Publications and Bibliographies

Reviewed by Venta Silins, Cascadia Community College, University of Washington, Bothell, August, 2004

Institute for Scientific Information, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19104
Telephone: 800-336-4474 (toll free) or 215-386-0100; Fax: 215-386-2911
Emails: Technical Support: help@isinet.com Customer Service: custserv@isinet.com
Sales: sales@isinet.com; Web site: http://www.isinet.com/products/citation/wos/`

This review covers the University of Washington Libraries electronic version of the Citation Indexes.
Coverage includes Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), 1975-present; Social Sciences
Citation Index (SSCI), 1975-present; and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), 1975-present.

Introduction

In 1958 Dr. Eugene Garfield founded the Institute for Science Information (ISI). By 1964 the
organization was producing a print version of Science Citation Index. Print versions of Social Sciences
Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index soon followed. In 1997 ISI launched Web of
Science thereby providing Web access to the three citation indexes.

The unique feature of the citation index is its ability to provide cited reference searching that allows the
user to track the literature forward and backward through time. It also lets the user break through disciplinary boundaries by providing links between articles. Cited reference indexing permits users to
capture and cross reference all the cited references, including bibliographies and footnotes, from a
journal article. It also provides information on who is citing work and suggests the impact the work has
on the research community.

This review will not only describe the database but will also outline some of the strengths and limitations
of the coverage of cultural anthropology in the Web of Science Citation Indexes.

Scope, Coverage and Currency

The Web of Science indexes 1.1 million records and more than 23 million cited references per year from
more than 230 disciplines in the sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities. It supplies cover to
cover indexing. These records include articles, bibliographies, book reviews, corrections and additions,
editorials, letters and review papers.

Web of Science allows the user to choose which indexes to search. In the version reviewed, the default
searched all three indexes. Institutions can elect to purchase access to one, two or all three indexes.

Format and Organization

The overall format of Web of Science is user friendly. The user has two choices at the opening screen: Easy Search or Full Search.

Easy Search asks the user, What do you want to find information on? and provides three choices: Topic, Person or Place. It is important for the user to remember that not all records have abstracts or subject headings, and therefore, the database might give limited results when searching by natural language. The database provides helpful tips on how to search Easy Search.

Full Search allows the user to select General Search, Advanced Search or Cited Reference Search.

The General Search, similar to the Easy Search, allows the user to search by Topic, Author, Source Title, or Author(s) Address. The user can also set search limits by language or document type. The labels to the search fields are hyperlinked to information on how to search the field. The Source Title field also provides a link to the entire journal list while the Address field provides information on the types of abbreviations necessary to search the field.

The Advanced Search allows the user to create a more sophisticated search structure. It displays the Field Tags and the Boolean Operators.

The Advanced Search also lets the user restrict the search by language or document type.

The Cited Reference Search allows the user to find articles that have cited a particular article. The user can use Cited Author, Cited Work, or Cited Year. Each field provides the user information on how to correctly search the field. For example, users must use the last name and first initial and second initial, if known. Full first names are not used in this database.

Indexing and Subject Access

Web of Science does not have standard indexing and subject access. There is neither author index nor thesaurus. Subject access is through author-written abstracts, and not all records have abstracts. Users need to know the limits of using this database for natural language or subject searching.

Accuracy and Precision of Records

The most typical type of error in this database is an inaccurate citation. For example, page numbers could be incorrectly cited in one article and subsequent articles could continue to cite incorrectly. The user should also be aware that imprecise results can occur in this database when using hyphenated names, multiple authors, inconsistent abbreviations and authors with same last names and initials. (Corby, 2001).

Document Availability

Web of Science is not a full-text database. It provides citation information, times cited, a link to the record's citation list and often an abstract. Some citations in the citation list are linked allowing the user easy access to other records.

Some institutions use specialized software (such as SFX by Ex Libris) that allows the user to link to the online catalog or to full-text electronic journals. While this feature is easily noticed on the database's search results Web page, library instruction will help the user make the most out of this feature especially when the links have a tendency to fail.

