Introduction
The Web of Science database (composed of: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Science Citation Index Expanded) is the original citation research source having started publication in the 1970s. Web
of Science extracts the citation information from the articles in over
10,000 journals (aka the "source journals") from almost every
discipline.
of Science extracts the citation information from the articles in over
10,000 journals (aka the "source journals") from almost every
discipline.
But ...
Only citations from their 10,000 source journals are counted.
Citations
from books, dissertation & theses, patents and technical reports
are not included in the database; therefore disciplines that
publish heavily in the journal literature (such as the Sciences) are
better covered than those that don't (such as History).
Subjects
are not covered evenly by date; the science journals used for the
source of citation data go much farther back in time than the source
journals in the arts, engineering, humanities, and social sciences.
Some subject areas are poorly covered including business and education.
This guide will show how to use the Web of Science to:
- Find the Citation Count for a Publication
- Determine Which Journal Articles Have Cited a Publication
- Create a Citation Map for a Journal Article
A visualization of the connections between citing authors, their institutions and their field of study. - Eliminate Self-Citations from a Citation Count
- Get a Citation Analysis Report for an Author
Includes total citation count, h-index, plus charts of the citing authors, their institutions and their field of study. - Get a Citation Analysis Report for a Department or Research Center
- Determine the Most Highly Cited Publications for an Author
- Determine the Most Highly Cited Articles for a Journal
- Set Up a Citation Alert for a Journal Article
Find the Citation Count for a Publication
Getting
the highest citation count requires not only finding the number of
times an article was accurately cited, but also the number of times the
article was incompletely cited or cited incorrectly. The incomplete and
incorrect citations will hereafter be refered to as "variant
citations."
the highest citation count requires not only finding the number of
times an article was accurately cited, but also the number of times the
article was incompletely cited or cited incorrectly. The incomplete and
incorrect citations will hereafter be refered to as "variant
citations."
Instructions:
Access Web of Science (sign in for off-campus use, if necessary)
Click on the "Cited Reference Search" link on the white navigation bar
In the "Cited Author" box , type in the author's name as lastname firstinitial*
Example: Smith J*Be aware:- The best search is one in which you give the minimum
of information – the more information you put in the search boxes, the
less likely you’ll be able to find all the citing references. - If the author’s name is prone to misspellings, also search for those specific misspellings.
Example: Smith J* or Smyth J* - If the author is prolific, has a common name, or there is a known author with the same name, see the Searching Tips (in the right-hand column) for guidelines.
- The best search is one in which you give the minimum
- In
the results list, look for citations of interest, scrolling through the
list to find both the variant citations as well as the correct
citation.
Example: "J. Appl. Phys. 2002 91 5677" could be mis-cited as:
-
- Appl Phys 2002 91 5677
- J Appl Phys 2000 91 5677
- J Appl Phys 2002 97 567
-
- Add
the numbers in the "Citing Articles" column from both the correct
citation and the variant citations together to get the total citation
count for the publication.
Be aware: The
citation count will only include the number of times the publication
was cited by articles covered within the Web of Science. Web of Science
does not count citations from every journal published around the world,
nor does it count citations from books, dissertations/theses, patents,
technical reports or other types of publications.
Determine Which Journal Articles Have Cited a Publication
Once the citation count is determined, the "who is citing the publication" information can be displayed.
Instructions:
- Follow steps 1-5 above;
mark all the citations of interest by clicking in the box on the left
for each item (or using the "Select Page" button to select all items on
the page). - Click
on the "Finish Search" button, located at the top and bottom of the
page, to retrieve the list of articles that cite the author's
publications you selected.
Be Aware: The number of references in this results list may not match the citation count obtained in step 5 above. ASU
subscribes only to the Web of Science module and not the conference
proceedings module. Citing conference proceedings are included in the
Step 5 Citation Count but cannot be displayed nor accessed by ASU. - Use
the "Analyze Results" feature to determine any trends in the citing set
of articles; the "Analyze Results" link is located in the upper right
of the results list.
Analyze by:
- Author to see if a particular person repeatedly cites the publication.
