Cited Reference Searching  Tags: citation indexes self-citations cited_reference google_scholar crossref impact_factors journal_analysis  

Web of Knowledge (WoK) is the name of the software umbrella under which several databases reside.  Researchers interested in cited reference searching would find the following WoK databases useful:

Essential Science Indicators - uses citation data compiled from ISI-indexed journals to rank authors, institutions, countries and journals in scientific fields.

Journal Citation Reports - provides impact factor, ranking information, and 5-year trends for journals in the social sciences, science and technology.

Web of Science (WoS) - the electronic versions of Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.  It covers core journals in all disciplines and offers the ability to search for any author - researchers are no longer restricted to just the first author of a paper.  It also contains Conference Proceedings Citation Index which will allow researchers to locate information about conference papers (and times they have been cited) in Web of Science. 

Using some little known features of Web of Science you can:

• look for an average citation rate for a specific journal (e.g., American Journal of Botany, Economics and Philosophy, etc.) and compare it to citation rates for your own publications in the same journal.

• look for the average number of citations to ISU faculty publications in a specific department on campus and compare it to publications from comparable departments at other institutions.

• generate a citation report for any search set you can create (excluding cited reference searches).

The file below describes how to do these things.  (NOTE: examples use library science and the Parks Library, but the same techniques can be applied to almost any other department on campus as well.)  If you need assistance, please use the contact information on the Science & Technology tab at the top of this page.