Analysis of Web of Science in the Field of Cultural Anthropology

Web of Science's Citation Indexes' most powerful characteristic is its cited reference function. It allows users to move forward and backward through time and cross disciplinary boundaries. For example, a user has an article written in 1995. She wishes to find other scholars researching the same subject. By using the cited reference function, she is able to find articles that have cited the 1995 article. Access to these new records not only provides her with new research in the area, it also gives her each article's reference list. Furthermore, the database notes whether the newer articles have been cited providing her with even more current research. The Related Records function also notes articles that contain the same citations.

Web of Science is one of the most complex and powerful citation databases available. It is in the interest of our users that librarians provide thorough training on how to use Web of Science effectively. While the database provides an array of sophisticated searching capabilities, the interface is simple and created in a clean style that users should be able to master, especially after library instruction. There is ample help online help screens available at each search level.

Coverage of cultural anthropology varies by topic. The search term anthropolog* in the General Search or Topic Search matched 18,084 documents of the 27,233,381 in the data limits selected. The following are other major terms used in cultural anthropology and the number of records retrieved:

Cultur* 122,789

Ethnic* 44,701

Ethno* 16,732

Journal searching produced the following matches in Web of Science:

Journal search using anthropolog* in title retrieved 21 journals.

Journal search using cultur* in title retrieved 35 journals.

Journal search using ethnic* in title retrieved 4 journals.

Journal search using ethno* in title retrieved 7 journals.

While Web of Science indexes all the journals cited in Joyce Ogburn's (2001) article, Journals of the Century in Anthropology and Archaeology, it appears to fall short of indexing most of the journals in cultural anthropology. This will be further discussed below.

The journal list is available from the database and ISI Web of Science's Web site. Subscribers have access to the list of journals indexed by ISI. The Web of Science Web site also includes the complete list of journals, as well as recent changes in journal coverage. The Web site provides information on the journal selection and evaluation process and how to recommend journals for coverage.

Comparisions with Related Sources and Recommendations for Improvement

No other database provides the cited reference searching making the citation indexes a powerful research tool. Again, library instruction in the use of this database will help users understand the limitations of the database when researching in the areas of anthropology. As noted earlier, its largest weakness is its relatively limited coverage in the field of cultural anthropology. While the complexities of the database make it difficult to conduct a full evaluation of its coverage in anthropology, as noted earlier, anthropological journals are underrepresented in the database. For example, Anthropological Literature indexes 822 current journals and serials titles (not all of these journals are in cultural anthropology), while Web of Science indexes fewer than 75 journals. While ISI maintains its journal selection accepts only the highest quality journals in a field (Testa, 2003), anthropology is still not fully covered. For example, Ulrich's International Periodical Directory (http://ulrichsweb.com) indicates that there are 564 active, refereed journals in cultural anthropology. (The method used to achieve this number was the same as the one used in searching for journal titles in the Web of Science database.)

This underrepresentation is likewise found in other areas in the social sciences. For example, Kate Corby (2001) found that education's two major databases, ERIC and Education Abstracts, together covered a combined 1,124 education related journals. Of these combined journals, only 27% are indexed by Social Sciences Citation Index. Corby also found that SSCI covered only 35% of the journals indexed in Sociological Abstracts.

At the 2003 American Library Association's Annual Conference, a representative from Thomson ISI discussed the issue of education's underrepresentation in the Web of Science database. She noted that lack of funds for adding and indexing additional education journals is one issue facing the organization. Yet she was willing to discuss the concerns of education librarians. A committee of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section of ACRL began a project to maintain contact with ISI to work toward including more education titles in this very important database. A worthwhile endeavor might be for ANSS to collaborate with ISI Thomson to make the Web of Science, especially the Social Sciences Citation Index and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, a richer and deeper source of information for its researchers in cultural anthropology.

References

Corby, K. (2001). Method or madness? Educational research and citation prestige. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 1(3), 279-288.

Ogburn, J., Smith, C.J, & Finnegan, G. (2001). Journals of the century in anthropology and archaeology. Serials Librarian, 39(4), 69-78.

Testa, J. (2003). The Thomson ISI journal selection process. Serials Review, 29(3), 210-212.