Web of Science (WoS, ранее - ISI Web of Knowledge)

Web of Science is a search platform that combines abstract databases of publications in scientific journals and patents, including databases that take into account the mutual citation^[1] publications].

Web of Science covers materials on natural, technical, biological, social, humanities and the arts. The platform has built-in capabilities for searching, analyzing and managing bibliographic information.

Screenshot of the program window, 2014

Data Base

• Web of Science
• BIOSIS Citation Index
• Biological Abstracts
• BIOSIS Previews
• Current Contents Connect
• Derwent Innovations Index
• CABI: CAB Abstracts and Global Health
• Chinese Science Citation Database
• Data Citation Index
• FSTA - the food science resource
• Inspec
• Medline
• Zoological Records

Analytical tools

• Journal Citation Reports
• Essential Science Indicators

For a formal assessment of the performance of scientific activities of scientists, a number of science-metric indicators are used (for example, the number of publications, the Hirsch index, the h-index, etc.). There are several alternative systems that calculate these indicators, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages: eLIBRARY.ru, Google Scholar. Web of Science takes into account articles in English only.

History

2022

Ban on access from Russia amid conflict in Ukraine

On May 4, 2022, one of the international databases of scientific citation Web of Science, which provides information about publications and their citation in scientific journals, became unavailable to researchers from Russia. The decision was made against the background of the ongoing special operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine.

Appeal to institute criminal proceedings for requiring publications in foreign publications to receive funding for scientific projects in Russia

In March 2022, the Public Committee for Human Rights appealed to the President of Russia and the Director of the FSB with a request to institute criminal proceedings against an "indefinite number of persons" who introduced publications in journals from the Scopus and Web of Science databases as a condition for allocating funding for scientific research.

Since 2012, it has really become impossible to get money for science without such publications. And the cost of placing a scientific article in the pool of such magazines ranged from 200 thousand rubles and higher.

But not even the fact of payment has become critical. The journals Scopus and Web of science set an important criterion for scientific articles: their results, in order to be printed, were obliged to contain criticism of the current political system of Russia or indicate its failure. No money could cancel this rule. For ten years, our scientists had to rivet work against their country so that the university could receive money from the state. At the same time, impossible conditions for entering the specified databases were created for Russian journals.

Without the indicated publications, it was also impossible to develop a career within the university - it is impossible to get a new qualification without publications in Anglo-Saxon bases today according to the law of the Russian Federation. Interestingly, the French, Germans, Italians, Chinese and many others categorically abandoned such a system, realizing its potential risks. It is also interesting that the open circulation does not indicate the actors who decided to introduce this system.

Notes