science

Web of Science

Web of Science is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Web of Science rather than just read about it. In short: The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedings, and other documents in various academic disciplines. It was originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information until 1997.

Key takeaways

Web of Science belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Web of Science to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Web of Science from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Web of Science (WoS; previously known as Web of Knowledge) is a paid-access platform that provides (typically via the internet) access to multiple databases that provide reference and citation data from academic journals, conference proceedings, and other documents in various academic disciplines. It was originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information until 1997. It is currently owned by Clarivate. Web of Science currently contains 79 million records in the core collection and 171 million records on the platform.

History A citation index is built on the fact that citations in science serve as linkages between similar research items, and lead to matching or related scientific literature, such as journal articles, conference proceedings, abstracts, etc. In addition, literature that shows the greatest impact in a particular field, or more than one discipline, can be located through a citation index. For example, a paper's influence can be determined by linking to all the papers that have cited it. In this way, current trends, patterns, and emerging fields of research can be assessed. Eugene Garfield, the "father of citation indexing of academic literature", who launched the Science Citation Index, which in turn led to the Web of Science, wrote:

Citations are the formal, explicit linkages between papers that have particular points in common. A citation index is built around these linkages. It lists publications that have been cited and identifies the sources of the citations. Anyone conducting a literature search can find from one to dozens of additional papers on a subject just by knowing one that has been cited. And every paper that is found provides a list of new citations with which to continue the search. The simplicity of citation indexing is one of its main strengths.

Coverage Expanding the coverage of Web of Science, in November 2009 Thomson Reuters introduced Century of Social Sciences. This service contains files which trace social science research back to the beginning of the 20th century, and Web of Science now has indexing coverage from the year 1900 to the present. As of February 2017, the multidisciplinary coverage of the Web of Science encompasses over a billion cited references and 90 million records, covering over 12 thousand high-impact journals, and 8.2 million records across 160 thousand conference proceedings, with 15 thousand proceedings added each year. The selection is made on the basis of impact evaluations and comprises academic journals spanning multiple academic disciplines. The coverage includes the sciences, social sciences, the arts, and humanities, and goes across disciplines. However, Web of Science does not index all journals. There is a significant and positive correlation between the impact factor and the CiteScore. However, an analysis by Elsevier, which created the journal evaluation metric CiteScore, has identified 216 journals from 70 publishers to be in the top 10 percent of the most-cited journals in their subject category based on their CiteScore, even though they did not have an impact factor. It appears that the impact factor does not provide comprehensive and unbiased coverage of high-quality journals. Similar results can be observed by comparing the impact factor with the SCImago Journal Rank. Furthermore, as of September 2014, the total file count of the Web of Science was over 90 million records, which included over 800 million cited references, covering 5.3 thousand social science publications in 55 disciplines. Titles of foreign-language publications are translated into English, and therefore, cannot be found by searches in the original language. In 2018, the Web of Science started embedding partial information about the open-access status of works, using Unpaywall data. While marketed as a global point of reference, Scopus and WoS have been characterized as "structurally biased against research produced in non-Western countries, non-English language research, and research from the arts, humanities, and social sciences". After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 11 March 2022, Clarivate – which owns the Web of Science – announced that it would cease all commercial activity in Russia and immediately close its office there.

Citation databases

The Web of Science Core Collection consists of six online indexing databases:

Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), previously entitled Science Citation Index, covers more than 9,200 journals across 178 scientific disciplines. Coverage is from 1900 to present day, with over 53 million records Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) covers more than 3,400 journals in the social sciences. Coverage is from 1900 to present, with over 9.3 million records Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) covers more than 1,800 journals in the arts and humanities. Coverage is from 1975 to present, with over 4.9 million records Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) covers more than 7,800 journals in all disciplines. Coverage is from 2005 to present, with over 3 million records Book Citation Index (BCI) covers more than 116,000 editorially selected books. Coverage is from 2005 to present, with over 53.2 million records Conference Proceedings Citation Index (CPCI) covers more than 205,000 conference proceedings. Coverage is from 1990 to present, with over 70.1 million records

Regional databases Since 2008, the Web of Science hosts a number of regional citation indices:

Chinese Science Citation Database, produced in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was the first indexing database in a language other than English SciELO Citation Index, established in 2013, covering Brazil, Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean and South Africa, and an additional 12 countries of Latin America Korea Citation Index in 2014, with updates from the National Research Foundation of Korea Russian Science Citation Index in 2015 Arabic Regional Citation Index in 2020

Contents The seven citation indices listed above contain references which have been cited by other articles. One may use them to undertake cited reference search, that is, locating articles that cite an earlier, or current publication. One may search citation databases by topic, by author, by source title, and by location. Two chemistry databases, Index Chemicus and Current Chemical Reactions allow for the creation of structure drawings, thus enabling users to locate chemical compounds and reactions.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Web of Science

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Web of Science claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Web of Science before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Web of Science ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Web of Science

In research: Web of Science appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Web of Science in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Web of Science is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bibliographic databases and indexes, Clarivate, Online databases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Web of Science outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Web of Science in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Web of Science means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Web of Science out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Web of Science in simple terms?

Why does Web of Science matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Web of Science?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Web of Science.