Help Contents
Easy Search Page

Easy Search offers a simplified topic, person, or place search that returns a maximum of 100 results.

To begin an Easy Search:

  1. Select one or more databases to search. The search will cover the entire time span indicated next to the database name and will return a maximum of 100 results.
  2. Click one of the following buttons to indicate what type of search you want to perform.

      Topic - Search for articles based on subject matter.
      Person - Search for articles by, about, or referring to the work of a specified person.
      Place - Search for articles based on author addresses.


Help Contents
Topic Search Page

To search for articles by topic:

  1. Enter a word or phrase that describes the subject matter of the articles as precisely as possible. You may also enter a series of words or phrases joined by search operators such as AND or OR. See Topic Search Rules for more information.
  2. Select the order in which you want the articles to be displayed.
  3. Click Search.

Topic Search Examples

  • Enter HEPATITIS to search for articles on this topic.
  • Enter MAD COW DISEASE to search for articles on this topic.
  • Enter AIDS OR HIV to search for articles on either topic.
  • Enter HEPATITIS B AND HEPATITIS C to search for articles on both topics.

More search examples

Sort Order

  • Relevance - Lists first those articles that contain the most frequent occurrences of the words and/or phrases you entered to describe your topic.
  • Reverse chronological order - Lists most recent articles first based on the date on which the journal was processed at ISI.

Topic Search Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
    For example, enter either NAFTA, Nafta, or nafta to search for articles on this trade agreement.
  • Enter words and phrases without quotation marks.
    For example, enter GENETIC TESTING to search for articles containing this phrase. Words entered as a series with no punctuation separating them are assumed to be a phrase.
  • Separate multiple words or phrases by search operators such as AND or OR.
    For example, enter CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME AND RADIAL TUNNEL SYNDROME to search for articles about both of these syndromes.
    Enter NAFTA OR NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT to search for articles that refer to this agreement by either its acronym or full name.
  • You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The asterisk wildcard can be used to represent zero to many characters. In the Topic field, you must have at least three characters before an asterisk wildcard.
  • Be aware that certain frequently used words such as A, AN, THE, OF and IN are stopwords that are not explicitly searchable even though they may be entered as part of a search phrase.


Help Contents
Person Search Page

Using Easy Search, you can search for a person as:

  • An author, finding articles written by that person (same as Author field on General Search page)
  • A cited author, finding articles that refer to the work of that person (same as Cited Author on Cited Reference Search page)
  • A subject, finding articles about that person (same as Topic on General Search page)

Note on Author Names: When performing a person search on an author or cited author, your results may display a shortened version of the last name. Regardless, enter the full last name of the author when searching (if you know it); the Web of Science search engine will automatically adjust for data variations. More information on author names.

Author Search

To search for articles by a specific person:

  1. Enter the author's full last name followed by a space and up to 5 initials (leave them out if you don't know them). See Author Name Rules for more information.
  2. Click "Show me all the articles in the database that this person has authored."
  3. Click Search.

Author Search Examples

  • Enter CHANDLER to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler.
  • Enter CHANDLER N* to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler, whose first initial is N, and who may have other subsequent initials (the asterisk stands for possible subsequent initials).
  • Enter CHANDLER ND to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler and whose only initials are ND.
  • Enter CHANDLER N* OR WILLIAMS C* to search for articles by either author.
  • Enter CHANDLER N* AND WILLIAMS C* to search for jointly authored articles.
  • Enter EL-EBIARY OR ELEBIARY to search for this author (with a hyphenated last name).

Beginning with 1998 data, non-alphanumeric characters (e.g., the apostrophe in O'Brian or Paget's disease) and embedded spaces (e.g., the space in the last name de la Rosa) are preserved in many fields in the database. In order to search effectively across multiple years of data, you should be sure to enter search strings that take account of all possible variations of the data.

  • Enter O'BRIAN C* OR OBRIAN C* to search for articles authored by C. D. O'Brian.
  • Enter EL-EBIARY OR ELEBIARY to search for this author.
  • Enter DE LA ROSA W* OR DELAROSA W* to search for articles authored by W. de la Rosa.

