1. Citation Indexing ISI Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports
Tracy Matthews
Thomson Scientific

2. So, What is a Citation Index?
In addition to standard bibliographic information a citation index includes the cited references of the items indexed.
An author implies a subject relationship when he or she cites a work:
“the act of citing is an expression of the importance of the material.”
References serve to essentially replace a controlled vocabulary
Other terms for Cited References are: reference list, works cited, bibliography.
Dr. Garfield goes on to explain “The total number of expressions [citations] is about the most objective measure there is of the materials importance to current research.”
Concept of a citation index to the scientific literature, according to Dr. Garfield, developed from “bits and pieces of experience and insight accumulated over a period of a few years.”
In addition to his work with the Welch Medical Library Project:
Chemical Abstracts (voluntary abstract work for CA)
utility of abstracts increases by including references to abstracts of key papers cited by the authors
Special Study of Review Articles
Provide scientists with guideposts to the literature. Noted that nearly every sentence in a review article is supported by a citation and that that sentence provided a pithy abstract of the cited work itself
Shepard’s Citations (next slide)

3. Things to Keep in Mind . . .
Authors cite works both to support and to refute them. There are no codes in the ISI database to tell you why an item is cited.
ISI Cited References are not an attempt to re-create a bibliography word for word. 1st listed author’s surname & up to 3 initials
Abbreviated title of the cited work
Volume, starting page, and cited year.
Remember that citations are captured as cited. Some disciplines have between a % citation error rate. ISI’s citation error rate is lower because many citation errors are unified with the correct citation automatically.

4. ISI Citation Indexes Bibliography entry: ISI Cited Reference:
Wheatley A & Armstrong C. (1997). Metadata, recall, and abstracts: can abstracts ever be reliable indicators of document value? ASLIB Proceedings 49 (8):
ISI Cited Reference:
WHEATLEY A ASLIB PROC
Note that only the first listed author is included in the cited reference, along with an abbreviation for the journal title.

5. Shepardizing In 1953 Dr. Garfield learns of Shepard’s Citations
Developed in 1873, the oldest major citation index in existence
American legal system is based on precedent
Shepard’s lists the citations to precedents used in cases decided by the courts and federal administrative agencies
Provides a model for how a citation index could be organized into an effective search tool
Garfield was not the first to create a citation index.
Shepard’s is a “case citator”:
document changes in legal effect of court cases
identify any subsequent legal action that may have reversed or overruled an earlier decision.
Science is also based on precedent

6. Welch Medical Library Project
Dr. Garfield becomes interested in machine generated term indexing:
generate terms that effectively describe the “aboutness” of a document
do this without the need of intellectual judgements from human indexers
From this interest citation indexing.
The citation index, according to Garfield would eliminate this need for the intellectual judgements of human indexers
save time
save money
decrease subjective and often inconsistent judgments made by human indexers

7. Pilot Citation Indexes
ISI produces the 1961 Genetics Citation Index with a grant from the National Institutes of Health
Compile a comprehensive, multidisciplinary database
Extract relevant genetics material
Provided a more comprehensive, deeper view of the literature than conventional subject indexes.
Original comprehensive database consisted of citations of all the material published in 1961 by the 600 journals covered by Current Contents and of all the references in that material.
The source journals included both general works--such as Science and
Nature--and specialized journals from a range of disciplines.

8. Pilot Citation Indexes
The multidisciplinary index provided several distinct advantages:
Illuminated the bounds of a particular discipline
Insights into patterns of scholarly communication and journal networks
Revealed the historical development of scientific thought
Indicated the implications and impact of a particular work
They found that the advantages of the index increased as they went from narrow (genetics) to broad (multidisciplinary).

9. ISI Citation Indexes
ISI’s findings compelled them to create the Science Citation Index.
The Social Sciences Index followed in 1973.
The Arts & Humanities Index was introduced in 1978.
ISI published the SCI after the government rejected the recommendation to create a broad, multidisciplinary database.

10. Benefits of a Citation Index
Allows searching forward in time.
Take a known paper and find out who is citing it.
Classification terms in subject indexes can be ambiguous.
Citations are bound to concepts instead of vocabulary.
Put a work in context. What progress has been made in that area since the work’s publication?
Also use a citation index to find:
Has a basic concept been applied elsewhere?
Has a theory been confirmed or refuted?
Have there been any correction notes published?

