Retrieval of very large numbers of items in the Web of Science: an exercise to develop accurate search strategies

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to retrieve more than 100,000 items from Web of Science by combining multiple queries and Boolean logic, addressing a common interface limitation.

Contribution

It introduces a practical approach for retrieving large datasets from Web of Science beyond its default query limit, emphasizing team collaboration for strategy development.

Findings

Successful retrieval of entire US scientific output for a specific year

Use of Boolean logic to eliminate overlaps and improve accuracy

Highlighting teamwork in developing advanced search strategies

Abstract

The current communication presents a simple exercise with the aim of solving a singular problem: the retrieval of extremely large amounts of items in the Web of Science interface. As it is known, Web of Science interface allows a user to obtain at most 100,000 items from a single query. But what about queries that achieve a result of more than 100,000 items? The exercise developed one possible way to achieve this objective. The case study is the retrieval of the entire scientific production from the United States in a specific year. Different sections of items were retrieved using the field Source of the database. Then, a simple Boolean statement was created with the aim of eliminating overlapping and to improve the accuracy of the search strategy. The importance of team work in the development of advanced search strategies was noted.