To begin your search, go to the Web of Science web page (link will open in a new window similar to that below).

Under “Select a search option:” click on the [Cited Reference Search] button.

 

Enter your last name and first initial in the “Cited author:” search box. Add an asterisk (*) after your first initial for a wildcard search that will find variations of your name. For example, Syvitski J* will find entries for “Syvitski JPM” and “Syvitski JP.”

To restrict search results to your articles published within particular years, enter a date range in the “Cited year(s):” search box. Web of Science will count all citations to those articles, including those that fall outside the date range. Keep in mind that publication is not an instant process, and very recent articles are unlikely to be widely cited yet.

When you click on the [Search] button, you will see a list of your articles published during the date range you specified.

Disaggregating your results

The records you see in your list of results are a bit cryptic. Hopefully, they have enough bibliographic information for you to identify them. If you share a last name and first initial with any other authors, your results and their results may be intermingled. Look carefully, and discount any records that you have not authored.

Web of Science may index some of your articles twice. If items were cited while they were in press, or if the citation included an error, you will want to count the citations from both records for that article.

If you are unsure if a record is about one of your articles, or if it is a duplicate, look at the rest of the record for clues. If a record shows in black type, Web of Science does not index the article and you will have to go by the limited provenance given in the table. If the record is in blue type, you can use the View Record link to see a complete citation.

 

Counting your results

Once you know which articles on the list of search results are yours, and which are duplicates, look at the “Times cited” field of the table. This number shows how many articles have cited each article of yours to date.

Once you have this information, you can use it several different ways. Many researchers count the total number of citations and divide by the total number of papers, to get an average of citations per paper.

You can copy and paste the table of results from the Web of Science page to a Word document or other file on your computer if you wish.

If you are curious to find who exactly has cited your papers, check the check box in front of an article or articles and then the [Finish search] button. You will see a list of the articles that have cited your work.

 

What if one of my articles doesn’t show up?

Three possibilities arise:

• No one has cited your article yet. The citation index only includes articles that have been cited at least once.
• Web of Science does not index that journal. The citation index captures articles from 5,900 journals as well as all items cited within those journals, but even that massive quantity doesn’t include absolutely everything.
• Your article is too recently published or cited to be included in the index. Web of Science appears to update their databases about 2-4 months after the date of a publication.

 

What if I want to find out right away when someone cites my article?

If you sign in to the Web of Science database, you will be able to place a “citation alert” on any articles you wish in Web of Science.

• First, register from the Web of Science home page. You will have to fill in your email address and whether you will allow a cookie to be placed on your computer or not. (If you choose not to accept a cookie, you will have to sign in each time.)
• Second, search for your article in the Web of Science database. Once you find the record for the article, click on the [Create citation alert] button to the right of the abstract. Now, whenever a record of someone citing your article is added to Web of Science, you will receive an email.

 

What if I have questions?

Email or call me (shelly.sommer@colorado.edu or x2-1867) if you have any questions about Web of Science.