More search examples

Author Name Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
  • Use a space to separate the last name and initial(s)
    For example, enter BARTHES R to search for Roland Barthes.
  • Leave the initials out if you don't know them.
    For example, enter HAYDEN to search for any author whose last name is Hayden.
  • Use an asterisk after the first initial if you don't know the other initials.
    For example, enter KREEGER K* to search for any author whose last name is Kreeger and whose first name starts with K. Note that entering Kreeger K will search for only those authors who have the single initial K.
  • If the last name includes embedded spaces, enter the name both with and without spaces, joining the two versions of the name with OR.
    For example, enter DEVILLE* OR DE VILLE* for De Ville.
  • If the last name includes a nonalphanumeric character, enter the name both with and without the character, joining the two versions of the name with OR.
    For example, enter OBRIAN OR O'BRIAN for O'Brian.
  • Join multiple names with the search operators AND or OR according to what you want to retrieve.
  • You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The wildcard can be used to represent zero to many characters.

Cited Author Search

To search for articles that refer to the work of a specific person:

  1. Enter the author's last name followed by a space and up to 3 initials (leave them out if you don't know them). Since authors are not always cited using all of their initials, you may want to enter the first initial followed by an asterisk, to retrieve all variants of the author's name. See Cited Author Name Rules for more information.
  2. Click "Show me all the articles in the database that cite this person's work."
  3. Click Search.

Cited Author Search Examples

  • Enter CHANDLER to search for any cited author whose last name is Chandler.
  • Enter CHANDLER N to search for any cited author whose last name is Chandler and whose only initial is N.
  • Enter CHANDLER ND to search for any cited author whose last name is Chandler and whose only initials are ND.
  • Enter CHANDLER N* to search for any cited author whose last name is Chandler, whose first initial is N, and who may have other subsequent initials (the asterisk stands for possible subsequent initials).
  • Enter OBRIAN OR O'BRIAN to search for any cited author whose last name is O'Brian.
  • Enter BROSNANMYERS OR BROSNAN-MYERS to search for any cited author whose last name is Brosnan-Myers.
  • Enter DEVILLE * OR DE VILLE * to search for any cited author whose last name is De Ville. Note that the two versions of the name are joined by OR, one version with the space and one without.

Cited Author Name Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
    For example, enter STERLING, Sterling, or sterling.
  • Use a space to separate the last name and initial(s)
    For example, enter BARTHES R to search for Roland Barthes as an author or cited author.
  • Leave the initials out if you don't know them.
    For example, enter HAYDEN to search for any person whose last name is Hayden.
  • Use an asterisk after the first initial if you don't know the other initials.
    For example, enter KREEGER K* to search for any person whose last name is Kreeger and whose first name starts with K. Note that entering Kreeger K will search for only those people who have the single initial K.
  • If the last name is longer than fifteen characters, enter the first fifteen characters followed by an asterisk to represent the remaining characters.
  • If the last name includes embedded spaces, enter the name both with and without spaces, joining the two versions of the name with OR.
    For example, enter DEVILLE * OR DE VILLE * for De Ville.
  • If the last name includes a nonalphanumeric character, enter the name both with and without the character, joining the two versions of the name with OR..
    For example, enter OBRIAN OR O'BRIAN for O'Brian.
  • Join multiple names with the search operators OR to find references to any of the authors.
  • You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The wildcard can be used to represent zero to many characters.

Person as Subject Search

To search for articles about a specific person:

  1. Enter the last name only when the name is sufficiently unique (e.g., CHAUCER). If you need to enter a first name, see Subject Search Rules.
  2. Click "Show me articles that are about this person."
  3. Click Search.

Person as Subject Search Examples

  • Enter DICKENS to search for articles about Charles Dickens.
  • Enter BULWER LYTTON OR BULWERLYTTON to search for articles about William Bulwer Lytton.
  • Enter OCASEY OR O'CASEY to search for articles about Sean O'Casey.
  • Enter EMILY SAME BRONTE to search for articles about Emily Bronte.
  • Enter ROBERT SAME BROWNING to search for articles about Robert Browning.

