How to search Web of Science

The Web of Science database is a multidisciplinary academic database that provides access to an extensive collection of high quality research articles, conference papers and more. It is especially helpful when researching topics that combine different subject areas (e.g. Business and Computer Science).

Beth Paton
29 steps
4 minutes

Oclc

Libkey

Getting started with Advanced Search

Follow the link to [Web of Science](https://www-webofscience-com.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/wos/alldb/basic-search). You may be prompted to enter your Brookes login (student number and password). This is the **Advanced Search** screen, which is the default searching option. It is set up to search **Web of Science Core Collection** by default, but you can change this if you wish by clicking on the arrow next to the title.

The default search option for each search box is **Topic**, which will search across the titles, abstracts and indexed keywords of articles in the database. Click on the arrow next to Topic to see a drop-down menu of other options (e.g. Title, Author).

For this example search, we will look for the phrase **"artificial intelligence" OR AI** in Topic, as we want to include the full phrase or the abbreviation in our search. Use double quotation marks ("...") to search for a phrase instead of individual words.

To add more keywords or phrases to your search, click **Add row.** When planning your search, it is good practice to choose one main concept or idea for each row, then include varied spellings, abbreviations, phrasing etc. in each one.

In this example, we will set the search option to **Topic** for our second row as well.

In the second row, we will add the phrase "supply chain". The default connector between rows is **And**. This will search for both of your keywords/phrases together. If you want to search for one or the other, you can click on the arrow and select **Or**. To exclude a term from your search, select **Not**. You can find more information about choosing keywords and structuring your search in our [Search Strategies](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/a9e5e32b-8b80-4435-a193-a3156f8ba202/1/Super%20search%20strategies.pdf) guide.

To limit your search by date, click **Add date range.**

Click **Publication Date** to open the drop-down menu. You can choose one of the preset options (e.g. Last 5 years) or enter a custom date range.

Once you have added all of your search terms, click **Search.**

Using search filters

This search has returned over 3000 results, so we will need to narrow this down further. You will see a list of filter options under **Refine results** on the left-hand side of the screen.

For example, we can filter by **Document Types** (e.g. Article )...

...or **Research Areas** (e.g. Business Economics). Click **Refine** to include only these options, or **Exclude** to remove them from the results list.

You can remove a filter by clicking the X next to it at the top of the screen, or click **Clear all** to remove all the filters.

The results are sorted by **Relevance** by default, but you can click on the arrow next to it at the top-right of the screen to see a drop-down menu of other options (e.g. Date: newest first).

If you would like to edit your search, click in the search box at the top of the screen.

In this example, we have added the term **strateg\***. This is called truncation, which allows us to include word variations such as strategy, strategies, strategic, etc. in one search. Click **Search** once you have finished editing. See our [Search Strategies](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/a9e5e32b-8b80-4435-a193-a3156f8ba202/1/Super%20search%20strategies.pdf) guide for more ways you can edit and improve your search as you go.

Using Smart Search

Web of Science recently added **Smart Search**, an AI tool which uses natural language searching. This is useful for quick searches, but it is less accurate than Advanced Search, as it won't let you specify which collection or which fields (e.g. Title, Topic) you are searching. It is also difficult to replicate a search (i.e. if you perform the same search at a later date, it can produce very different results). This is our example search: "what is the effect of AI on supply chain management?"

The results page looks the same as in Advanced Search, and you can use the same filters on the left-hand side to narrow down your results (see [Using search filters](https://scribehow.com/viewer/How_to_search_Web_of_Science__f6MlLSpuTj6eXcnPHqPULA?scrollToActionId=03bd4221)).

Analysing your search results

Once you have a more manageable list of results, you will need to decide which articles to read for your research. As well as the article titles, you can check the **abstract,** which gives a summary of the content (click **Show more** to view), the **publication** **date** and in which **journal title** it is published. \ \ If you find an article in your results list that looks promising, click on the title to view more details.

On the article page you will see more details about the authors, publication and abstract. You will also see keywords tagged in the article, which could be useful for your future searches. Under **Citation Network** you will see more information about how many times the article has been cited, how many references it contains, and options to see related papers or compare its performance (i.e. number of citations) to similar articles. If an article has a lot of citations, this can be an indication that other researchers have found it useful. However, this is not a guarantee of quality on its own, and you will still need to read it to make sure it is relevant to your topic.

Unlike other databases like Business Source Complete, there isn't a filter for Peer Review. The majority of journals indexed by Web of Science are peer reviewed, but if you want to double check, you can click through to the journal homepage under **Journal information** on the article details page. This will tell you if the journal has a peer review policy.

Reading and downloading articles

To access the full text of an article, select **Full text at publisher** at the top of the page.

If Brookes has full text access to this content, you should be able to read the article on the publisher page. If you have [LibKey Nomad](https://brookeslibrarynews.blog/2021/03/02/what-is-libkey-nomad/) installed, it will show a pop-up icon in the bottom left of the screen to indicate if Brookes has access, and to let you download a PDF of the article. **Please note**: If you see a message saying that Brookes does **not** have full text access, you may be able to request the article from another library (see our [Go Further, Get More](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources-and-services/go-further-get-more) page for options).

Export options and EndNote

To share via email or export an article, click **Export**. You will see a number of options in the drop-down menu. If you have an EndNote online account, you can add articles from Web of Science directly to your library by selecting **EndNote online**. This is because Web of Science and EndNote are both owned by the company Clarivate.

You can export one article at a time or a range of selected articles. Choose Record Content (e.g. Full Record or just a selection of fields), which Group you want to save it in (it will default to Unfiled), and then click **Export**.

If you are not already logged in, you will be prompted to enter your EndNote login. Go into your EndNote library and check that the article record has been exported and does not contain any formatting errors or typos. You can find more information about how to update and edit records in EndNote on our [EndNote](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/how-to/use-endnote) page.

Saved searches and alerts

If you log in with your EndNote account, or register for an individual Web of Science account (see [Clarivate guide](https://webofscience.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/20011617329425-Registering-and-Signing-in-to-the-Web-of-Science#h_01K209WP4SJAK2A3XA0WC1SZNZ)), you will also have access to some additional features, such as the ability to view and save your search history...

...and to set up [email alerts](https://webofscience.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/20016493256721-Saved-Searches-and-Alerts#h_01HGXF4820RN675QSN0BVS21MS) when new articles that meet your search criteria are published.

Further help

If you need more help with using Web of Science, please email us at **library@brookes.ac.uk** or check our [Get help and support page](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/how-to/get-help) for more options.