Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded

Discover the world’s most influential scientific journals with Science Citation Index Expanded

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Created as SCI in 1964, Science Citation Index Expanded™ now indexes over 9,200 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. More than 53 million records and 1.18 billion cited references date back from 1900 to present.

Our expert in-house editors use a single set of 28 criteria throughout the journal selection and curation process. Divided into 24 ‘quality’ criteria and four ‘impact’ criteria, our editors select the most influential journals in their respective fields (using citation activity as the primary indicator of impact) for the Science Citation Index Expanded.

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    1.18 billion cited references dating back to 1900
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    53 million total records
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    8.1 million total Open Access records
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    9,200+ unique global journals
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    178 disciplines

Why use the Science Citation Index Expanded?

Our process of curation is unique

Editorial decisions are conducted by our expert in-house editors, who have no affiliations to publishing houses or research institutes. Using objectivity, selectivity, and collection dynamics as the basic principles of our selection process, we use a single set of 28 criteria to evaluate a journal’s quality (24 quality criteria) and influence (4 impact criteria). These are dynamic collections, subject to continuous curation, to ensure journals continue to meet our editorial standards and are in the appropriate collection.

Cover-to-cover indexing

All the journals that we select for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded are indexed cover-to-cover. For each paper, we capture all the authors, all the author affiliations, the abstract and key words (if provided by the author), funding acknowledgements, including agency and grant numbers (if provided), and all the cited references.

Complete Cited Reference Searching

The power of complete cited reference searching enables you to access the entire citation network of 1.18 billion cited reference connections in the Science Citation Index Expanded. Cited reference searching lets you track how any idea, innovation, or creative work has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended, or corrected, and discover anyone who is citing your research worldwide.

Why Web of Science data?

Web of Science Core Collection™ content is uniquely selective and our indexing is uniquely consistent. Our independent and thorough editorial process ensures journal quality, while over fifty years of consistent, accurate, and complete indexing has created an unparalleled data structure. Every article and all cited references from every journal have been indexed, creating the most comprehensive and complete citation network to power both confident discovery and trusted assessment.

Only the Web of Science Core Collection indexes every piece of content cover-to-cover, creating a complete and certain view of over 115 years of the highest quality research.

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Learn more about the unique curation process for the Web of Science Core Collection

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