Collection Spotlight: Cast a wide net with Web of Science
by Marianne Donley, Physical Sciences Librarian
Don’t be fooled by the name. Web of Science is a database which scholars of all disciplines, not just the sciences, can use to find the latest research in their field. Like Scopus or Dimensions, Web of Science covers research literature at large. It indexes citations from a wide range of scholarly communications, including preprints and open access journals, dissertations, conference proceedings, books, patents and policy documents. Where Web of Science stands apart is in how it uses these citations to give searchers a wider, more interdisciplinary view of the conversation around a topic or work.
Web of Science indexes every citation in the reference section of journal articles it covers. While these citations often refer to other journal articles or books, they can also refer to works of art, films, musical pieces, laws and even social media posts like Tweets. Using Web of Science’s Cited Reference Search, scholars can see who is referencing a particular work—in any research area included in its databases. Wondering how scholars from outside your discipline are interpreting your work? Cited Reference Search gives you a snapshot of the wider conversation around a topic across fields and formats.
Web of Science also allows scholars to compare different works that cite many of the same sources in its Related Records view. This search allows users to quickly find other scholarship in their research niche, and see what others are citing that they may have missed. It’s a quick way to start an environmental scan or literature review, or to find potential collaborators or research mentors.
While Web of Science doesn’t index every journal in every topic, it’s a wide ranging tool that includes global and emerging research and can jump start literature searches in many disciplines. To learn more about searching Web of Science, check out the videos and articles on the Web of Science help center, or ask your subject librarian.
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