- Institution to see if a particular company/university repeatedly cite the publication.
- Publication
Year to see when the majority of citations occurred, if citations are
evenly spread out, and/or if the publication is no longer being cited. - Source Title to see if citations are coming from a particular journal.
- Subject Category to see which fields find this publication of interest.
If you would prefer a more visual representation of citation analysis, try the citation mapping feature.
Be Aware: Citing publications that are from the conference proceedings module, are not part of the data in the citation analysis reports.
Create a Citation Map for a Publication
For
those who prefer a more visual presentation of the "who is citing this
publication" information, a citation mapping feature is available
which displays a map of both forward and backward citation analysis for a
single article.
those who prefer a more visual presentation of the "who is citing this
publication" information, a citation mapping feature is available
which displays a map of both forward and backward citation analysis for a
single article.
Instructions:
Click on the title of any publication within a results list
On the full record screen, click on the “Citation Map” link (in the area of the screen between the citation and the abstract). Use the options in the “Appearance” menu to change the screen display.
Be Aware:
Citation mapping requires the latest version of JAVA.
Pop-up blockers must be turned off.
Citation mapping is only available for a specific article; citation mapping cannot be done for a set of results.
An online demonstration of the citation mapping feature is available.
Eliminate Self-Citations From a Citation Count
Sometimes an author cites him/herself; it's possible to eliminate those self-citations from the results set.
Instructions:
- If you have not already done so, follow steps 1-7 above; this will create a set of the citing references.
- Click on the "Search" link located at the top of the page, on the white navigation bar.
- In the first search box, put in the author's name with lastname, firstinitial* (Example: smith j*) and change the "in" box at the right from "Topic" to "Author"; then click on the "Search" button at the bottom.
- When the search results are displayed, click on the "Advanced Search" link on the white navigation bar.
- In
the search box type: #A NOT #B (where "A" is the number of the search
for the "cited author" - i.e., the answer set for step 7 above - and
where "B" is the number of the search for the author - the answer set
for step 12 above; to find these set numbers, scroll the page down to
the "Search History" section). After inputing the statement in the
search box, click on the "Search" button under the box. - Scroll
the resulting page down to the "Search History" section to see how many
items are now in the new results set - this number will be the citation
count minus the self-citations. To display these citing references,
click on the citation count in the "Results" column on the left.
Notes:
If you are eliminating self-citations from a single publication, the number retrieved will be both the number of times the publication was cited and the number of articles citing that publication.
If you combine more than one publication in a set from which you extract the self-citations, the number retrieved will be the number of articles citing those publications - this number does not tell you the total times the set was cited.
If you
are willing to ignore the variant citations, you can also retrieve a
"times-cited minus self-citations" count by creating an author citation
analysis report (see immediately below).
Get a Citation Analysis Report for an Author
For an author, the Citation Report feature displays:
Total times cited for the author's publications that are listed in Web of Science
Total times cited minus self-citations
Total number of citing articles
Totla number of citing articles minus self-citation
Average citations per item
H-index
Bar chart for the number of items published each year
Bar chart for the number of citations each year
Total citations for each article
Number of citations each year for each article
Be Aware: The
Citation Report only analyzes the correct citations to the author's
journal articles from the journals covered in the Web of Science;
variant citations are not covered, nor can an analysis be done on an
author's books, conference papers, patents, other non-journal documents
or from journals not covered by the Web of Science.
Instructions:
Citation Report only analyzes the correct citations to the author's
journal articles from the journals covered in the Web of Science;
variant citations are not covered, nor can an analysis be done on an
author's books, conference papers, patents, other non-journal documents
or from journals not covered by the Web of Science.
Instructions:
Use the "Search" feature to find all the articles by an author.
Recommended search: Use the author name with first initial, then add "OR author's name with first and middle initials".
Example: smith j or smith jr
If necessary, use the author and institution refinements in the left column to create a more accurate results set.
On the results page, click on the "Create Citation Report" link at the top upper right of the list.
