This guide will show you how to use the database, Web of Science. University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) has a subscription to Web of Science, which indexes scientific citations and allows you to search through their collections. Additionally, Web of Science gives you access to various databases which include cross-disciplinary research.

Make your way to the UTL homepage, where you will find access to many resources UTL provides to students. Navigate to the Databases By Title on the right-hand side of the screen in order to get started.

Find the entry for Web of Science. You can browse through the series of subject fields which are available through Web of Science.

When ready, click on the link which will take you to the homepage of Web of Science. This is where you can conduct a basic search through their Core Collections.

In the Search field, type "University of Toronto" (quotations are not necessary). You can be specific with your search terms by selecting "Organization-enhanced" from the drop-down list to the right of the Search field.

You will want to narrow your search by clicking + Add Another Field. This adds another search field.

This is where you can search for a specific topic. For instance, you can type in "statistical analysis" in the search field. The drop-down selection "Topic" does not have to be changed.

Another factor to consider is the time of publication. Below the search fields, you will see Timespan. You can search for articles published within a specific period of time.

You want something that was published recently for this assignment. Web of Science offers the option "Last 5 years" so you can select that. Otherwise, you can specify a particular time period in the second option which searches "From... to..." Simply input the span of years which interest you.

Now that your search has been set up, click the big button that says Search to see your results. Your results will appear in the same tab. There is a lot of information on this page but what you want to pay attention to is the number of Results, and the option to Refine results. There are 967 results, which is a lot to look through. However, you can refine your search terms by choosing from the specific Web of Science categories as well as ensuring that the Organizations-enhanced selection is correct.

You can select a category which interests you or suits your research needs in order to narrow your search. This will also make it easier for you find a suitable article, since the results will not be as overwhelming. You can also select "University of Toronto" in the organization-enhanced search. This way you know your results will be researchers from the university rather than from other institutions in the area (which may still be affiliated with the university in some way). This will also avoid institutions with similar names showing up in the results. When you have made your selections, click Refine to refresh the results.

You can click the title of the article to read the abstract and learn about the author(s), the citation, whether the article is open access, and more. To read the article itself, click the Get It! UTL button. This will open a new tab. In some cases, the link will bring you to Scholars Portal, where you can find all of the information you need. Sometimes the link will bring you to a redirect page with a link to the journal - in this case, you have to find the article by searching for the correct year of publication/journal volume, issue and article or page number. There are cases where U of T does not have a subscription to that particular journal even though Web of Science lists the citation and abstract information. If this is the case, simply close the tab and return to the Web of Science search results to find another suitable article.

Each journal or publisher website will look slightly different, but on Scholars Portal the information is presented in a consistent format. In the example below, we are at the Scholars Portal page for the chosen article from the Journal Classical And Quantum Gravity. You have access to the author information (not pictured here), as well as the abstract. From this page you can access a PDF Download, you can Save the citation, and you can retrieve the Permalink for this page.

Guide compiled by: I. Clara Luca
Please send suggestions for this guide to bruce.garrod@utoronto.ca