Q: How do I use the Analyze Records feature?
A: The results analysis extracts data values from a field you select and then produces a report showing the values in ranked order.
To perform a results analysis:
- Click the Analyze Results button on any Summary Results page to go to the Results Analysis page.
- Select a field to analyze from the drop-down list box.
- Select the number of records in the set to be analyzed. Default is the first 500 records, or you can analyze the entire set, up to 100,000 records.
- Select a display option.
- Select a sort option. "Record count" ranks the values from high to low, according to the number of records in which each value appears. "Selected field" sorts the list in ascending alphabetical (A-Z) or numeric (0-9) order.
Q: What is a Citation Alert and how do I create one?
A: A citation alert notifies you by e-mail whenever a record you choose has been cited by a new record when it is added to the database.
To create a Citation Alert you must first register and sign in. Next, perform a search in a ISI Web of Knowledge product and go to the full record. On the right side of the page is a button labeled "Create Citation Alert". Clicking this link will add the record to your Citation Alerts list on the home page of ISI Web of Knowledge. Currently, Citation Alerts are available in most ISI Web of Knowledge products however a subscription to Web of Science is required.
Q: How do I make changes to my existing citation alerts?
A: After you log into ISI Web of Knowledge, you will find the "My Citation Alerts" link on the right in the "My Web of Knowledge" section of the home page of ISI Web of Knowledge . If you have created a citation alert, clicking on this link will bring you to "My Cited Articles List". From this page click on the Modify Settings button. On the next screen you can de-select the "Send me Citation Alert" setting, change your email address, change the email file format or remove the citation alert from the list.
Q: How do I limit by a range of years in a Cited Reference search?
A: If you want to find out how many times a particular article was cited within a certain range of years, follow these instructions:
- First go to the bottom of the page and locate 'Current Limits: [Change limits and settings]. Click on the Change Limits and settings link to make changes to the Timespan that you want to limit your search to.
- In Web of Science, click the "Cited Reference Search" link.
- Insert the name of the author you wish to search, followed by the cited publication name if know. In the bottom text box type in the year range in the following format: yyyy-yyyy, and click the "Search" button.
- This will bring you to a page containing a listing all of the papers that cited your search. Select (by checking the little box to the left of the author's name) the citations that you wish to see, and click the "Finish Search" button.
- You will then see the summary records of the papers that cited your search terms in the year range that you specified. Please note that the number of citations you retrieve may or may not match the number of citations in the "hits" column, as the "hits" lists citations for the entire database and does not take into account any specifically selected year ranges or your institution's subscription.
Q: What is the maximum number of records that can be retrieved by a search?
A: Up to 100,000 records can be returned by a search. If the search retrieved more than 100,000 records, the number of results will be shown as >100,000, and only the first 100,000 will be displayed.
Q: How do I save a search history in Web of Science?
A: First, perform a search in either the Search or Advanced Search mode. If you use Search, click the button for "Search History" to view your search statements. In the Advanced Search mode the Search History can be viewed by scrolling down. Click the "Save History/Create Alert" button to save the statements. You can either save the search history to your computer's hard drive, or to the ISI Web of Knowledge server, where it will be available each time you log into ISI Web of Knowledge. Please note that you must be signed in with your email address and password to save your history to the server.
Q: How many search statements may I save as a search history?
A: Users may save up to 20 search statements within each search history.
Q: What is an alert and how do I set one up?
A: Provided that your institution subscribes to our alerting service, you can set up a weekly or monthly alert in Web of Science. Alerts are e-mails sent to you with new data based on your search preferences.
To set up an alert, sign in to the Web of Science, and perform your search. Click on the “Search History” link, then click the "Save History/Create Alert" button. Under "Save on the ISI Web of Knowledge Server" enter a name and description for the alert. Check the box next to "Send Me E-mail Alerts." Enter your e-mail address and specify the type of alert you'd like to receive. The alert type default is set at "biblio". If you want to change this, click the arrow by alert type and select the type you want. Select either a "Weekly" or "Monthly" email frequency. Click "save" then click “Done”.
Depending on which product you have created your alert, there are now different email frequencies that can be selected. For Web of Science, there is a weekly or monthly option.
The name of your alert will display on the ISI Web of Knowledge page under "Open/Manage Saved Searches" along with status note, indicating that alerting is active. In the "Open/Manage Saved Searches" area, you are able to update, renew, or delete your alert.
Q: What search aids are available to help me in doing either a General Search or a Cited Reference Search?
A: There are aids available for searching the author index, group author index, and publication name index to assist you in your search on the Search page. These appear as small magnifying glasses next to the search term drop box whenever author, group author, or publication name is chosen. In a Cited Reference Search an author index and a cited work index are available in addition to the Thomson ISI journal abbreviation list.
Q: What is a Group Author?
A: A group author is an organization or institution that is credited with authorship of an article by the source publication. The name of a group author may take the place of a list of author names if the number of author names is very large (that is, over 400).
Q: How are article numbers displayed in Web of Science?
A: In the Search results summary pages, article numbers are displayed as part of the bibliographic information (usually in the form Art. No. XXX). On the Cited Reference search results pages, article identification numbers will be displayed under the column labeled “Article ID.” In full records Article numbers are displayed in the bibliographic information as Art. No. XXX.
