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Welcome

How do I run an author search on Web of Science?

Log on using your domain username and password and select Web of Science using the tabs at the top of the search screen.

There can be many variations of an author's name. An easy way to focus your search is to use the Author finder function at the top of the search screen.

wos author finder link

Enter the author's name and first initial, then click search by name.

wos authorfinder search screen

This gives you a list of publications arranged by all variants of the author's name. You can select which ones match your author by checking the journal titles or by clicking the plus sign beside wos author sample. This will give you more detail.

Select the authors you want by clicking the box beside their names and click wos view records button

Alternatively you can run an author search from the main search screen. Hints:

  • Use upper, lower, or mixed case. For example, Lee (or lee) is the same as LEE.
  • Enter the last name first followed by a space and up to five initials. You may also enter last names and first names. Enter a last name followed by an asterisk (*) wildcard to find all authors with that name. For example:
    • Driscoll finds everyone with the last name Driscoll.
    • Driscoll C* finds Driscoll C, Driscoll CF, Driscoll CM, Driscoll CMH, and so on.
    • Driscoll CM* finds Driscoll CM and Driscoll CMH.
    • Driscoll Paul finds Driscoll Paul, Driscoll Paul C, Driscoll Paul M, and so on.
  • Did You Know ... You may see two versions of a name in Full Records of articles published in 2006 and later. One is the last name followed by initials. The other in parentheses is the full name.
  • Smith CJ and document type equals Book Chapter finds all chapters associated with any book authored by Smith CJ.
  • Separate two or more names by the AND, OR, or NOT search operators. For example:
    • Herlert A* AND Vogel M* finds records of articles by both Herlert A and Vogel M.
    • Herlert A* OR Vogel M* finds records of articles by either Herlert A or Vogel M (or both Herlert A and Vogel M).
    • Herlert A* NOT Vogel M* finds records in which Herlert A appears but not Vogel M.
  • Search for surnames containing particles with and without a space after the particle. Example: de Bruyn A* OR deBruyn A*
  • Last names containing an apostrophe should be searched with or without the apostrophe. For example, Paget's OR Pagets finds records containing Paget's or Pagets.
  • Beginning with 1998 data, non-alphanumeric characters (for example, the apostrophe in O'Brian) and embedded spaces (for example, the spaces in the last name de la Rosa) are preserved in many fields that name individuals in the database. To search effectively across multiple years of data, ensure that you enter search strings that take account of all possible variations of the data.
  • Diacritical marks are not searchable. Search for variants of names that contain diacritical marks in the original.
    • The name Schröder may appear in the database as Schroder or Schroeder. Search for both variants. Example: Schroder OR Schroeder
  • Asian names appear in the database exactly as they do in the source document. The author Zhuang Jun may appear in the database as Zhuang Jun, Zhang Jun, Jun Zhuang, Jun Zhang, Zhuang J., Zhang J., or Jun Z. It is advisable to search for all variations on Asian names. Example: Zhuang J OR Zhang J OR Jun Z

 

wos author search screen

Then click WOS search button

You can narrow your search by adding the institution name. If you are not sure about it, click the view abbreviations list link under the Address search box.

You can limit your search by using publication years and selecting individual databases from within the Web of Science suite.

wos limits

You can limit your search further using the options on the results screen.

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Creative Commons License

My RI by University College Dublin, Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, The National University of Ireland, Maynooth and the NDLR adapted by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.ndlr.ie/myri/.