Exploring Web of Science

Web of Science is a search platform through which the University of Vermont subscribes to several databases, including the Web of Science Core Collection. When we refer to searching Web of Science, we are usually referring to the Core Collection. This multidisciplinary database is made up of three main components: Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. It contains over 66 million citations to journal articles, conference proceedings, and books, dating from 1982-present.

You can conduct a general subject search, or you can search within a specific field, such as Title, Author, or Publication Name, or you can conduct a Cited Reference Search on a known article. However, since it does not utilize a controlled vocabulary (thesaurus), all searching is done solely through the use of keywords. In the following video, I'll show you how to conduct a subject search for articles on the effect of prenatal exposure to PCBs on newborn birth weight.

Since the Web of Science Core Collection does not use a thesaurus, the search strategy will consist solely of keywords. Here is the search strategy we used in this example:

("polychlorinated biphenyl*" OR pcb*) AND ((prenatal OR gestational OR intrauterine OR maternal) AND exposure)) AND (birthweight OR "birth weight")

Could you make sense of that? It might help to break down each concept one at a time:

1. First, we searched for articles with either the terms "polychlorinated biphenyl* OR pcb*. For both terms, we used the truncation symbol (*) to search for both singular and plural forms. And we put the words polychlorinated and biphenyl in quotes to indicate that we require the terms be adjacent to one another, in that order.
   
2. Second, we searched for articles with either the term prenatal, gestational, intrauterine, or maternal, AND the term exposure.
   
3. Third, we searched for articles with either the term birthweight OR "birth weight".
   
4. Finally, we combined all three sets of results together, to bring up articles that included all three concepts.

I'm sure you noticed all the Boolean operators used in this search! If you're still a little fuzzy on the difference between the Boolean AND and OR, consult the Search Tips page of the Health Sciences Research Guide.

Its utility for general subject searching notwithstanding, the real strength of the Web of Science Core Collection lies in its foundation as a citation index. Like most databases, a citation index provides citations and abstracts to scholarly journal articles. But in addition, it includes the full reference lists for the articles. Not only that, when a more recent article references an older article in the database, a connection is established between those two articles. Through sophisticated data manipulations, the Web of Science platform utilizes these connections throughout its entire database to enable researchers to expand their searches and identify scholarly networks. In the next video, I'll show you how to expand the previous search by tapping into these powerful connections.

1. In the sample search in the first video, what related terms were searched on to expand the search for "prenatal exposure"?

a) intrauterine exposure

b) early life exposure

c) in utero exposure

d) maternal exposure

e) antenatal exposure

f) gestational exposure

g) fetal exposure

h) a, d, and f

i) a, c, and e

j) b, f, and g

2. Referring to Question #1, if you were to expand your search to include all 7 terms (a through g) using the Boolean operator OR, what is likely to happen to your total results?

a) You'd probably end up with more results.

b) You'd probably end up with fewer results.

c) You'd probably end up with the same number of results.

3. Suppose a given article is listed as having one "citing reference". What would be the publication date of that "citing reference" relative to the original article, and why?

a) The publication date would be more recent, because the original article would have been published after it.

b) The publication date would be older, because the original article would have been published before it.

c) The publication date would be more recent, because the original article would have been published before it.

d) The publication date would be older, because the original article would have been published after it.

Dana Medical Library, University of Vermont

Burlington, VT, USA

(802) 656-2201

danaref@uvm.edu

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1. h) In the video, we expanded the concept of "prenatal exposure" by adding the terms gestational exposure, or maternal exposure, or intrauterine exposure.

2. a) If you were to expand the search further to include all 7 terms, you would probably end up with a few more results.

3. c) The publication date would be more recent, because the original article would have been published before it. The authors of the more recent article would have read the older article, and mentioned it in their literature review.