To read: What is Web of Science?

What is WOS?

The web of science core collection is one the world's most respected source of interconnected research information. Its editorial team is committed to selection policies which ensure including only the best verified content. The WoS is based on the vision of Dr. Eugene Garfield, who back in the 60s suggested how an index of research citations should form a web of science, scientists and sciences, arts and humanities.

WoS is a global network of the world's best research woven across disciplines between nations, languages, terminology and even time. The threads form connections between people, their ideas, citations, intellectual attributions linking new discoveries with concepts developed earlier.

Growth and expansion of the Internet and electronic devices turned the web of science Citation Index into one of the leaders in the area. 

A bit of impressive statistics. The WoS is used around the world by over 7,000 institutions, contains more than a billion citations in over 250 disciplines linking back to the origins of published research. Web of science core collection aggregates and indexes the best published material in more than 250 discipline areas back to 1900.

Far not every publication achieves their standards and makes it into the web of science core collection. They enforce strict criteria to ensure that only top quality literature is included in the web of science. This way, according to the official statistics, only about 10 to 12 percent published materials are accepted. The titles that fail to maintain their high standard are deselected.  

Their selection process is declared to occur independently of the publisher, ensuring that the version of the literature we, the researchers, see is an accurate and not biased reflection of the cutting-edge scientific landscape.  

The WoS captures all metadata of the publication possible: the author, cited and citing references, collaborating institutions and funding sources.

Currently the WoS is a part of Clarivate Analytics, formed in 2016, an American company with headquarters in Philadelphia, USA. The company owns and operates a collection of subscription-based services focused largely on analytics, including scientific and academic research, patent intelligence and compliance standards, pharmaceutical and biotech intelligence trademark, domain and brand protection. Apart from the WoS the services include Derwent World Patents Index, Publons, EndNote and some other. 

Using the WoS you can comfortably work from home, create search inquiries, use automatic notifications to keep you updated about the latest works published in the areas of your interest. In addition to that you can transfer the accumulated data from the WoS to EndNote or InCites (an analytical tool) for further and thorough analysis.

WoS includes a range of databases absolutely different in content. WoS Core Collection is the biggest one covering Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Emerging Sources Citation Index, Book Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index. Besides there is a Patent Collection (Derwent Innovation Index) which accumulates patent information from all over the world. Every single piece of patent information there has been translated into English, clearly, carefully and in detail described and provided with an abstract. Another database to be mentioned is Data Citation Index which consists of so-called raw data, free from any interpretation. Specialist Collection includes databases focused on medicine, biology, zoology, technical and other areas. Finally, there is also a Regional Collection consisting of Chinese Science Citation Base, Korean Journal Database and also Russian Science Citation Index. The later is represented by more than 650 Russian top-quality scientific journals. To publish one’s scientific findings in the regional journals verified by WoS is a promising start for a young scholar who wants to be noticed, cited and recognized fast in the scientific community.