Skip to Main Content
library logo banner

Web of Science (All Databases): Introduction

What is Web of Science (All Databases)?

Web of Science logo'Web of Science: All Databases' provides details of articles and other documents from more than 34,000 academic journals (mostly peer-reviewed), as well as conference proceedings, patents and other types of document. Many subject areas are covered including architecture, chemistry, economics, education, engineering, health, life sciences, management, mathematics, medicine, physics, physiotherapy, social sciences and sports science. Web of Science is stronger in some areas than others so do check for further recommended databases on the Library's webpages for your subject.

  • The 'All Databases' version of Web of Science is a 'platform' upon which multiple Web of Science databases are searched at the same time. Alternatively, you can change its search setting in order to search its individual databases separately. Be careful: if you click the 'Web of Science' logo in the top left corner, you automatically arrive at the smaller 'Core Collection' version of Web of Science and you'll probably  get fewer search results. To return to 'all databases', click the 'search' link near the top left and then change the 'core collection' option (within the 'documents' tab) to 'all databases'. Alternatively, if you register with Web of Science (via the sign-in button at the top), you can change the settings so that you always remain, by default, within 'all databases'.

Databases available via the Web of Science platform

  • Search for articles from thousands of core journals in science, the social sciences and arts and humanities published from 1970.
  • It also indexes books and conference proceedings. 
  • Covers all areas of biology and life science research in thousands of journals since 1926.
  • Includes specialised indexes e.g. gene, disease and organism names.

A taxanomic resource which indexes thousands of animal-related biology journals from 1864 to date.

  • Medline Indexes thousands of health and medical journals from 1950 to date. Web of Science hosts this database which is provided freely by the US National Library of Medicine.
  • Medline is also the core content available via PubMed. If you only want to search Medline, you may find it easier to search PubMed (rather than search it in Web of Science). For instructions, please refer to our PubMed guide. 
  • Connect to PubMed.  
  • Extensive index of physics, engineering and computing literature.
  • Cover journals, conference proceedings, reports and dissertations from 1898 onwards.
  • Web of Science hosts this database which is provided by the Institute for Engineering and Technology (IET.)

Preprints for key research articles (made available ahead of formal publication in a journal):

  • Selected from a range of international evaluated preprint repositories.
  • Coverage: sciences, social sciences and arts & humanities.
  • Connect to the full text of the indexed preprint.
  • Discover public policy reports from government and non-government organisations.
  • You can analyse results to discover policy trends.
  • Access to datasets from leading data repositories and published from the 1900s onwards.  
  • Coverage: multidisciplinary.
  • Dataset records include authors, institutions and citations.
  • Records are connected to related records of peer-reviewed literature. 
  • Covers multidisciplinary journals published from 1980 onwards. 
  • Managed by the National Research Foundation of Korea, with records in Korean and English.
  • Indexes core Russian science, technology, medical and education journals published from 2005 onwards,
  • Selected by the largest information provider in Russia: the Scientific Electronic Library. 
  • Search in English or Russian.
  • Leading open access journals from Latin America, Portugal, Spain and South Africa, and published from 2002 onwards.
  • Coverage: science, social science, arts and humanities
  • Search in Spanish, Portuguese or English. 

Provides the tables of contents from leading scholarly journals from 1998 onwards.

 

Connecting to Web of Science

  • To connect to Web of Science: click either the web of Science link in the Library Catalogue or one of the Web of Science links via the Library's 'resources for your subject' webpages (connect to these webpages via the subjects list on the Library Homepage). Here's another link you can use:
  • Off-campus students and staff: after clicking a Web of Science link, you will be asked to enter your University of Bath username and password (unless you are connecting via VPN/UniDesk).

Searching individual Web of Science databases

  • To search an individual Web of Science database (e.g. Core Collection or BIOSIS), rather than search across 'all databases', go to the Web of Science homepage and click the arrow next to words 'all databases'. This opens up a list of links, each taking you to a different database.
     
  • Alternatively, if you want to select more than one Web of Science database (but not all of them) to search concurrently, go to the Web of Science homepage and click the arrow next to words 'all collections'. A menu of databases will appear - tick/select each one that you wish to search.

Checking the availability of an article/document

  • As with most library databases, Web of Science provides abstracts/summaries of articles and other documents. The availability of the full document depends on whether the Library has bought the content, and whilst we provide an extensive collection of literature, there will be some gaps in coverage.
     
  • To check the availability of a document referenced in a search result: if you don't see a direct link, click the blue and white 'links' button. This takes you into the Library Catalogue where you will either find either a link to the full document or a statement explaining that the content is unavailable.
     
  • If the full document isn't available: if you're signed in to the Library Catalogue, you'll see a link inviting you to request a scan of the document from another library. Click this link to complete a request form. There's a good chance that you'll then receive the scan, either the same day or within two working days: further information about the Inter-Library Loan service. 

    Catalogue record link to Inter-Library Loan request.