Web of Science

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The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) citation indexes are the best sources for identifying which articles have cited a particular article, book, or other work. Recently, ISI has made their citation indexes available over the web through a service called Web of Science. Prior to the introduction of Web of Science, citation indexes were published in print and CD-ROM format. Gelman's holdings for the citation indexes are as follows:

Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI)

The new "expanded" version of SCI indexes more than 5,700 major journals across 164 scientific disciplines, approximately 2,100 more journals than were indexed in the CD-ROM and print versions.

• Web of Science: 1992-present
• Print: 1979-1994. Q1.S32 (6th Floor)

Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)

Indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines.

• Web of Science: 1992-present
• Print: 1966-1995. Ref AI3.R4922

Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI)

Indexes 1,144 arts and humanities journals

• Web of Science: 1992-present
• Print: 1975-1995. Ref AI3.A632

To Access Web of Science

1. Go to the ALADIN Research Portal (http://aladin.wrlc.org).
   

2. In middle column, click on Databases by Title.
   

3. On the next page, click on the letter 'W' in the horizontal alphabet.
   

4. In the full list of the Ws, locate Web of Science, and click on the database name to open it.

5. On the Web of Science homepage, click on ISI Web of Science under "Cross-searchable products" (See Figure 1).

*Note: If you are logging in from an off-campus computer, you will have to log on to ALADIN to be allowed access to the ALADIN Databases. In the first box, type in your last name. In the Patron ID box, type in either your institutional ID number or Library User Barcode number, located on the back of your GWorld card and beginning with the numbers 22882. For the Institution, select George Washington from the dropdown box. Finish by clicking Continue.

To Search Web of Science

1. On the Web of Science homepage, click on Full Search.
   
   

2. On the "Full Search / Date & Database Limits" page, select the index(es) and date range you want to search (See Figure 2), then click on the Cited Ref Search button. As a general guideline, it's best to search all indexes and all years.

3. On the "Cited Reference Search" page, enter the cited author's name (See Figure 3). Keep these hints in mind:
   1. It's best to search under the first author's name. For recent years, cited articles are indexed under co-authors' names, but for earlier years, cited articles were indexed only under the first author.
   2. Enter the author's name in this format: last name space first initial asterisk. For example, handel m*
   3. If you are absolutely certain that the author has published all of his/her work with a middle initial, you can use this format: last name space first initial middle initial. For example: handel ma
   4. Over the years, ISI has indexed non-alphanumeric characters, e.g., the apostrophe in O'Brian or spaces in de la Rosa, in different ways. To search effectively across multiple years of data, enter all variations on a name. For example: o'brian c* OR obrian c*
   5. Always leave the Cited Work field blank. There may be slight variations in how journal abbreviations are entered in Web of Science. Leaving this field blank will ensure that your results include all variations.
   6. As a general rule, it's best to leave the Cited Year field blank. If you're dealing with a very prolific author and/or an author with a common last name and want to search for citations to a specific work by that author, enter the year the cited work was published in the Cited Year field.
      
      

4. Click the Lookup button. This displays a list of works by the author that have been cited in journals indexed by ISI (See Figure 4).
   1. "?quot; in front of the author's name indicates the person is not the first author.
   2. Hyperlinked entries lead to the full reference and abstract for the citing article.
   
   

5. Click in the boxes of those citations you wish to view or click the Select Page button to select all citations on the page. References are displayed 20 per page. Use the forward/backward arrows to display subsequent pages. After you've selected all desired references, click the Search button.

6. This displays the "Cited Reference Search Results-Summary," (See Figure 5) which is a list of articles that have cited the selected work(s). Click on the article title to view the full reference and abstract on the "Search Results -- Full Record" page (See Figure 6). Only citing articles published after 1999 are displayed. To obtain references for earlier years, use the CD-ROM or print versions of the appropriate citation index.
7. From this page, click on Cited References to see a list of sources cited in this article (Note: these citations do not include article titles). Click on the Find Related Records button to see a list of sources whose cited reference lists include at least one of the sources cited by the article whose title appears at the top of this page.

To Print, Save, or E-mail Search Results

1. For each citation you want to print, save, or e-mail, click in the checkbox next to the citation (See Figure 7). To select all citations on the page, click the Mark Page button; to select all citations from the search, click Mark All.

2. After you've selected all the citations you want to print or save, click the Submit Marks button. Notice that a "Marked List" button now appears in the menu bar at the top of the page. You can continue to add citations to your Marked List. Your list will be saved until you exit the database.

3. When you're ready to obtain the output of your search, click the Marked List button at the top of the screen. This will display a list of all marked citations.

4. At the top of the page, select the sort option and output fields (See Figure 8).

5. Click on the purple buttons to select your output format (print, save to disk, export to reference software (such as EndNote), or e-mail).

To Exit Web of Science

GW's license allows only 1 person at a time to use Web of Science, so be sure to log out when you're finished searching. Click the Log Out button on the menu bar at the very top of the display.

Return to Database Guides page.

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