Web of Science Search tips:

Names:

Syntax is important in this database (although capitalization isn't)

Use the author index to get your author's last name and first initials

If you are looking up a person with a common last name (like Smith), try using the persons first AND middle initial. if that doesn't work (like they are inconsistant about how they publish). You can also use the Address field to help you find only the author you are looking for.

SEARCHING:

The asterisk (*), question mark (?), and dollar sign ($) are called wildcards because they can be included in a search term to represent unknown characters. The asterisk (*) represents any group of characters, including no characters. The question mark (?) represents any single character. The dollar sign ($) represents one character or no characters.

Enter Barthold? to search for Bartholdi or Bartholdy.
Enter Barthold$ to search for Barthold, Bartholdi, or Bartholdy.
Enter biolog* to search for words that start with Biolog and end with any character or group of characters (e.g., biology, biologist, biologists, and biological).

If you use different operators in the same query, be aware that the logic expressed by the operators will be processed according to the following order of precedence.

1.SAME
2.NOT
3.AND
4.OR

You can also use parentheses and quotes to group things like:
Serre AND (topology OR "algebric topology")

The "same" command, mostly commonly used in the address field, will find those words within the same block of type (usually this is a line of text or a paraphraph at most).
You must use the ISI version of a journal title abbreviation. For now, that means looking it up in the "full source titles" list.

Condensed from and for more information use the Help button on the Web of Knowledge screen

URL:http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/math/mathstep_wos2.html
Last revision: October 28, 2004 by Annie Zeidman-Karpinski
Created by annie zeidman-karpinski, University of Oregon Libraries