Web of Knowledge
Web of Science (All Databses) is the name of the software umbrella under which several databases reside. Researchers interested in cited reference searching would find the following Web of Science databases useful:
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Journal Citation ReportsProvides impact factor, ranking information, and 5-year trends for journals in the social sciences, science and technology.
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Web of Science Core CollectionWeb of Science covers core journals in social sciences and the humanities as well as the sciences. One of the main uses for this database is cited reference searching. This is simply the ability to search for a specific citation in the list of references (or footnotes) found in journal articles or books. Cited reference searching is also useful for validating the impact of your research (e.g., promotion and tenure reviews), supplementing literature reviews and grant applications, and looking for related articles on your topic.
Creating Citation Reports
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.
