Library: Web of Science (All Databases): Refining your search

Adapting your search terms

Important words of caution:

If you want to return to your search boxes and continue using the 'All Databases' version, DON'T try returning to your search boxes by clicking the Web of Science icon near the top left corner of the screen. If you click the icon, you'll be taken a more limited 'core collection' version of the database (and it won't be very apparent that this has happened).
If you want to amend, extend or remove any search terms, click somewhere in the large search box directly above your search results. This will open up the option to enter your terms in multiple search boxes. However, note that the second box defaults to an 'author' search. For a standard keyword search, change this setting to 'topic' so that it's consistent with the other boxes' settings.

Refining and re-sorting your search results

Re-sorting your search results: if your results appear in date order, you may want to re-sort them so that they appear in the order of highest relevance or those that are most highly cited. To do these, click 'sort by' (just above your search results) to open up a list of options.

Retrieving too few results? Click the search box above your results - this will open up the multiple search boxes. Don't click the Web of Science link (in the top banner) unless you want to limit your search to Web of Science's core collection. Consider whether any further keywords exist on your topic and if so, add these to the relevant search boxes. If the problem remains, and you have entered multiple sets of keyword, try excluding the least essential set.

Retrieving too many irrelevant results? Click the search box above your results - this will open up the multiple search boxes. Don't click the Web of Science link (in the top banner) unless you want to limit your search to Web of Science's core collection. Consider whether any of your keywords are of only marginal relevance - if so, remove them and try another search. If the problem remains, consider whether your topic contains a further concept that needs to appear in each search result. If so, add another search box and enter the keyword(s) associated with that concept in the new box.

What are Web of Science's filters?

Filter options appear to the left of your search results. They enable you to refine your results by major concepts (specific subjects), research area (broader subjects), research domains (disciplines), types of literature, languages, authors, institutional affiliations and funding agencies. MeSH categories are concept-based filters relevant to health and medical literature.
Experiment with filters by clicking on their down arrows and then tick/select boxes next to some of the options listed. Finally, click the ‘refine' button which appears at the bottom of each filter.
Be cautious with filters, particularly those that filter by discipline, subject or concept. The filtered set of results might not include all the results relevant to your research. That said, if you're retrieving an unmanageable number of irrelevant results, then filters can helpful (at least in your initial searches).

Combining sets of search results

With complicated searches, you may find it helpful to run separate search (each on a different concept/sub-theme) and then combine the individual sets of search results. To do this:

Go to the search history screen by clicking the curved arrow/clock icon in the black left-hand column.
On the Search History screen, click 'Advanced Search' (this appears just above a list of your searches).
On the Advanced Search screen, scroll down to the 'Session Queries' section.
Select the box next to each search that you want to combine.
Click the 'Combine Sets' button just above the list of search sets. From the drop down menu, select either AND or OR as follows:
Select AND for a set of results in which each result appears in all of the search sets you selected in step 4 (i.e. to retrieve only a sub-set of overlapping results).
Select OR if you want a larger set of results which comprises all of the results across all of the search sets you selected in step 4 (i.e. regardless of whether each result appeared in more than one set).