submit Marks causes a new button to
  appear in the top line of buttons Marked List

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Emailing, printing results - 2

• When youve marked and Submitted the Marks for
  the records you want, click the new Marked List
  button.
• This gives you all sorts of choices
• All the little checkboxes in the middle of the
  screen are additional fields you can include with
  the records. The default is author, title and
  source.
• The email function is nice it lets you put in
  your address for return address, and add a
  note.
• Other options are
• format for print, save to file, export to
  reference software