Web of Science: browser display problems

The Web of Knowledge got a new look and feel during January, including a new name, Web of Science.  However, we have had some reports that the Web of Science is not displaying or functioning properly in some instances of Internet Explorer (IE). 

If you are experiencing problems with the display of Web of Science in IE (e.g. boxes overlapping, results pushed to bottom of screen), you may find a solution here:

• IE versions 7 or earlier are not supported browsers for Web of Science - please upgrade your browser to a more recent version.
• Check whether you have "Compatibility View" enabled - the Web of Science will not work if this is enabled, so you will have to switch this off.  For IE 10, press the Alt key to display the Menu bar, select the Tools menu, and select Compatibility Settings.
• Use another web browser - we have had no reported problems with Mozilla Firefox or Chrome.

If you are still experiencing problems, please send a screenshot to your Information Specialist.

Changes to the Web of Knowledge

Over this weekend (Sunday 12 Jan 1400 GMT until Monday 13 Jan 0200 GMT), the Web of Knowledge will be changing its look and feel.

• The Web of Knowledge will, in future, be known as the Web of Science
• The group of databases that used to form the Web of Science will now be known as "Web of Science Core Collection"
• Access to databases via the new Web of Science will remain unchanged to our subscriptions in the Web of Knowledge (i.e. Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSYS Citation Index up to 2008, MEDLINE)
• All search functionality will remain the same, so you can continue to search the new Web of Science in the same way you previously searched the Web of Knowledge

For a brief introduction to the new Web of Science interface, watch this video.

If you have any further questions about the changes to the Web of Knowledge, please contact your Information Specialist.

2012 edition of Journal Citation Reports now available

The 2012 edition of the Journal Citation Reports from Thomson Reuters has now been published.  This will give you the most up-to-date Impact Factors for world-leading journals indexed by the Web of Science.

The Impact Factor for a journal is the average number of citations per article published in that journal.  The 2012 edition considers citations during 2012 to articles published during 2010 and 2011.

You can access the Journal Citation Reports by clicking on the Additional Resources tab within the Web of Knowledge, or directly via the A-Z Resource List.

If you would like further information about Impact Factors, the Journal Citation Reports, or bibliometrics in general, please contact your Information Specialist.

Impact Factors 2011

At the end of last month, Thomson Reuters announced the release of the 2011 Impact Factors, available via the Journal Citation Reports (part of the Web of Knowledge).

The 2011 Impact Factor for a journal title is calculated as the average number of citations received in 2011 by articles published in that journal title during 2009 and 2010.

One interesting feature of the 2011 release was the exclusion of 51 journal titles due to "anomalous citation patterns" - it appears Thomson Reuters believed these journals to be engaging in practices designed to artificially inflate their Impact Factors.

For more information on Impact Factors, or guidance on finding out what the Impact Factor for a particular journal is, please contact your Information Specialist.

Book Citation Indexes - 3 Month Trial

The Thomson Reuters Book Citation Index fully indexes over 30,000 editorially selected books in the sciences, social sciences and humanities (with an emphasis on the social sciences and humanities), from 2005 to the present. 10,000 new books are added each year, and all are indexed at the chapter level.  This new resource is intended to extend the discovery and analysis capabilities of the Web of Knowledge by including comprehensive book citation data.

For a brief introduction to the Book Citation Index, see the 3-min recorded training provided by Thomson Reuters or read the factsheet.

The Book Citation Index has now been enabled on a three month trial basis (from 7 May) and is accessible via the Web of Knowledge.  If you are off campus, access the Web of Knowledge via Aston e-Library.

If you have any comments about this resource, feel free to leave them below.

Web of Knowledge: logging in problems NOW FIXED

THIS PROBLEM SHOULD HAS NOW BEEN RESOLVED.
If you still can't access the database, you may need to clear you cache and cookies first and then re-open your browser: http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/faq/answers.html#Q6.5
Apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.


There is currently a problem with access to Web of Knowledge. This is an issue that all Web of Knowledge subscribers are experiencing and is not unique to Aston. The database suppliers are looking into this as a matter of urgency and this blog post will be updated as soon as the problems have been resolved. In the meantime, you can still access Web of Knowledge on-campus via http://webofknowledge.com/, however, you may first need to clear cache and cookies: further information available in the FAQ: http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/faq/answers.html#Q6.5 and then close and re-open your browser.

You could also try using another similar database for your research such as Scopus.

Making library resources mobile!

Did you know that many of the resources available to you via Aston University Library & Information Services are available from your mobile device as well?

This summer, we launched a mobile version of the Library Catalogue, making it easier than ever to find books as you navigate the Library shelves. This is accessible through the usual web browser on your mobile device.

Many of our resource providers have developed mobile versions of their interfaces as well.  For example, you can access the Web of Knowledge, EBSCOhost, IEEE Xplore and JSTOR when you're out and about using the mobile interfaces provided.  Sometimes, free registration is required for access to the mobile version.  Comment on this post or ask at the Help Desk if you have any questions about this.

Some of our providers have created apps for you to download.  Elsevier provide apps for ScienceDirect and Scopus Alerts.  To download an EBSCOhost app for iPhone or Android, access EBSCOhost as normal and click the link at the bottom of any EBSCOhost page to email yourself the download instructions, access key and a link to the app store.  The RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) have an iOS app for their journals and for ChemSpider.

Web of Knowledge: not displaying results in Internet Explorer 9

There is a known problem in IE9 where search results are not displaying in the database Web of Knowledge.

Web of Knowledge have told us that enabling the compatability mode as follows in IE9 should resolve this problem:

•Click on Tools menu.
•Click on Compatibility View Settings.
•Type 'webofknowledge.com' in the text-box and click on Add.

If you have any further problems with this database, please contact us at library@aston.ac.uk with screenshots of your problem if appropriate.

New interface for Web of Knowledge

On 17th July 2011 the new Web of Knowledge (WoK v5.3) became the primary platform. This means that all your links to Web of Knowledge will take you directly to the new version.

New features in version 5.3 include:

• All terms are searched - no stop words
• Linguistic search assistance: lemmatization (word stemming) and spelling variations
• Left hand truncation
• NEAR/x operator
• All results returned
• Abstract preview
  

The old version (WoK v4.10) is now the secondary platform and can still be accessed until the end of 2011. If you prefer the old version, please use the following url: webofknowledgev4.com. A link is also available from WoK 5.3 to WoK 4.10, located towards the right hand side of the screen in Wok 5.3.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the new interface.

Web of Knowledge access problem

We've been getting reports of people encountering error messages when they attempt to log in to the Web of Knowledge. As far as we are aware, there is no current issue with access to Web of Knowledge and the problems are happening sporadically. We're in contact with the vendors to try and sort this out, but in the meantime, if you do get an error message, try accessing it via this URL: http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wayf?idp=aston.ac.uk. If you have any queries about this, please comment on this post.

Web of Knowledge web tools, gadgets and widgets

The Web of Knowledge (or ISI Web of Knowledge) is a search interface that allows you to search databases of journal articles across a wide range of subject areas simultaneously. The databases/subjects included are:

* Science Citation Index Expanded (1970-present)
* Social Sciences Citation Index (1970-present)
* Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present)
* MEDLINE for biomedicine and life sciences, bioengineering, public health, clinical care, and plant and animal science (1950-present)
* Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (1990-present)
* Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Science & Humanities (1990-present)

The Web of Knowledge have just released a number of web tools, gadgets and widgets to allow you to search the Web of Knowledge from a toolbar in your browser, a search box in your web page, your iGoogle page, or your desktop via Yahoo! widgets. Visit this information page to find out more.