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Home > Web of Science Guide


ISI Web of Science Citation

Indexes Come to Notre Dame!


Connect to Web of Science [1900 - present]

Thanks to strong support from faculty members from many different disciplines, financial contributions from the Graduate School and the Provost's Office, the Libraries have subscribed to ISI Web of Science!

The three Web of Science indexes, premier tools for advanced research, include Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

We have a license for fifteen concurrent users, so there may be times when you may find that all ports are in use. Be careful to 'Logout' when finished to free up access for colleagues.

Database strengths:

  • Citation searching - this is the only place to go!
    Follow the thread of a research topic from a seminal article to the 'web' of citing research. The cumbersome, microscopic print version has limited the potential value of citation indexes for many researchers. The Web of Science is designed for intuitive searching in following the citation paths. Hot links allow easy access to the varied ways these citations can be followed.
  • Interdisciplinary subject searching

Questions this database can help you answer:

  • How many times has an article been cited?
  • Who has cited a specific article?
  • Who is doing current research on the topic of an older article?
  • Who are your research competitors/potential collaborators?

Database Weaknesses

  • Exhaustive subject searching
    Web of Science is not intended to be a substitute for the comprehensive very focused subject databases such as INSPEC, MLA, PsycINFO, MathSciNet and others which comprehensively index journals, books, conference proceedings and other documents in their fields
  • Books, proceedings, monographic series, and patents are not indexed by WoS (although they are 'revealed' in the cited references)
  • Journals published outside North America are not well represented

Web of Science description from ISI



 

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