Research Guides: Web of Science: What is Web of Science?

The Platform

Web of Science is a platform that hosts multiple research databases and provides an interface for searching the literature across various disciplines.

The name "Web of Science" reflects the platform's ability to link an article both to the references that it cited, and to newer articles that cited it. This is valuable for exploring recent research that builds on a classic study in a field, for looking at how an area of study evolved over time, and for finding connections between different aspects of research.

The Databases

At Ohio State University, we have access to multiple databases on the Web of Science platform.

Among the databases included are the following.

Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window Provides access to citation indexes which can be searched individually or as one file. Arts & Humanities Citation Index indexes 1,100 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. Science Citation Index Expanded indexes 5,300 major journals across 164 scientific disciplines and contains searchable, full-length, English-language author abstracts for approximately 70 percent of the articles in the database. The Social Sciences Citation Index indexes 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. Book Citation Indexes- Science and Social Sciences & Humanties indexes over 30,000 editorially selected books in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, with 10,000 new books added each year. It contains searchable, full-length, English-language author abstracts for approximately 60 per cent of the articles in the database.
BIOSIS Citation Index This link opens in a new window Comprehensive index to over 5,200 journal titles and extensive non-journal coverage, including more than 90 abstract meetings, books and U.S. patents in biological and life sciences.
BIOSIS Previews This link opens in a new window BIOSIS Previews, including Biological Abstracts, contains references to journal articles, reports, literature reviews, conference papers, patents, and book synopses in the life sciences. Coverage includes 5500 journals and 1500 international meetings in agriculture, biology, biotechnology, environment, wildlife, ecology, agriculture, forestry and the health sciences.
CABI (Web of Science) This link opens in a new window CAB Abstracts covers research and development literature in the fields of agriculture, forestry, human health, human nutrition, animal health and the management and conservation of natural resources. Includes CAB Abstracts Archive. Global Health is a public health database that provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and much more. This database contains more than 1.2 million records dating back to 1973.
Derwent Innovations Index This link opens in a new window Derwent Innovations Index provides access to more than 14,800,000 patents with links to cited and citing patents, cited articles, and full-text patent data sources.

KCI - Korean Journal Database Provides access to articles from multidisciplinary journals covered in KCI. KCI is managed by the National Research Foundation of Korea and contains bibliographic information for scholarly literature published in Korea. - Search in Korean or English. - 1980-present.
MEDLINE The U.S. National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) premier life sciences database. - Explore biomedicine and life sciences, bioengineering, public health, clinical care, and plant and animal science. - Search precisely with MeSH terms and CAS registry numbers. - Link to NCBI databases and PubMed Related Articles. - 1950-present.
Proquest Dissertations and Theses Citation Index The world's most comprehensive curated collection of multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses from around the world, offering over 5 million citations and 3 million full-text works from thousands of universities. Within dissertations and theses is a wealth of scholarship, yet it is often overlooked because most go unpublished. Uncover new ideas and innovations with more confidence and efficiency. Delivers a focused path for researchers by tapping into a global network of connected research. (1637-present)
Scielo Citation Index Provides scholarly literature in sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities published in leading open access journals from Latin America, Portugal, Spain, and South Africa. - Search in Spanish, Portuguese, or English. - 2002-present.
Zoological Record The world’s leading taxonomic reference and oldest continuing database of animal biology. - Keep up on all aspects of animal biology and biodiversity issues. - Determine the first appearance of an animal name or new species and track taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. - Search with the help of extensive thesauri, including subject, geographical, paleontological and taxonomic classifier. - 1864-present.

You can choose to search one, some, or all databases at once. Choosing a single database will provide you with search options that are specific to its content. For example, Biosis Previews includes terms for Taxonomic Data and Chemical and Biochemical terms, while the Derwent Innovations Index includes fields for Inventor and Patent Number.

Choosing multiple databases will only provide you with the search fields and options that are common to all of the databases you are searching. Therefore, searching one database at a time may be more effective for advanced or comprehensive searching.

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More information is available from Web of Science.