Note:
the new feature "author finder" may be used to find a list of an
author's publications and from there retrieve a citation report. The
accuracy of this method depends on whether the author has created a
"Researcher ID" and how deligently the author has entered his/her
publication information.
the new feature "author finder" may be used to find a list of an
author's publications and from there retrieve a citation report. The
accuracy of this method depends on whether the author has created a
"Researcher ID" and how deligently the author has entered his/her
publication information.
Create a Citaton Analysis Report for a Department or Research Center
The
Citation Report feature displays bar charts for the number of items
published each year and the number of citations each year, plus counts
for the average number of citations per item, the number of citations
per year per publication, average number of citations per year per
publication, and the H-index.
Citation Report feature displays bar charts for the number of items
published each year and the number of citations each year, plus counts
for the average number of citations per item, the number of citations
per year per publication, average number of citations per year per
publication, and the H-index.
Be Aware: The
Citation Report only analyzes the correct citations to the unit's
journal articles published in the journals covered by the Web of
Science; variant citations are not covered, nor can an analysis be done
on the unit's books, conference papers, patents, other non-journal
documents or on articles from journals not covered by the Web of
Science.
Citation Report only analyzes the correct citations to the unit's
journal articles published in the journals covered by the Web of
Science; variant citations are not covered, nor can an analysis be done
on the unit's books, conference papers, patents, other non-journal
documents or on articles from journals not covered by the Web of
Science.
Instructions:
Use
the "Search" feature to find all the articles by members of the unit;
this is generally difficult to do with just one single search
statement.
Use any or all of the following methods to find the unit's journal articles:
If
there is a small set of articles you want to analyze, do a search for
each article, searching by either the words in the title or a
combination search for first author plus words in the title. Use the
Advanced Search feature to "OR" the sets together to get one combined
set that includes all the articles. Display the combined results set
and click on the "Create Citation Report" link at the top upper right of
the list.
Do
an author search for each individual in the unit. Use the author name
with first initial, then add "OR author's name with first and middle
initials". Example: smith j or smith jr
Use
the Advanced Search feature to OR the individual author sets together
to get one combined set. Display the combined results set and click on
the "Create Citation Report" link at the top upper right of the list.
Do an address search for the unit.
(Abbreviations used in the Address field are available online)
Example: For the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry you could search: Arizona State Univ SAME Chem. However, this turns out to be more problematic than this simple example would at first seem.
The abbreviations used in the Address field are not consistent.
The
standard Web of Science abbreviation for Arizona State University in
the address field is "Arizona State Univ", however, if the journal
article abbreviated "Arizona State University" differently, the
abbreviation in the database may be the publisher's abbreviation (such
as "ASU") rather than Web of Science's abbreviation. Consequently, a
search for "Arizona State Univ" in the address field will NOT retrieve
all the articles in the database from ASU.
Should you try to
compensate for this problem by searching "Arizona State Univ OR ASU" in
the address field, you'll discover that you picked up unwanted articles
from other ASUs such as Alabama State University, Albany State
University, Angelo State University, Appalachian State University,
Arkansas State University and perhaps others.
In January
2013, Web of Science introduced a new field for searching called
"Organization-Enhanced" in which all known variations of a "parent"
organization's name plus the names of the "children" organizations are
connected to each other. The organization-enhanced search is useful
when you would like to make sure that you have the most thorough
compilation of ASU produced journal articles. For a demonstration on
how to use the organization-enhanced search, see the Organization Enhanced tutorial from Web of Science.
Addresses do not always include the unit within the university.
Some
publishers do not include the department or research center name
after "Arizona State University". If this were the case for an article
it would not be included in the "Arizona State Univ SAME Chem" results set
even if the author(s) were from the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry. If you limit your address search to a specific unit
within ASU, you will almost always be missing articles in the results
set.
Some
authors work for more than one institution/unit during their career and
some are appointed to more than one unit at a time. Whether the
citation researcher finds this to be a PRO or a CON depends on if s/he
is trying to find everything the author wrote or just what was written
for a specific university/unit.
Units with similar names may be difficult to separate.