Q: I am attempting an Advanced Search for a phrase that contains an equal sign (=) or a number sign (#) and am receiving an error.
A: The number sign (#) and equal sign (=) have special meaning in Advanced Search; the number sign is used in set combinations while the equal sign is used in conjunction with field tags. Do not use the number (#) sign or equal (=) sign as part of a phrase. Instead, replace them with spaces. For example: TI=(S=183) will return an error message. TI=(S 183) will return all records with S adjacent to 183 in the title field.
Q: Is "near" supported as an operator in Web of Science?
A: No, "near" is not supported as a Boolean operator. You can, however, use “near” within journal title and author name searches.
Q: How do I download the Chemistry plug-in?
A: The structure-drawing chemistry plug-in can be downloaded from the “Structure Search” page of Web of Science for Windows only. From Web of Science search page, clicking on the “Structure Search” link will display the notice to download the plug-in . Clicking on the link takes you to the Help file where you will find the following steps:
- Click here to download the plug-in.
- The plug-in will be downloaded in a file with this name: Wos_ChemistryPlugin.exe. When you download the file, make a note where the file is stored.
- Run the program. Wos_ChemistryPlugin.exe
- Follow the prompts to install the plug-in.
- Click the Log out button to log out of Web of Science.
- Re-open your browser and type the appropriate URL to establish a new Web of Science session. You should now be able to draw structures.
Q: Will I be able to use the Chemistry plug-in with my Macintosh?
A: Please note that the plug-in is no longer available for Macintosh computers. Web of Science no longer supports structure searching on Macintosh computers. It is compatible with Windows only.
Q: Why don't I see any chemistry editions within Web of Science?
A: Please check with your library to see if your institution subscribes to the Chemistry edition in Web of Science. If your library does subscribe to the Chemistry editions and they are unavailable (clicking on the “Hide Limits and Settings” link will allow you to select them), contact your local Customer Technical Support Team.
Q: Does Thomson Reuters display DOIs for Web of Science records?
A: Some electronic journals use digital object identifiers (DOIs) in place of, or sometimes in conjunction with, page numbers (PN) and article numbers (AN). The DOI will appear in the Full Record display, Cited Reference Index, Related Records, and Shared References. A Cited DOI will appear in the Cited Reference Index list if there is no Cited Page Number or Cited Article Number.
Q: What is Author Finder?
A: Author Finder is a tool that makes it easier to find papers written by a particular author. This is especially true for authors that have common names. Author Finder is accessed from Web of Science Search page by clicking on the link labeled “Author Finder.”
Q: How do I use Author Finder?
A: Author Finder is a four step process. After clicking on the Author Finder link:
- Enter Author Name and Click Next
- The following page will display name variants. You can select variants to increase or focus results.
- Select a subject category for the author.
- Select an institution for the author.
Please note that at any time during the four steps you can click the “Finish Now” button and be taken to the results set based on the criteria chosen.
Q: Why am I getting so many results that do not seem pertinent to my search when searching in the topic field?
A: The search syntax has been revised and the implied search operator has changed from ADJ (adjacency) to AND. Previously, a search on heart attack would have retrieved results with the phrase heart attack. Now, the result set will include all records that contain the words heart and attack anywhere in the record. If you want the result set to include the phrase heart attack, place the phrase in double quotes; “heart attack”. The change in the implied search operator will only effect the topic field and title searches.
Q: How will the implied AND search operator affect my saved searches and/or email alerts.
A: Your saved searches and email alerts will continue to work properly without any adjustments being made to the. If, however, you update your saved search, the saved search will have to follow the new rules.
Q: The implied AND search operator retrieves too many results. How can I narrow my result set?
A: You can search on a phrase by placing the term in double quotes as mentioned above. You can also run the search and then use our ‘Refine Your Results’ feature to narrow down the search results.
Q: Does Web of Science support Full Author Names?
A: We are currently only capturing full author names for newly indexed articles. Web of Science still requires that you search by last name and initial(s) and will not allow you to search by full author name.
You can view full author names, if they exist, in 3 places: The Full Record Page, Record Output (Print, Save, Email) and Alerts.
On the full record page, the full author name will appear in parenthesis next to the abbreviated author name. For emailed results, email alerts and saved text files, there will be a separate field for the full author name: 'AF' or 'Author Full Name' depending on the output format that you have selected.
Q: What is Citation Report?
A: Frequently Asked Questions for Citation Report can be found at: http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/support/faq/wok3new/citationreport
Q: What is the Distinct Author Identification System?
A: Frequently Asked Questions for the Distinct Author Identification System can be found at: http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/support/faq/wok3new/dais
Q: Is BibTeX supported for exporting results?
A: BibTeX (a tool for formatting lists of references) is an output option for users of LaTeX. A plain text file with a ".bib" extension, the BibTeX output option is available only for Web of Science articles (WoS Chem and non-WoS products do not get the BibTeX entry) from the Quick Output and Marked List Output options.
Q: What is the new Exclude functionality and where can it be used?
A: The Exclude feature allows you to remove unwanted records from the results set. Exclude functionality has been added to both the Analyze and Refine tools within ISI Web of Knowledge.
