How to Search for Papers and Citations on Web of Science

Web of Science (webofscience.com) is a subscription-based citation database, so you need institutional access or a personal subscription before you can search. Once you are signed in, you can search by topic, author, title, or citation, refine results by year, document type, or subject area, and follow citation links to see who has cited a paper. The steps below assume you have already reached the search interface through your institution's subscription or a personal account.

Before You Search: Access and Setup

• Access: Web of Science is not a free database. Use your university library's link, your institution's proxy, or a personal subscription. If you are off campus, log in through your library's remote-access portal first.
• Account (optional but useful): Create a free personal account on the platform to save searches, set alerts, and keep marked records between sessions.
• Know your goal: A topic search finds papers about a subject; an author search finds a researcher's output; a title search finds a specific paper; a citation search finds papers that cite a known work.

Step 1: Choose the Right Search Field

On the main search page, use the field dropdown next to the search box to select what you are searching.

Tips for topic searches:

• Put multi-word phrases in quotation marks to keep them together.
• Combine terms with AND, OR, and NOT (for example, "gene editing" AND CRISPR NOT review).
• Use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard: behavio* matches behavior, behaviour, behavioral.

Step 2: Run the Search and Read the Results List

After you click Search, the results page shows a list of records. Each entry typically includes the title, authors, source (journal), year, and a citation count. Sort the list by relevance, publication date, or times cited, depending on what you need.

Step 3: Refine Results with Filters

Use the filter panel on the left of the results page to narrow the set. Common filters include:

• Publication years — limit to a date range.
• Document type — article, review, proceedings paper, and so on.
• Subject area / research area — restrict to a discipline.
• Author — isolate one researcher's contributions.
• Source title — limit to specific journals.

Apply filters one at a time and watch the result count change. You can clear a filter if it removes too much.

Step 4: Review Citation Counts and Citing Articles

• Times Cited: The number next to each record shows how many later papers have cited it. A higher count often signals influence, but it also depends on the paper's age and field.
• View citing articles: Click the citation number or the "Citing Articles" link to see the list of papers that cited the original. This is how you move forward in the literature from a key paper.
• Cited references: Open a record to see the papers it cites, which lets you move backward to foundational work.

This forward-and-backward citation tracing is the core of a citation search: start from one known paper, then follow both directions.

Step 5: Save, Export, and Set Alerts

• Mark records: Check the boxes next to useful results, then use the export option to send them to a reference manager (RIS, BibTeX, plain text) or email.
• Save a search: If you have a personal account, save the query and set an alert to be notified when new matching papers appear.
• Export formats: Choose the format your reference manager accepts (for example, RIS for EndNote or Zotero) so the citation data imports cleanly.

Common Sticking Points

• No results or too few: Check for typos, remove overly narrow filters, or broaden terms with OR and wildcards.
• Too many results: Add a second concept with AND, restrict the date range, or filter by document type.
• Author name ambiguity: Use the author search with initials and the asterisk, then filter by subject area or institution to separate people with similar names.
• Off-campus access fails: Return to your library's database list and use the proxied link rather than going directly to the site.
• Citation counts look low: Very recent papers have had little time to be cited; compare within the same year and field rather than across disciplines.

Quick Decision Guide

With access in place, the workflow is consistent: pick the field that matches your goal, refine with filters, follow citation links in both directions, and export what you need.