The
example "Arizona State Univ SAME Chem" will not only pick up articles
from both the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (current name)
and the Department of Chemistry (earlier name), it will also pick up
articles from the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Although
it is easy to limit the search to just the Department of Chemical
Engineering (Arizona State Univ SAME Chem SAME Engn), the searcher
who wants to find articles from just the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry while eliminating the articles from the Department of
Chemical Engineering has a dilemma:
Searching
"Arizona State Univ SAME Chem SAME Biochem" will only find the most
recent articles from this department as those articles designated with
the previous name "Arizona State Univ SAME Chem" would not be retrieved
by this search.
Searching "Arizona
State Univ SAME Chem" would require a manual extraction of the unwanted
chemical engineering articles. (Basically, the searcher would have to
create a set of the articles not wanted and then NOT that set from the
original set.)
Searching "Arizona
State Univ SAME Chem NOT Engn" will eliminate all articles that
were co-authored by someone from ASU's Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry with someone from an engineering department (either at ASU
or another university).
Searching
"Arizona State Univ SAME Chem" and "Arizona State Univ SAME Chem
SAME Engn" separately, then NOT second set from the first would
eliminate articles that were co-authored by someone from
ASU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with someone from ASU's
Department of Chemical Engineering.
If
you use more than one of the above search strategies, you'll end up
with multiple sets of answers. To combine these sets into one large
set, use the Advanced Search feature to "OR" the individual results sets
together to get one combined set. Once you have all the results in a
single set of references, click on the "Create Citation Report" link at
the top upper right of the list.
Determine the Most Highly Cited Papers for an Author
There are two methods for determining the most highly cited papers by an author.
Quick and Easy but Less Accurate Method
Use the "Search" feature to find all the articles by an author.
Recommended search: Use the author name with first initial, then add "OR author's name with first and middle initials". Example: smith j or smith jr
On
the results page, change the “Sort by” box to (upper right of the list)
to “Times Cited”; the articles that then appear at the top of the list
are the author’s most cited.
Be aware: Although
easy to do, this method does not account for variant citations and only
includes the author’s articles from the journals covered by the Web of
Science.
Harder and Time-Consuming but More Accurate Method
Follow steps 1-5 above, finding all the correct citations and variant citations for each of the author’s papers.
Use
whatever method you find most comfortable (paper, index/flash cards,
word processor, spreadsheet, etc.) to keep track of the counts for each
paper and when finished, sort the papers by the “times cited” count.
Determine the Most Highly Cited Papers for a Journal
This method can only be used for journals
covered by the Web of Science; variant citations are not included in the
citation determination.
covered by the Web of Science; variant citations are not included in the
citation determination.
- Access Web of Science (sign in for off campus use, if necessary)
- Use the third box on the "Search" screen to find all the articles within a journal; use the journal’s full name.
- On
the results page, change the "Sort by" box (upper right of the list) to
"Times Cited"; the articles that then appear at the top of the list
are the journal's most cited.
Set Up a Citation Alert for a Journal Article
To be notified whenever an article of interest is cited, use the "Citation Alert" feature. This feature is only available for articles that appeared in a journal covered by the Web of Science.
Instructions:
Access Web of Science (sign in for off campus use, if necessary)
Login to your personal account using the "Sign In" link at the top of the page.
Citation
Alerts require registration (free); to register, click on the "Sign In"
link at the top of the page, in the left column, click on the
"Register" link and follow instructions.
Use the "Search feature" to find the article.
On the results list, click on the item's title to display the full record.
In the right-hand column, click on the "Create Citation Alert" button. Alerts are automatically set for one year.
To
remove an alert, click on the "My Citation Alerts" link at the top of
the page; when your alerts are displayed, click on the "Modify Settings"
button and mark which articles you wish to remove from your alerts.
Be Aware:
Citation Alerts may include references from the Conference Proceedings
section of Web of Science; ASU does not subscribe to this section and
therefore you will be unable to view these records.
Citation Alerts may include references from the Conference Proceedings
section of Web of Science; ASU does not subscribe to this section and
therefore you will be unable to view these records.
1. Web of Science - Citation Research - LibGuides at Arizona State University
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