Person as Subject Search Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
  • Enter only the last name, if the name is sufficiently unique.
    For example, entering THACKERAY is sufficient to search for articles about William Thackeray.
  • If you need to include a first name, enter the name in both first last and last first format.
    For example, enter BROWN SAME CHARLES BROCKDEN to search for articles about Charles Brockden Brown.
  • If the last name includes embedded spaces, enter the name both with and without the space. Join the two versions of the name with OR.
    For example, enter DELAMARE OR DE LA MARE to search for articles about Walter de la Mare.
  • If the last name includes a nonalphanumeric character, enter the name both without the character and with the character replaced by a space. Join the two versions of the name with OR.
    For example, enter OCASEY OR O'CASEY for O'Casey.
  • Join multiple names with the search operators AND or OR according to what you want to retrieve.
  • You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The wildcard can be used to represent zero to many characters. When searching for a person as a subject, you must have at least 3 characters before the asterisk wildcard character.
    For example, enter ANDREW SAME JOH* to search for articles about Andrew Johnson.


Help Contents
Place Search Page

To search for articles written by authors from a specific institution and/or geographic place:

  1. Enter a word or phrase from the author's address. Note that address elements are frequently abbreviated. See Place Search Rules for more information.
    For geographic places Enter a place identifier such as a country or state/province abbreviation or a postal code.
    For institutions Enter a name such as a corporation or university name.
    For institutions in a specific place Enter the institution name followed by SAME and a place identifier.
    For a specific department/division of an institution Enter the institution name followed by SAME and the department/division name.

  2. Click Search.

Place Search Examples

  • Enter NY to search for records that include NY in the address field.
  • Enter IBM to search for records that include IBM in the address field.
  • Enter IBM SAME NY to search for articles in which IBM and NY appear in the same address (to find an author whose address is one of IBM's New York facilities).
  • Enter RUTGERS to search for records that include RUTGERS in the address field.

More search examples

Place Search Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
    For example, enter MERCK, Merck, or merck to search for authors whose address includes this company name.
  • When searching for a state or province as a location, enter the name using the two-character postal abbreviation.
    For example, enter PA to search for authors whose address is in the state of Pennsylvania. Enter PQ to search for authors whose address is in the province of Quebec. Check the list of state/country name abbreviations.
  • Check the list of corporate and institution abbreviations to see if an institution name such as Centers for Disease Control should be abbreviated.
    For example, this list indicates that you should search for authors whose address includes the National Institutes of Health by entering NIH instead of the full institution name.

    Note that even corporate and institutional names that do not appear on this list may be abbreviated in ISI's database if the address appears abbreviated in the source publication.

    Note also that searching for some very common words/abbreviations (e.g., UNIV for University) is disallowed in the Place field, as such searches would return too many results. These disallowed words may, however, be used in a search phrase with other words that narrow the search (e.g., UNIV PENN).

  • Check the list of other address abbreviations to see if any other part of the author's address, such as the street address or department/division name, should be abbreviated. Also check the state/country name abbreviation lists for abbreviations of U.S. states and countries.
    For example, this list indicates that the words EAST and EDUCATION (as in Department of Education) should be abbreviated as E and EDUC when they appear in an author's address.
  • Separate values with the OR operator to search for records containing any value in the list.
    For example, enter USDA OR FDA to search records with either institution in the address field.
  • Separate values with SAME to search for records containing the search terms in the same address.
    For government agencies, companies, or universities with multiple locations, you can enter the institution name and a location to search for records where the search terms appear in the same author address. For example, enter IBM SAME JAPAN to search for records where IBM and JAPAN appear in the same address.
  • You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The wildcard can be used to represent zero to many characters.


Documentation version 4.3
This help page last modified 10/23/2000

Copyright ©2000 Institute for Scientific Information