11. Benefits of a Citation Index
Multidisciplinary Citation Indices allow for serendipitous discovery
A subject-specific index might not have index terms for each concept in a given article.
Ex. Space debris
Use a relevant current events topic to illustrate this point. Try a science topic with a geopolitical aspect. (A chemistry index would not necessarily be able to capture the political policy aspects of an article on global warming and greenhouse gas emission standards.)

12. Uses of Citation Analysis
Researcher evaluation
Use as a starting point in promotion and tenure decisions.
Competitive intelligence
Find out what competitors are publishing and citing.
Mapping relationships between subject areas
Bibliometric researchers determine relationships between disciplines.
Editors may use it to determine their competitive position
Information scientists interested in studying the structure of the literature
Librarians managing journal collections
Researchers needing to identify useful journals outside of her or his own subject area
Also: find out what impact a particular researcher or scholar has on a field of study.

13. Macro Citation Analysis
JCR Impact Factor
How often is the typical article from a specific journal cited?
Institutional Journal Use Analysis
Selection, retention, archiving, and storage decisions
Which journals are the faculty at your institution using the most?
Data from citation indexes aggregated in the Journal Citation Reports
Can be used as a factor in journal evaluation
From the data a variety of measurments are created
Most important is the impact factor
Certain types of journals are more or less cited than others
review journals v. more news-oriented journals
Certain disciplines may have higher impact factors
genetics v. chemical engineering with an IF of 2.0

14. Publication Selection

15. Database Production and Extraction
ISI Database
Journal/Book acquisition
Item Selection and Data Capture
Manual Indexing/ Translation (for foreign language journals and some A&H content)
Processing Time 1-2 Weeks
Appearance of item
in ISI’s products
Scanning & OCR

16. Document Types All Files Arts & Humanities Only Article
Bibliography
Biographical Item
Book Review
Correction
Database Review
Editorial Material
Hardware Review
Letter
Meeting Abstract
News Item
Reprint
Review
Software Review
Arts & Humanities Only
Art Exhibit Review
Dance Performance Review
Excerpt
Fiction Creative Prose
Film Review
Music Performance Review
Music Score
Music Score Review
Poetry
Record Review
Script
Theater Review
TV Review
Radio Review

17. New Cited References Weekly
Journal Coverage
Covered Journals
New Records Weekly
New Cited References Weekly
Science Citation Index Expanded
6,034
18,800
431,000
Social Sciences Citation Index
1,764
2.600
59,100
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
1,121
2,100
15,900

18. Full Bibliographic Record
All author names are indexed and searchable. ISI indexes an author’s complete last name and
up to five initials.
The complete abstract is indexed and searchable.

19. Full Bibliographic Record (continued)
Author Keywords are indexed when included with the published item.
KeyWords Plus are harvested from the titles of the cited articles.
Author affiliations are indexed when available with the published item. The reprint author’s
address is listed as the first address in the field.

20. Full Record / Elements Author name
All authors indexed and searchable – last name and up to 5 initials
Title
Complete article title as published. Non-English titles translated into US English
Source Information
Journal title, Volume, Issue, Page Range, Date
Abstract
Full author abstract
Author Keywords
When included in original publication
KeyWords Plus
Selected from titles of cited references
Address
Author affiliations are captured when provided. First line of address field lists reprint author address

21. Cited References Cited References in blue are links to
full records. (Limited
by your subscribed
data years.)

22. Cited References (continued)
Cited References in plain text are
citations to items outside
of your coverage; to items ISI
doesn’t index (books, etc.); or to
items that have been cited
incorrectly by the author (cited
reference variants.)

23. Cited Reference Components

24. Cited Reference Components (continued)

25. * ? $ Truncation Symbol Retrieves Zero or more characters
Zero or one character ?
One character only

26. Boolean Operators All search terms must occur to be retrieved.
TOPIC: aspartame AND cancer*
Retrieves documents that contain both aspartame and cancer*.
Any one of the search terms must occur to be retrieved. Use when searching variants and synonyms.
TOPIC: aspartame OR saccharine OR sweetener*
Retrieves documents that contain at least one of the terms.
Excludes records that contain a given search term.
TOPIC: aids NOT hearing
Retrieves documents with aids, excluding any which also contain hearing.

27. Proximity Operators Implied Adjacency
By default, searching a phrase retrieves records that contain the adjacent terms in the same order.
Same
Terms must occur within the same sentence, where “sentence” is generally a period-delimited string, in any order. In keyword fields, the SAME operator will retrieve records with search terms in the same keyword phrase.